Pregnancy and Chiropractic

Backache and sciatic pain are some of the most widely recognised painful side-effects of pregnancy. Chiropractic care can be of great help during that time.

The hormone progesterone causes your ligaments and joints to slacken to facilitate the passage of the baby through the pelvis. This can makes the joints weaker and can, in an already unstable spine, aggravate spinal problems.

Later, this is aggravated by the changes to your balance and the stresses made on your spine by your growing tummy.

Chiropractors are trained in adjusting the spines of pregnant women and our clinics are equipped with special equipment for the pregnant figure. It is also very safe for both mother and baby.

There is even a possibility that the more flexible state of your joints provides an opportunity for easier correction of chronic spinal problems.

The Webster's Breech Turning Technique

The Webster Technique, discovered by Dr. Larry Webster, founder of the International Chiropractic Paediatric Association (ICPA), is a specific chiropractic adjustment for pregnant mothers. It is a chiropractic technique designed to relieve the causes of intra-uterine constraint, and helping to convert breech presentations to cephalic presentation for more than 20 years. This can in turn help the mother to avoid a difficult labour or a Caesarean.

So long as the pelvis is in a balanced state, the ligaments connected to the uterus maintain an equalized, supportive suspension for the uterus. If your pelvis is out of balance in any way, these ligaments become taut and twisted, causing a condition known as intra-uterine constraint. If the woman’s uterus is constrained as birth approaches, the baby may be prevented from getting into the desirable head down position.

Performance of the Webster Technique involves analysis of the relationship of the bones of the pelvis, and correction of aberrant biomechanics through the use of a light force chiropractic adjustment of the sacrum (Step 1). It also involves analysis and relief of specific abdominal muscle tension or spasm (Step 2). Both steps are intended to relieve the musculoskeletal causes of intrauterine constraint that may lead to Caesarean section delivery.

It is important to stress at this time that the Webster Technique is not to be misconstrued as the practice of obstetrics. The Webster Technique is a specific chiropractic technique intended to relieve a specific musculoskeletal condition, and is well within the chiropractor's scope of practice. At no time does the chiropractor attempt to change the position of the foetus.

Marianne Delahaye D.C. is trained in Paediatric Chiropractic and the Webster technique,