The solution to your pregnancy aches
may be as simple as visiting a chiropractor
Aches and pains are par for the course when
it comes to being pregnant. And the worst part is, since you’re pregnant,
there’s very little that you can take (in the form of drugs) to relieve the
discomforts that the majority of women experience at some point or another
during their pregnancy. But what if there was something you could do to
potentially help your backache, your morning sickness, your stress levels, your
gastric reflux and heartburn, and your headaches? Here we explore chiropractic
and pregnancy, and the many safe benefits that it offers to expect moms.
But
what if there was something you could do to potentially help your backache,
your morning sickness, your stress levels, your gastric reflux and heartburn,
and your headaches?
Your pregnant body
“One of the first things that happens when
you fall pregnant, is your hormones change as your body starts to produce more
estrogen and progesterone in order to sustain the pregnancy,” says Dr. Adrian
Laros, a Cape Town based chiropractor with a special interest in pregnant women
and babies.
What this does, he explains, is change the
physiology of your body, and not only will your muscle tone decrease, but your
ligaments will become more lax and your body will tend to store fat more
readily.
“From a chiropractic point of view, the
chances of your vertebrae becoming displaced as a result of this are high –
especially towards the end of your pregnancy when your hormone levels surge to
prepare your body for your baby’s birth.”
Add postural changes to the equation (as
your baby bump starts to grow, so does the lordosis or inward curvature – of
your lower back increase, resulting in what is known as a “sway” back) and the
chances of developing lower back pain and other issues are relatively high.
“One
of the first things that happens when you fall pregnant, is your hormones
change as your body starts to produce more estrogen and progesterone in order
to sustain the pregnancy,” says Dr. Adrian Laros
“What the ‘sway’ back does is it compensates
for the weight in the front your baby. What then happens, is that other
compensations are created. For example, the hypnotic curve of your thoracic
flattens and your cervical curve increases,” he says, adding that with hormone
increases, your sacroiliac joints become prone to injury too.
And this is where chiropractic comes into
play, both during and after pregnancy when everything has to shift back into
place again.
Benefits
Pregnant women generally come and see a
chiropractor for back pain, and the level of back pain will determine how many
sessions of chiropractic is required.
“First, we stabilize the patient. This
requires 6-12 treatments in a 3-6 week period and once she’s stable, we reduce
the number of treatments and try to wean her off them and put her on a monthly
maintenance care program for the duration of her pregnancy,” says Dr. Laros.
Interestingly, though, he points out that chiropractic treatment is not only
beneficial for lower back pain and neck pain, but it assists in a range of
complaints that crop up during pregnancy.
“We believe that the body has everything
that it needs in order to be healthy, so long as it’s free of nerve
interference. Chiropractic treatments free up the nervous system so that the
body can do what it does best at 100 percent of its potential. The brain is the
computer, the spinal cord is the conduit and the nerve routes coming off the
spinal cord travel to every muscle, cell and organ of your body. If there are
any blockages in those areas, then your body can’t operate in the way that it’s
meant to naturally. Hormone release, enzyme release, your heartbeat, your
breathing and all your visceral organs are linked to the spinal cord,” he says.
Pregnant
women generally come and see a chiropractor for back pain, and the level of
back pain will determine how many sessions of chiropractic is required.
It’s for this reason that chiropractic is
also beneficial to pregnant women suffering from headaches and morning sickness
(both triggered by hormone release and stress on the liver), gastric reflux and
heartburn.
“We adjust the areas of the spine that
enervate the organs involved,” he says, adding that to treat heartburn, there’s
a gastric maneuver that can be done to prevent it. The results? You might feel
better, sleep better and possibly even stress less.
Lastly, to ease a natural birth,
chiropractic treatment also has its uses. It can create more space in the
pelvic cavity for the fetus (if your hips are twisted, then there’s less space
in the pelvic cavity, putting pressure on the uterus).
“We use chiropractic wedges and target
specific points on the pelvis, together with gravity, to ease the pregnant body
back into its correct position. It works brilliantly – especially during late
pregnancy when ligaments are lax and muscle tone is low.”
Is it safe?
According to Dr. Laros, chiropractic (a
drugless profession) is completely safe during pregnancy and you can have
treatment at any stage of the nine months. “Chiropractic is always safe if
practiced by a qualified, registered chiropractor,” he maintains. “We use a
technique called sacro-occipital technique, which incorporates chiropractic
wedges and is gentle and effective in removing interference from the nervous
system. It is sometimes necessary to do some osseous adjusting,” what the lay
person thinks of as back-cracking “but each patient is treated on merit and on
the evaluation of her history to ensure a successful outcome. Pregnant women
should consider being adjusted early on as a preventative measure before any
symptoms appear. This will ensure that their bodies are working at their full
potential for a healthy pregnancy and easier labor.”
Pregnant
women should consider being adjusted early on as a preventative measure before
any symptoms appear.
The added benefits
Eight pregnancy niggles that could
benefit from chiropractic:
1.
Meralgia parenthetic: the numbness or pain in
the outer thigh not caused by injury to the thigh, but by injury to a nerve
that extends from the thigh to the spinal column.
2.
Brachial neuralgia: a radiating pain in the
shoulder and upper arm caused by damage to a nerve in the neck.
3.
Intercostal neuralgia: a rare pain condition in
which pregnant women feel bands of pain around the rib cage.
4.
Sciatica: leg pain, numbness or weakness that
starts in the low back and travels down the sciatic nerve in the leg causing
sciatica pain.
5.
Cocydynia: a medical term meaning pain in the
coccyx or tailbone area, usually brought on by sitting down too abruptly.
6.
Separation of the Symphisis Pubis: the
separation of normally joined pubic bones, as in the dislocation of the bones,
without a fracture.
Intercostal
neuralgia: a rare pain condition in which pregnant women feel bands of pain
around the rib cage.
7.
Carpal tunnel syndrome: this occurs when the
median nerve, which runs from the forearm into the palm of the hand, becomes
pressed or squeezed at the wrist.
8.
Bells palsy: a form of temporary facial
paralysis resulting from damage or trauma to the facial nerves.
