Pregnancy and Chiropractic Care

Pregnant women should be getting chiropractic care. There are so many compelling reasons for me to give such a strong statement. Here are a few: 1) Pregnant women’s bodies are changing on a daily, even hourly, basis. Unstable joints plus unstable hormones equal one very unhappy mama-to-be. Chiropractic can help. 2) This country’s standards for medically treating pregnant women are getting out of control. Pregnancy is not a disease! It is beautiful, amazing, miraculous formation of new life. Healthcare folk need to stop managing pregnant women and start celebrating them. Chiropractic does this. 3) Babies and children need chiropractic care even more than adults do. There is, literally, no time too early to start this care, including while a tiny new person is in the womb.

Hormones are flooding through a pregnant woman’s body, encouraging her uterus to grow, her joints to soften and widen, and her metabolism to ramp up to a desperate, instant, hungry craving. Pregnant women make more blood to carry nourishment to her little one. They are often tired, because their bodies’ resources are directed at growing a human being, and because sometimes they just can’t get comfortable to sleep. Chiropractic adjustments tone down sympathetic responses and stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system. Simply put, adjustments relax the tired, anxious woman. Also, keeping the joints of the pelvis properly functioning, moving, and supporting the new (heavy!) belly gives baby the best chance to grow without restriction. Ultimately, a properly aligned pelvis helps facilitate a happy, successful birth.

Currently, medical standards are obsessed with “treating” every stage of pregnancy as though it is a disease. (It makes me wonder how any of our parents and grandparents survived without obstetricians…they were clearly living in the dark ages, right?) Pregnant women should not be poked, prodded, made to wait for hours for medical checkups. Their babies should not be thought of and treated as a living tumor. They should be loved. The new life they are growing should be loved, and the bond between mother and baby should already be starting. In my own experience, it is hard to form a bond with an unborn child when medical folks treat the pregnancy like a disease bomb about to explode. It is no wonder that young mothers are afraid of natural births—they are effectively conditioned to believe that natural birth equals certain death or lifelong disability for mama and baby.  This could not be further from the truth. Look it up! Information is everywhere! Do an internet search on Ina May Gaskin. Learn about your choices.

Children flourish under chiropractic care. I and my siblings grew up with it. I adjust my own baby boy. I take care of other children in my office. I am witness to the health that adjustments bring: less colic, better focus and digestion, more alert babies, relief from scoliosis. I could go on with this list. Start your kids on a path to better health. Start researching and making better health choices for them while they are still young, and let me give you a hint: health does not come from a pill or a needle.