Treatment for Pregnant Women
If you are pregnant or have been through pregnancy before, you are certainly familiar with the many changes your body goes through. Among all the excitement of pregnancy the most common distress women have is low back pain. We Can Help!

A number of reasons contribute to the back pain that typically progresses as the baby grows. Most obvious is the rapid physical change and stress on the lumbar spine. Our treatment focuses not only on relieving the stress and your pain, but also on your comfort.

Even more important is the health of the baby and mom's organs of delivery! Keep in mind the nerves of the low back control those organs and therefore the baby's development!

Dr. Wilson has treated pregnant moms for years, and often times following delivery as well. Also, statistics show that pregnant mom's under chiropractic care experience shorter average labor times!

Treatment During Pregnancy

Pregnancy can cause a great strain on a woman’s body. During pregnancy, there are multiple physiological and endocrine-related changes that occur while the female body prepares the environment for the developing baby.

The first obvious challenge to the body is the growing fetus. As the baby grows the expansion is accommodated by the distension of the abdominal wall which is comprised of muscles and thin ligament ‘fascia’ tissues. These tissues are not only stretched beyond their normal states, but the altered lengths and tone disrupts the normal balance among the core abdominal and back muscle function. In other words the normal harmony of the major muscle groups of the body’s core movement center is disrupted. Another group of muscles under stress are the pelvic floor muscles. These aren’t muscles we hear much about since they are the deep, internal part of the abdominal muscles. If you have ever done ‘kegel’ exercises, you are working your pelvic floor muscles!

A second factor that contributes to back pain is the hormone relaxin. Relaxin levels peak at the end of the first trimester and again during delivery to nearly 10 time normal levels. Its job is as the name implies, to relax the joints and ligaments for the pelvis to accommodate the growing baby nd to allow the pelvis to widen during delivery. While that is a good thing for the baby, relaxin also acts on all joints and ligaments of the body, which can create more instability and abnormal motion to other joints. Therefore during and for a short time after pregnancy, your body is much more susceptible to injury or aggravation of a pre-existing low back condition.

Another concern is when the pelvis becomes misaligned, which is a common occurrence due to the ligament relaxation and often involves the softening of the joint at the pubic symphysis. This may reduce the amount of room available for the developing baby. Intrauterine constraint, as it is called, may also interfere with the baby’s positioning for and during the delivery process.

Ultimately maintaining or restoring proper spine and pelvic function and alignment during pregnancy is very important and a significant reason for obtaining good chiropractic care. Chiropractic can also be helpful after childbirth. In the eight weeks following labor the ligaments begin to tighten up again. Any problems or injury brought on during pregnancy should be addressed before the ligaments return to their pre-pregnancy state. Dr. Wilson has extensive experience working with pregnant women and uses a variety of mobilization/manipulation techniques along with a number of effective soft-tissue protocols (myofascial release, trigger point therapy). Dr. Wilson also has a number of specific exercises that are perfect for a pregnant woman to help strengthen and support the back muscles.
Contact us for a healthier and more pain free pregnancy!