I have
composed a series of articles discussing how chiropractic care can be
incorporated in the treatment plan for a variety of different conditions.
Chiropractic adjustments, in addition to making you feel good due to
freeing up irritation to the nervous system, can be an effective tool
to assist in the management many different conditions. Since your nervous
system is involved in nearly every function in your body, having a healthy
nervous system is essential to maintaining good health! I hope you enjoy
this series! Please let me know if you would like to see other conditions
discussed in the future!
In our office, we see a lot of expectant mommies – and we
love them! Typically, midway through
their pregnancies, women begin experiencing low back and pelvic pain. As you can probably imagine, here are several
reasons for why this happens, the most obvious being the extra weight that is
being carried around by these structures!
This extra weight also causes the curve in your low back (lumbar spine)
to become more exaggerated. We call this
condition lordosis. This change in the spine, a normal occurrence
during pregnancy, unfortunately causes stress on your joint spaces that your
body is not used to. It can also lead to
a change in your gait – which can contribute to the “pregnancy waddle”! Another condition I commonly see in my
expectant mommies is piriformis syndrome. This is a condition in which a small muscle
in your buttock region because tight due to the abnormal stress on the
hips. This muscle lies over the top of
the sciatic nerve. Therefore, if it
becomes tight, it can lead to sciatica, as well as feelings of pain, tenderness
and tightness in the buttock and hip regions.
Finally, there is a hormone called relaxin
that is released in your body during pregnancy.
The job of this hormone is to help relax your ligaments to prepare your
body for the growth and delivery of your child.
Relaxin helps your pelvis to stretch to accommodate the growing
baby. Unfortunately, all of these
changes can lead to irritation of the joints in your low back and hips, which
can cause pretty severe pain.
As I mentioned in the beginning, we love our pregnant moms
because they typically respond very well and very quickly to chiropractic care!
Because the spine and pelvis undergo so many changes during pregnancy, it is
important to reintroduce stability and proper alignments into these joint
spaces. Chiropractic treatment can do
just that. Specific chiropractic
adjustments, performed on the low back and pelvis allow the body regain the
proper orientation of the joints and restore normal joint motion. What was considered “normal” for your joints
before pregnancy, typically won’t work for your body while you are
pregnant. As chiropractors, it is our
job to allow your body to find its new “normal” to accommodate for the changes
that are taking place.
Because chiropractors help facilitate the proper orientation
and motion of these joints, many women report that in addition to feeling
significant relief or complete resolution of their symptoms, they also
experience easier labor and delivery through the use of chiropractic. Additionally, chiropractic care during
pregnancy is also important for the growth and development of your baby. Evidence has shown that a decrease in the
diameter of the pelvis (which can result from misalignments of the joints in
this region) significantly impacts the baby’s ability to move into the proper
position for birth and move through the birth canal during delivery. Although there is certainly no guarantee that
chiropractic care will prevent you from having a breech baby, ensuring that the
baby has plenty of room to move can certainly improve your odds. Please visit nhwchior.com/what-is-chiropractic
for more information on the science behind chiropractic.
Dr. Alesha Fleming
Natural Health and Wellness Chiropractic, LLC
Daytona Beach, FL
Dr. Fleming is a family chiropractor in Daytona Beach, Florida. She is passionate about preventative health care and nutrition and enjoys empowering her patients to improve their health and fitness, one day at a time!
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