Benefits of Prenatal Chiropractic Care
Have you ever wondered if you could get chiropractic care while you are pregnant? Would it be safe for you and the baby? Are there any real benefits? The answers to these questions may surprise you but they may also encourage you to get prenatal chiropractic care sooner.
Yes, Pregnant Women Can Get Chiropractic Care
In fact, chiropractors recommend chiropractic adjustments for pregnant women for a number of benefits. There is no issue with the adjustment table and your growing belly either. Part of every chiropractic table “breaks” away and drops to accommodate your belly while still supporting the rest of your body on the table. There’s never any pressure on your abdomen whatsoever. It’s perfectly safe for you and the child you are carrying.
The Benefits Are Numerous
While pregnant, during labor, and post-partum, chiropractic care can help with it all. The most noticeable benefit is a lot less pain throughout your body because adjustments relieve pressure on the nerves that are being stretched by a growing baby and an enlarging uterus. As the baby gets bigger and struggles to find room in your womb, it presses against your back, spine, nerves, ribs, and hips. This is where a lot of your discomfort comes in. Other benefits help the baby as well as the mother.
Increased Blood Flow
Adjustments to your spine increase your blood flow, which may be restrained because of the pressure on your back. Increased blood flow to the uterus gives your baby more nutrients and more oxygen. It helps the baby become a very healthy infant before it is born, and who doesn’t want that? When the increase in blood volume happens (i.e., blood volume of the mother increases up to fifty percent of her pre-pregnancy volume), having smoother blood flow through your arteries makes this moment easier to bear.
Reduced Spinal Pressure
As a woman’s hips tilt forward in preparation for childbirth, her lower back curves inward. This is what causes the painful strain on the lower back. Nerves can be pinched between vertebrae in this area. Spinal adjustments and spinal decompression relieve the pressure and pinching caused by this physiological change in pregnancy.
Pivoting of the Baby in Utero
An added bonus of chiropractic care during pregnancy is that treatments get the baby to turn and change positions. This aids in moving the baby into the birthing position so that it doesn’t have to be done manually in the labor and delivery room. Pivoting the baby in utero through chiropractic adjustments also alleviates lower back pain and reduce the chances you will suffer through back labor during delivery.
Improved Sleep
When chiropractic treatments reduce your pain and discomfort, you are able to sleep much better. Sleep is necessary for a healthy pregnancy, and as much rest as you can get the better. Feeling rested is difficult during the first and third trimesters, but prenatal chiropractic care can help.
Easier Delivery
When the baby is in the right position, you have less back labor, a painful condition where you feel all the push of contractions in your back. The baby isn’t pushed up against your spine during delivery. Therefore, the contractions aren’t happening near the nerve bundles in your back.
If you fully intend to do natural childbirth, you will want to make sure the baby is facing downward with its face facing your buttocks. Chiropractic adjustments during the final trimester have been shown to get the baby to move into the preferred position and reduce back labor during delivery.
Better Lymphatic Drainage
Part of prenatal chiropractic care involves massage. Massage eases a lot of the edema that occurs when the weight of the uterus and baby blocks the return flow of blood and lymph to the upper half of the body. Lymphatic drainage increases through massage and adjustments and helps your legs and feet not feel so tight, swollen, and thick during the last few months of your pregnancy.
Post-Partum Wellness
After the baby is born, chiropractic adjustments help your body recover and return to its pre-pregnancy state faster. That helps you feel better, look better, and feel more confident as a new mom, thus warding off post-partum blues and/or post-partum depression.