Pregnancy and getting adjusted

Should you be getting adjusted while pregnant?  Is it safe?  Is it safe for the baby? 

Yes

Yes

Yes

In fact, you should be getting adjusted if you are THINKING about getting pregnant.  As should the baby’s father.  Backing up to the beginning of the story, you likely know you have all the eggs you are going to have when you are born.  You don’t make new ones.  The father on the other hand, is making sperm every day.  In order to make sure the genetic code in the sperm is correct, make sure the system that controls this is working properly.  That’s run by the nervous system.  Notably, nerves in the low back and tailbone.  Sperm are created daily so making sure that system is running while you’re working on making babies is the best practice.

As for the mom, the eggs are the eggs, what we want to make sure is ovulation is working properly and implantation works properly.  I can’t tell you how many cases of infertility (1 year of trying or more) have been happily resolved once the future parents started getting their nervous system working properly. 

For the mom it is important to have imaging prior to pregnancy.  The image of the spine directs what to adjust and how to make sure it works the best.   Unfortunately, many women don’t know this and their first experience in chiropractic is due to back pain developing after walking around pregnant with 30 extra pounds on her low back. 

For the same reason I don't recommend ultrasounds of uncomplicated healthy babies in utero (there's no difference in outcomes whether you do or don't get ultrasounds - see prior blog post for references), we also prefer not to x-ray lumbar spines while baby is rapidly dividing cells inside mom. It just makes it harder to help mom if there's no x-ray.  So, identifying a short leg or swayback situation prior to pregnancy is helpful during pregnancy.

Not only does getting adjusted help the expectant mom get through her day and be more comfortable, helping the pelvis prepare for an Olympic level performance makes delivery day go much smoother.   The process of delivery requires the baby’s head to first drop down in the lower pelvis. That requires the tailbone or sacrum to move into a more vertical position to open the top of the opening.  That places the bottom or tip of the tailbone too close to the front bone of the pelvis for the baby to exit, so the next step is the tailbone must tilt forward and the bottom or tip, must go backwards. 

It’s designed to do this. There are things that happen long before getting pregnant that can make it harder though.  Around here, ice skating is a common activity and falling on your bum, whacks the tailbone and sometimes bends the sacrum if you’re young enough. Gymnastics in high school is another one.  (you may recall the case of the USA Gymnastics team and the osteopath who was jailed for abuse of the gymnasts a few years back.  He was manipulating the tailbone – internally – to correct this common problem with gymnasts.)  These are teenage girls.  The problem is a real one, but I don’t know that it would be wise to be using an internal correction technique, with a finger, with young ladies and no one else on site.   I bring this up because it IS a real problem and many women suffer because of it. Prior to pregnancy it causes difficult cycles with days of pain, or irregular cycles.  And, that frequently makes it hard to become pregnant, let alone deliver easily.

In our medicalized culture, we have been taught that 12 hours and more of labor is routine and normal.  It’s not.  That’s because the pelvis doesn’t work properly.  This culminates many times in induced labor and C-section interventions.  Those babies have many more health problems.

It’s just a good idea to make sure both parents are in good health, by making sure the nervous system of both is at its best.  The father prior, at least.  The mom, prior and throughout.   We’ll talk another time about when the baby should be checked out by a chiropractor.

Yours,

Dr. Barrett