“My breach baby flipped after one chiropractic treatment!”*

“Chiropractic care helped me get pregnant and maintain a healthy pregnancy!”

“Dr. Madison helped me achieve a 2 hour labor after a prior C-section because of proper pelvis alignment.”

“Chiropractic care under Dr. Madison’s guidance helped my body bring on labor when I was 10 days past my due date.”

These and more amazing statements are a weekly, almost daily, norm in my practice. And I say norm because given the chance, the body can do amazing things. I don’t understand why we think that’s not normal anymore. Our bodies want to be healthy, they want to produce health babies via healthy pregnancies. The rise in C-secitons in the United States alone should be enough to make us wonder how we’ve gotten so far from the ‘amazing norm’. I understand some C-sections are incredibly necessary and have saved both mom’s and baby’s life but there are many that, if mom had only had more information on supporting her amazingly normal body, a C-section could have been prevented.

How you say? Via prenatal chiropractic care for starters. Let’s discuss the benefits of chiropractic care while pregnant.

• Proper pelvic alignment

Unfortunately in today’s society we have become an sedentary population. We sit way too much! This leads to poor posture which adversely effects our bones, ligaments and muscles. Now add on the changing center of gravity of a pregnant mom’s belly to already stressed joints and ache muscles and you get pelvic chaos. Chiropractors are trained to help bring pelvic chaos back to proper pelvic alignment. This proper alignment is essential to ensure the ligament attachments of the uterus (which attach to the pelvic bones) aren’t being stressed or pulled in any direction. If these uterine ligaments apply uneven force on the uterus, it can become twisted which the can possibly cause less then optimal room for the growing baby.

• Possibility of decreased labor time and pain

See the first point! Proper alignment of pelvis and uterus at the time of birth can contribute to less painful contractions and quicker labor. Basically, baby’s got the straightest shot out of there if the runway is straight!

• Healthier nervous systems for mom and baby

This could be a whole blog in and of itself! Please ask your local pediatric chiropractor (or visit www.icpa4kids.com to locate doctors near you that are certified in gentle and effective techniques for pregnant moms and kids) to find out more on how chiropractic care helps support a healthy nervous system. Boiled down here is the simplest answer: Your spine houses your spinal cord (a major player in your nervous system and the way your brain communicates with your body). Healthy alignment of the spine equals a healthier spinal cord, which means better communication between brain and body thus a healthier nervous system.

• Guidance and support

Hopefully the chiropractor you’ve choosen for prenatal care becomes someone you and your family can trust and depend on. He/she should have great community recources, the latest research and advice on safe/natural nutrition/supplements, local referrals for OBGYN’s/midwives and much more. This is such an exciting time in a woman’s life but it can be overwhelming and scary. Tell your chiropractor your concerns and let them help you! Your visit should be a time of letting go, getting answers and you should leave feeling great! WIN-WIN-WIN

Let’s get one thing straight (just like the alignment of the spine should be!) it is not the chiropractor that is performing any crazy type of magic here. I get some very strange looks when I accidently slip up and say “Helped a women get pregnant this week!” All the credit should go where it belongs: to the amazingly normal body of the man and woman who made that baby and to the woman’s body for growing that baby and to the baby’s body for growing the way it was suppose to. When given the chance via proper nutrition, decreased stress, and great prenatal chiropractic care the body can do some amazingly normal things!

*Chiropractors do not “flip” breach babies; however proper pelvic alignment can allow for the baby to move into a more optimal birth position

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