Pregnancy is a beautiful thing. The journey, though characterized by uncomfortable symptoms, can be quite exhilarating. It is also an honor to carry a living being for nine months. However, many women have had complications during the whole process.
Most people are slowly coming to appreciate that chiropractic care is beneficial for the mother and the child.
The female body has to undergo physical and psychological changes to accommodate the baby’s development. The only problem is that these changes typically come with pain and discomfort.
What Happens During Pregnancy?
The hormonal and physical changes that occur during pregnancy can impact your posture. Your posture keeps on changing as the pregnancy progresses. This happens because your baby gets heavier, so your center of gravity shifts, therefore, affecting your posture.
Other than changes in your posture, you can experience:
- An increased curve on your lower back because of the ever protruding abdomen
- Changes to your pelvis in preparation for labor
After 34 weeks, most women are wondering whether the baby has turned. This is a valid concern since complications arise when the baby has not yet turned.
Breech Babies
Ideally, by the 34th week of pregnancy, most babies have turned and are face down ready for delivery. However, this isn’t always the case. Nearly 4% of all babies do not turn and are in what is known as the breech position. That means that the babies are still feet down and head up.
However, there is some small percentage of babies who spontaneously turn before birth, but those chances are usually slim, especially in late pregnancy.
Babies in the breech position is the most common reason as to why pregnant women go for cesarean section. Close to 13% of all C-sections are due to breech babies.
C-sections are a good thing when necessary, but there are less invasive techniques for turning a baby. Chiropractic care offers a non-invasive technique known as the Webster technique in Manhattan, KS that corrects the birthing position.
Understanding the Webster Technique
Mothers and babies have this synchrony that is mind-blowing. It is the synchrony that helps the baby develop as it should. This innate intelligence is what makes pregnancy amazing.
However, babies can be in the breech position even after 34-weeks. There could be several reasons for this to happen, but the main reason is stress and torque on the uterus because of the pelvis’ misalignments (subluxations).
As your pregnancy progresses, there is a hormone known as relaxin is released. The purpose of the hormone is to cause the ligaments to soften and stretch. This is what allows your pelvis to spread to create room for the birth of the baby. However, your pelvis can also subluxate easily.
Imagine that your uterus is a balloon and you are pulling two sides of the balloon. The balloon will shorten and get rigid. This is what happens to the uterus, and the baby gets trapped and doesn’t have room to turn.
Until the constraint is removed, the baby will remain in the breech position.
The Webster technique, developed by Dr. Larry Webster, is used to address intrauterine constraint. This technique is known to be less invasive than the obstetric approach.
This technique typically involves the chiropractic evaluation of the sacrum and how it’s aligned within the pelvis. To have a better picture of the technique, you need to have a basic understanding of the female pelvis.
The pelvis consists of two bones: large hip bones (innominate bones) and tailbone (sacrum). The pelvis holds in place the uterus using two ligaments: the broad ligaments and the round ligaments. The ligaments connect the uterus to the sacrum and abdominal wall.
Therefore, the adjustments are done when the sacrum pulls on the ligaments. The technique seeks to put the sacrum back into place. Also, stretching and massaging of the point of attachments of the ligaments to the abdominal wall are performed.
When normal tension is restored, and there is more room in the uterus, your baby can turn when the time has come.
Benefits of the Webster Technique
The main aim of the technique is to remove the subluxations that cause the baby not to move. Here are some of the benefits:
- Helps the baby have room to turn
- Reduces the chances of having a cesarean section
- Aids in faster recovery after birth as compared to c-section births
Is It Safe?
The technique is very safe, and it is effective. It is not a baby turning technique, so there is no direct external force applied to the baby. It is also performed gently.
Chiropractic care is very helpful during pregnancy. Now that you know the Webster technique’s safety and benefits, you can schedule an appointment with us at Premier Chiropractic & Wellness.