Pregnancy is a joyful and exciting time. However, some women find pregnancy—or getting pregnant in the first place—to be stressful, difficult or even painful. Morning sickness, insomnia, heart burn, back pain, pelvic pain, sciatica and trouble moving can all be complaints of pregnancy. But they don’t necessarily have to be.
Osteopathic practitioners have been successfully treating these complaints for years using a gentle, effective manual therapy. These manual health therapists use gentle hands-on techniques to treat any problems within the framework of the body.
Throughout pregnancy, the woman’s body is constantly changing to accommodate her growing baby: her centre of gravity becomes more anterior, her pelvis and hips widen to support the abdomen, even the arches of her feet will change. Movement will also be affected by these changes; pregnant women will find they walk, bend, sit and stand differently than they did previously. These changes will also alter how the body carries out basic functions such as breathing and digesting.
If there is a restriction within the body to process and carry out these natural changes, symptoms such as sciatica, sickness, back and pelvic pain, etc. can then become a concern. Also, if a pregnant woman has or has had existing musculoskeletal problems, previous accidents or trauma, a sedentary job or even just poor posture these can compromise her body’s ability to accommodate the necessary changes, which may lead to pain. Osteopathic treatment is effective for pregnancy as it assists the body in allowing the natural changes to take place as efficiently as possible—and with the least amount of discomfort to both mother and baby.
As babies grow, they take up more space in the abdominal and pelvic regions, and the organs have to shift to accommodate this. This is how breathing and digesting can be influenced. The lower rib cage has to expand laterally and the diaphragm, the main respiratory muscle, sits higher. This can make a pregnant woman feel like she can’t take a deep breath and also make exercise extremely difficult. By treating the whole thoracic cage and diaphragm, the osteopathic practitioner can improve flexibility and range of motion of the ribs, giving the lungs more space to breathe. Treating the diaphragm can also help relieve symptoms of heartburn and create more space around the stomach.
As mentioned earlier, during pregnancy the mother’s body is constantly growing and changing to allow her baby more room to grow and change. However, these changes are also occurring in preparation for the birth. Any obstruction to the body’s ability to change may poorly influence the birthing process. Along with creating more space for the baby during pregnancy, osteopathic treatment can also restore balance and movement to the pelvic girdle and promote normal hormonal and neurological feedback mechanisms, which are needed for a healthy birth.
At any stage of pregnancy or post-partum osteopathic techniques are both safe and effective. Osteopathic treatment can restore pain-free function and allow a new Mum to relax and enjoy the experience.
Especially fond of helping Mums and babies, Sarah Stranan has been working from the Vancouver Osteopathy Centre since 2008 and previous to that, worked and trained in Australia. For more information or to make an appointment visit www.strananosteopathy.ca or call 778-835-1633.
