Pregnant? Here's Why You Should Consider Regular Chiropractic Care

Congratulations on your pregnancy from the team at OasisMD Lifestyle Healthcare! 

We know you want to do everything in your power to keep your growing baby healthy and have a safe pregnancy. We also know that while most women understand the importance of regular prenatal care, they may not realize the value that prenatal chiropractic treatments provide.  

Dr. Travis C. Ehlers and the team at our offices in San Diego, Encinitas, and Temecula, California, want to explain how chiropractic care improves your pregnancy and helps you prepare for a healthy labor and delivery. Keep reading to learn what you need to know!

Why is regular prenatal chiropractic care beneficial?

Your body is an amazing thing that can endure countless changes while you’re pregnant. But that doesn’t mean the changes are always beneficial to you or your baby. 

When your musculoskeletal system is aligned, your body functions optimally. However, the many significant changes your pregnant body goes through means it’s easy for things to become misaligned.  

As your pelvis loosens to prepare for delivery, it can become misaligned. When this happens, your baby’s movements become restricted, increasing the risk of birth defects.

Your posture changes to accommodate your baby’s growing size, creating changes in your spine — especially your lower back. The sacroiliac joints, which connect your spine and pelvis, shift. But these joints are designed to be shock absorbers and don’t move as much as other joints, making these changes uncomfortable for many women. 

Pregnancy can also cause balance problems for many women, particularly as your pregnancy progresses. And with the added weight and the changes your body experiences, your hips, knees, ankles, and feet endure increased pressure, which takes a toll on your body.

Regular prenatal chiropractic care helps prevent the normal changes your body undergoes during pregnancy from causing alignment issues. These treatments also ease the aches and pains most pregnant women experience in their back, neck, and other areas that strain from these misalignments. 

Can chiropractic care help me prepare for labor and delivery?

As your pelvic alignment shifts significantly during your pregnancy, the restriction it places on your growing baby’s movements isn’t the only concern. A misaligned pelvis also creates problems during labor and delivery. 

Prenatal chiropractic care helps keep your pelvis aligned, ensuring a better delivery experience. Additional research also indicates that prenatal chiropractic care helps prevent breech birth, a condition that causes longer, more difficult labor and often requires medical intervention or a cesarean section (C-section). 

Seeing a chiropractor during pregnancy also has the added labor and delivery benefits of:

• Faster labor and delivery
• Lower preterm delivery risk
• Reduced need for pain medication
• Less nausea during labor
• Lower risk of C-section
• Faster post-delivery recovery

When you get regular chiropractic care when you’re expecting, you’ll not only be more comfortable during your pregnancy, but you’ll also have less overall pain and a smoother, safer labor and delivery. 

But is it safe to get chiropractic care when pregnant?

Yes! The majority of pregnant women can safely have regular chiropractic treatments while they’re expecting. It is important to note, however, that not all women are good candidates as some complicated pregnancies make chiropractic adjustments riskier, including:

• Ectopic pregnancy
• Toxemia
• Placental problems
• Unusual vaginal bleeding

The good news is that these conditions aren’t typical, and few women experience them. That means for most pregnant women, chiropractic care is safe and beneficial.   

If you’re pregnant and ready to benefit from prenatal chiropractic treatments, contact OasisMD Lifestyle in Southern California. Call the office most convenient to you, or schedule online now.