03/10/2016
Pregnancy and Chiropractic care
Many women will experience lower back pain while they are pregnant wonder if chiropractic care can help them. More importantly, they have concerns as to the safety of chiropractic care during pregnancy.
Being pregnant changes the body a lot. As the child develops in the womb her body must adapt and change. This will affect the lower back, as it carries more weight and stress and the pelvic bones and joints loosen and widen to prepare for the birth. However, sometimes as the soon-to-be mother’s tummy increases in size the back starts to sway more, the posture changes, and stress can occur on the joints of the spine and pelvis. This can cause the joints to misalign or move improperly causing joint and/or nerve irritation. Many times women who present this complaint to their obstetrician are told they have “pinched nerves.” Regardless of the term used to describe the pain, chiropractic treatment for lower back and hip pain has been shown to be effective in treating the discomfort.
The chiropractor will check for any tender areas of the lower back and gently feel for muscle spasms and swelling. Checking your posture can also reveal a lot of information. If the patient is experiencing sciatica and leg pain, checking the status of the sciatic nerve will include testing muscular strength and reflexes. In some patients they may feel numbness or extreme sensitivity. This can all be treated by the chiropractor. Many women have trouble sleeping during the pragnacy, getting regular treatment will help with this.
After the patient has been examined most women, can receive gentle, safe chiropractic adjustments. This will help correct misalignments or improperly moving joints of the spine and pelvis to help take pressure away from the area. Because the chiropractor’s methods are gentle, the safety of the developing fetus is addressed and many women find their pain, even during the delivery of the baby, to be reduced due to their chiropractic treatments.