It’s no secret that a woman’s body goes through tremendous amount of change when pregnant. One change that may often be overlooked is how carrying a baby affects your posture, specifically the lower back posture. As the baby grows and the body adapts to the extra weight lumbar lordosis is increased. Lordosis is the curve that we naturally have in the lower back. While this acts as a good counter balance to the excess weight in the front to help stabilize the body it often creates and unwanted side effect in back pain. In fact its estimated that between 50% and 80% of women will experience back pain during pregnancy. Complicated matters medication to ease the pain is deemed to be bad for the baby’s health.
There is good news for women who suffer from back pain during pregnancy. Chiropractic care is highly effective. A recent study performed in Switzerland researched pregnant women with low back pain who used chiropractic care. These women were fallowed at intervals of 1 week 1 month and 3 months and 6 months to check on their progress. In all groups chiropractic was deemed to be highly effective in relieving back pain and the longer chiropractic was utilized the more effective it was. After one week of treatment 52% of respondents reported improvement. At 1 one month those numbers improved to 70%, and at 3 months 85% reported improvement. Finally at the 6 monthfallow up 90% of pregnant patients saw significant improvement using chiropractic care!
Many patients of mine worry that chiropractic care may be harmful for the baby. The truth is it is incredible safe gentle on the baby. Empirical evidence even suggests that birthing time may be decreased for mothers who utilize chiropractic care. While there is still research to be done to validate this theory it makes a lot of sense that when the pelvis and spine are aligned properly exit from the birthing canal would be easier. If you are a mom suffering from back pain from your pregnancy do not hesitate to try a safe, effective, and natural treatment for your ailment.
Source: Chiropractic & Manual Therapies 2014, 22:15 Cynthia K Peterson