1. Maintain Proper Alignment of the Spine
Misalignments in the spine put pressure on the spinal cord and nerves that supply the body and can cause dysfunction such as pain, numbness and/or tingling. Spinal adjustments are safe and effective and realign the spine to help relieve tension on the nervous system.
2. Relief of Joint Pain and Inflammation
During pregnancy, many women experience pain and inflammation in joints such as knees, ankles, hips and sacroiliac joints. Chiropractic care can help relieve this pain by maintaining proper joint alignment and reducing interference in the communication between the brain and the body.
Common symptoms experienced during pregnancy include things like nausea, acid reflux and insomnia. Chiropractic care can help manage and control these symptoms by adjusting different regions of the spine and reducing pressure on the spinal nerves. For example, your body’s sleep center is located in the brainstem which sits adjacent to the upper cervical spine. Adjusting this region of the neck can help relieve any pressure there, resulting in improved sleep. Acid reflux often occurs because of issues related to the stomach, which is innervated by nerves in the thoracic region. Reducing pressure in the thoracic region (mid back) can help minimize reflux symptoms and severity.
4. Ensure Proper Posture
The body experiences many changes during the course of a pregnancy. The growing belly shifts the center of gravity forward thus causing an increase in the curvature of the lumbar spine (low back). This increase in curvature, known as hyperlordosis, can contribute to a significant amount of low back pain experienced during pregnancy. The postural changes in the low back can start a snowball effect in the rest of the body. For example, the thoracic spine (mid back) tries to compensate for the shift of the center of gravity and increased curvature in the low back by hunching the shoulders forward creating a hyperkyphosis or hunch back, which then causes the cervical spine (neck) to protrude forward affecting the musculature of the neck and upper back creating tension. All of these postural changes can be easily managed with consistent chiropractic care including spinal adjustments and soft tissue treatments.
Routine chiropractic care throughout pregnancy can help decrease labor time because maintaining proper pelvic alignment allows the baby more room in the uterus to move into the vertex (head down) position before labor begins. This can also help to lessen the necessity of a cesarean delivery. Proper alignment of the pelvis also helps to reduce the need for pain medication during delivery.
It really is interesting to be able to learn all the different reasons that someone who is pregnant would go to the chiropractor. Something that really stood out was that you mentioned that it can be a great relief to joints. My wife and I are pregnant, and this can been the direction of our conversations for a while. Thank you for sharing. http://www.oremchiropractor.com
ReplyDeleteMy sister is three months into her pregnancy. She has started to have back pain. I remember someone told me that a chiropractor can help with that. Now I can see that there are many other benefits of having a chiropractor during pregnancy. I will talk to my sister about it. http://www.aligncarechiro.org/home
ReplyDeleteThis is great information for my husband and I as he and I have suffered from knee issues since we met each other. I had never thought of going to the chiropractor as there was no one near where I lived. But I think I will know go and seek one for help. Thank you for sharing this, god bless.
ReplyDeleteJacqueline Hodges @ Dr Koziol