Don't Throw Your Back Out With The Baby! Chiropractic Care For A Less Painful Pregnancy

Pregnancy is murder on the body. If you manage to dodge morning sickness, you still have to deal with all the aches, pains, and swollen feet. Worst of all is that last trimester, when the baby rapidly gains weight, warping out your abdomen in a forward position while you struggle to stand and sit up straight. A lot of women find that back pain, and back muscle strains during pregnancy go hand-in-hand. If you are petite and carrying a very heavy baby, you can also get herniated lumbar discs and pinched nerves-ouch.

Thankfully, a chiropractor can help. Good chiropractic care during pregnancy can relieve a lot of pain and strain on your back. It can also prevent or reposition herniated discs so that spinal nerves are less pinched, and the discs can spring back into place better after your delivery. Here is how chiropractic care during pregnancy works.

NO X-rays

The whole point to chiropractic care is to provide a medication-free option to alleviating pain. It also means no x-rays so that your baby in utero is protected. Your chiropractor palpates your back and does a visual scan to ascertain what problems may exist. He/she also considers the areas of your back that you say hurt the most, and takes into consideration the vertebrae on which your pregnancy will have the greatest strain. 

Typical Pregnancy Treatment Plans in Chiropractic Care

A typical chiropractic treatment plan for pregnant women focuses on the hip joints, which become very lax in preparation for childbirth, the shoulder girdle, which become strained from the weight of the increasing breast tissue, and the lumbar vertebrae, which are pulled out of alignment because of the weight of the baby and uterus in front. However, these basic treatment plans are adjusted and customized according to each woman, who may have very different pain complaints. Your chiropractor may add or detract treatment approaches from your plan as needed.

Drop-Leaf Chiropractic Tables

Chiropractic care for pregnant women means that no pressure should be applied to your abdomen. That includes pressure from behind while you lay prone on the adjustment table. Chiropractors take great care in protecting you and your baby during an adjustment by using a drop-leaf chiropractic table.There is a portion of the table that normally sits where your growing belly lays. The chiropractor is able to step on a switch under the table and drop that section out of the way so that your belly drops down and feels no pressure during lumbar adjustments.