How The English Osteopaths can help you have a healthy, happy and comfortable pregnancy
As your little being develops inside you, you will probably feel the desire to take even better care of yourself. You know that will help your child’s development. You know it will help your body’s ability to adjust to the demands of pregnancy – all those hormonal, postural and emotional changes.
For many years, we have used our training in osteopathic therapy to help relieve the aches and pains caused by weight and posture changes during pregnancy.
Each trimester holds different wonders and challenges. You will likely need different support from our treatments as your pregnancy progresses.
Treatment before pregnancy and during the first trimester
During this time, we check your posture and identify areas of tension and weakness. Before pregnancy is the ideal time to reduce pre-existing areas of tension that may predispose you to the problems so often associated with being pregnant: back pain, sciatica, carpal tunnel syndrome, heart burn.
The first trimester is a time of incredible development for the embryo. It is also a time when your body is adjusting to many different hormones. Your treatment with us will be gentle and supportive this trimester.
Treatment during the second trimester
By this time, you may be feeling lots of aches, pains and general discomfort. Family and friends may be telling you that you just have to put up with them.
Actually, this trimester is a time when osteopathic therapy is extremely effective.
Many clients are surprised that we that can help with
- the digestive issues of pregnancy such as heartburn and constipation.
- lower and upper back pain
- rib pain
- headaches
- sciatica
Often we see women who’ve had a difficult time during their first pregnancy. They are worried that the same fate awaits them during this pregnancy
Treatment during the third trimester
In the third trimester, we continue to work on any problems you have been struggling with all along.
Your focus now will also be changing. You are getting closer to your due date all the time. You will want to feel prepared for birth.
And that is where our focus will be in the third trimester: your physical readiness for birth.
This is how osteopathic therapy can help get your body ready for birth:
- We can correct imbalances and strains in the pelvis. We pay attention to your sacrum (the flat, triangular wedge of bone between your hips that helps stabilize your whole pelvic area) and coccyx (the tailbone). We make sure they are mobile so they can move forwards and backwards as the baby moves through the birth canal.
- We can release tension from your pelvic floor. This muscular area needs to work effectively and be free to stretch to aid in delivery and prevent tearing. We can help reduce tension in the pelvic floor with treatment. And we will give you exercises and stretches that you can do at home.
- We can release tension from your spine, especially your lower back. The physical demands of labour require that your spine is mobile so that you can move into various different positions during labour. You need flexibility throughout your spine to do this, but the lower back is a focal area given its proximity to your uterus and the pelvis.
Treatment After Pregnancy and Labour for You and Your Baby
Now is the time to have a couple of treatments to heal from birth and get the beneficial support of cranial osteopathy (cranio sacral therapy).
Our treatments can help with the emotional adjustments you have to make in addition to your physical needs.
Your baby should also be checked for birth strains. Even in births with no medical interventions, we find that infants tend to get strains just by being born. These strains can be released through osteopathic therapy to help them adjust to their new environment and to the demands of using their digestive and breathing systems in a new way.
Useful Tips for Your Pregnancy
Exercises
In our functional exercise library we have exercises that will help loosen tight muscles and joints and we have partner exercises to help you prepare for labour. In both of these videos we focus especially on your hips, lower back, mid-back and ribcage because they are common problem areas during pregnancy. Doing these exercises regularly throughout your pregnancy will help keep you mobile.
Books We’ve Enjoyed
- Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year by Susun S Weed
- Real Food for Mother and Baby by Nina Planck
- Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin
The English Osteopaths believe that if you give yourself the right environment in which to thrive, you will. Make an appointment to see us, and we’ll help you find that environment.
