A common misconception about chiropractic is that you only go in for adjustments when you’re in pain. While adjustments can certainly alleviate pain, they can also do so much more! And you don’t have to wait until you’re in pain to get started.

In fact, if you’re pregnant, the earlier you seek chiropractic care, the greater your chances for a healthy pregnancy and safer birth. Here are three underrated ways that pregnant women can benefit from chiropractic checkups.

Feel More Balanced

Your body talks to your brain through the proprioceptive part of your brain, which helps to control balance and maintain spatial awareness. As your weight increases during pregnancy, particularly in your belly, it causes your center of gravity to shift outward and your balance to become compromised. Chiropractic works to open up these pathways in your brain, which is great for feeling more steady on your feet and reducing your risk of falling.

Avoid Labor Intervention

You’re doing important work by creating a baby from scratch, and your brain should be able to communicate to the rest of your body to have a healthy pregnancy.

Your nervous system is a network for sending messages from your brain to your body and even to your developing baby, and it takes a lot of work for it to circulate this information. This includes dispersing the right amount of pregnancy hormones, like relaxin for loosening up your ligaments and progesterone for relaxing your smooth muscles (including the uterus).

The earlier you start chiropractic in your pregnancy, the earlier you can prevent misalignments that can inhibit your nervous system. When hormones are created and released at the right time, you’ll decrease your risk for intervention after labor kicks in.

Have a Smoother Birthing Experience

While the birthing process can get massively uncomfortable, patients report that women in chiropractic care experience significantly shorter labor times than those who are not.

Ultrasounds during the third trimester can gauge your baby’s size, position and movements, as well as spot any potential complications. If your baby is breach, this isn’t an ideal position for birth for either of you.

Your baby knows where it needs to go. Chiropractic helps free up your body’s ability to accommodate that by making the position and movement of your pelvis such that your baby can move the way it needs to.

When you’re around 36 weeks along, a chiropractic assessment can make sure nothing in your body is restricting your baby’s movement. If needed, an adjustment can be performed to realign the pelvis. Working on your joints, ligaments, pelvis and back helps to keep these areas moving symmetrically, so your baby can choose a position that’s most advantageous for birth.

Get a Wellness Checkup Today

Having a holistic health care team behind you every step of the way will help you feel a bit more confident in what’s ahead, no matter your birth plan. That’s why our office offers birth education for pregnant women in the Burien community. Whether you’d like a wellness check or to see if there’s anything else you could be doing for a healthy pregnancy, we can help. Contact us today!