This is the most exciting time in a woman’s life. Every mom is trying to be ready for their baby’s arrival and sometimes we forget that we need to take care of ourselves to be ready and healthy for our babies. During pregnancy your body is going through so many physical changes. These changes can affect your mood, your daily activities and can cause pain in some areas of your body. Let’s talk about these changes.
It’s common to hear moms during the first trimester saying that they are so clumsy. The reason for this is your body is producing more Relaxin hormone to help your muscles and ligaments to be loose, that way your pelvic can grow with your baby. But this will cause physical changes in your body. When the belly starts growing this will cause an increase in your lower back curves and forward tilt of your pelvic causing low back pain or pelvic pain, stiffness joint, tight muscles, nerve irritation into the legs, over stretch and weak core muscles. There are other areas affected with the growing of the bellies and the breast. This occurs more in the 2nd and 3rd trimester when moms start to hyperextend the upper back to help carry the extra weight and that causes rib pain and difficulty breathing. Extension of the neck and forward head position are other physical changes that mom experiences during pregnancy. This will cause neck pain, nerve irritation to the arms, pain between the shoulder blades, tightness into neck and shoulder muscles and headaches.
As a chiropractor we want to recognize the resistance to normal physiological function in pregnancy and birth. We focused on the relationship between structure (the spine) and function (the nervous system) and how that relationship affects the preservation and restoration of health. We will address the physiological and neuro-biomechanical aspect. There are three main concepts that we want to impact: the power, passage and the passenger.
The power is the muscle function by the nerve supply. We want to be sure that mom muscles are working correctly during pregnancy and labor. The passage is mom. During pregnancy mom experiences many physical changes in her body that are going to affect her entire body. As a chiropractor we will address those physical and neuro-biomechanical aspects. The most common conditions we see during pregnancy that benefits from chiropractic care are:
- Morning sickness
- Less lower back pain, less pelvic pain, less neck pain and less upper back pain.
- Relief of sciatica, sleeping issues and headaches
- Improved and balance pelvic function, muscle and ligaments
- Better pregnancy and birth
- Less incidence of postpartum depression
- Reduced the need for pain medication
- Shorter labor times
- Reduce the round ligament pain
On the other hand when the pelvis is aligned and balanced that allows the maximum space and greater comfort for the mom and the baby. The passenger is the presentation, position and development of the baby. In our office we performed the Webster Technique to optimize the pelvis balance for maximum space and greater comfort. That helps the baby to have a better physiological environment to assume the best possible position for birth.
If you want to learn more about how chiropractic can help you during your pregnancy, give us a call. In Well Aligned Family Chiropractic our mission is to help moms be healthy and have the best pregnancy.
By: Dr. Valerie Nazario BS, DC
Well Aligned Family Chiropractic 