Pregnancy can be easy or difficult depending on many factors including luck, your genetics, your hormones, and your body style. Prenatal chiropractic care can improve your pregnancy and post-pregnancy experience. Some women experience nausea and other symptoms while others glide through the entire process unscathed. Others, have terrible sciatic pain, back pain, hand numbness, and shoulder pain and suffered needlessly because they did not know there was a natural way to get relief. Giving birth can be easy or difficult depending on the size of the baby, the mother's fitness, pelvis size, and other factors you never considered. Prenatal care helps to remove many of the concerns that for most mothers, are within the normal variants of pregnancy. While some conditions such as preeclampsia are of concern, only a small portion of the population experience this. A common experience for many mothers is musculoskeletal complaints such as back pain, neck pain, shoulder pain, and even numbness of the hands. If handled early or prior to the pregnancy, many lower back and neck problems can be resolved or minimized prior to pregnancy by a doctor of chiropractic. Early intervention reduces the risk of back and neck problems during pregnancy. Prenatal care as we know it often includes regular visits to your obstetrician or midwife or both. They check the weight of the developing baby, its health, whether the pregnancy is progressing normally, and the health of the mother. What they don't do is prenatal care of the musculoskeletal system. Medically speaking, it is not part of what they do, yet it is vitally important to how you feel and function as your body changes, gains weight affecting the way you move, sleep, and function. When you are in pain, pain relievers are often discouraged so what can you do to get relief naturally. Chiropractors have been helping mothers to get relief naturally and safely and are primary care for the musculoskeletal system. For the best results, visit them early in your pregnancy as it becomes more difficult to offer anything other than temporary relief in the 8th and 9th months of pregnancy. Why start early Just like medical prenatal care, starting chiropractic care early or prior to pregnancy allows for the doctor to improve the way you move, offer you exercises to mitigate chronic problems, and may even recommend shoe inserts if you are built asymmetrically. Improved pelvic stability can help markedly in the later stages of pregnancy and during delivery since the pelvis needs to expand during delivery. A torqued or distorted pelvis can be less mechanically efficient for delivery, making delivery more difficult increasing the risk for a c-section. While there are other reasons for a c-section, failure to progress and fetal distress may be prevented with a quicker delivery. The more effective your core functions, the more effectively you can push at the time of delivery. Getting mechanically fit early also has advantages since you are likely to recover faster and feel better post-pregnancy, which is a demanding time for new parents. You are also likely to be exhausted and have less personal time for self-care after you deliver. What should you expect during an initial chiropractic visit? The doctor will take a thorough history, evaluate you holistically to fully understand any complaints you may have. Treatment is often performed on the first visit and may include. Spinal and extremity manipulation - Chiropractic is best known for this treatment that improves mobility and function to the joints of your body. Myofascial release treatment - improves the way you move and is important for proper movement and function while improving the effectiveness of spinal manipulation. Exercises - Designed to improve how you function and to educate and improve the conditioning of your body. Recommendations for foot orthotics if your body build is asymmetrical. - Many chiropractic patients are built asymmetrically resulting in problems such as neck and back pain as well as problems in the extremities. An off the shelf orthotics can make a world of difference in how you feel and function. It is a simple and cost-effective solution that can help greatly as your pregnancy progresses. Most patients will progress quickly if you begin care early in the pregnancy or prior to becoming pregnant. Our office will release you once your problems have been adequately addressed and place you on an as-needed basis as the pregnancy progresses if you have any symptomatic episodes. Benefits of prenatal chiropractic care Resolve musculoskeletal problems before the hormonal changes, pelvic changes, and weight gain. Improve core function vital to childbirth. Safe drug-free care of the human frame. Reduce the risk of sciatica, neck problems, back and knee problems, and foot problems during your pregnancy. Get started now. Click on this link to schedule your first visit.