PREGNANCY
Osteopathic treatment during pregnancy is not new. For many years, osteopaths have used their skills to help, employing a variety of gentle techniques to ease supporting muscles and ligaments.
Every pregnancy is ‘special’. David focuses on the mother as a person and takes account of her emotional state and other factors as well as her physical condition.
Treatment through pregnancy is a wonderfully gentle way of helping the body to adapt to the changes which are taking place.
The safety of mother and baby is his first concern.
Advice from David can help you to change your posture and learn to use your body correctly through pregnancy. Treatments also help to ease other side effects of pregnancy such as heartburn, indigestion, constipation and pain in the buttock, groin or leg (commonly called sciatica). Some patients, report reduced morning sickness after osteopathic treatment.
Pregnancy is a normal, natural condition, but many women often find themselves suffering from various symptoms, sickness, aches and pains, all of which they are told are 'just part of what to expect". This is not always the case, and many pains and common symptoms in pregnancy can be alleviated or eased by making sure the spine, pelvis, muscles and soft tissues are elastic, supple, and mobile - giving the body more space and room to readjust weight bearing and posture, hence keeping symptoms at bay. Even some problems related to hormone levels such as relaxation of the gut (and reflux) and swelling in the hands and feet (from circulatory changes) may be temporarily eased by improving drainage, and easing the muscles and structures close to the stomach area, for example.
David your osteopath can even give you a general examination, to see if you might be storing up mechanical problems for later in the pregnancy or birth, and can advise on exercises or posture, or maybe give preventative treatment of desired.
What are the most common complaints associated with pregnancy and childbirth?
Pubic pain and pelvic floor problems
Indigestion and breathlessness
Lower back pain Sciatica (leg pain)
Neck, shoulder, middle back pain Tingling in the hands and feet
Prevention is better than cure
Osteopathy is extremely useful is helping your body to adjust to the changing demands on your posture and body caused by your pregnancy, and can often keep problems from developing, or reduce their impact once present. Even in very painful conditions such as symphysis pubis dysfunction or acute low back pain, there is usually something the osteopath can safely and gently do to ease things.
Pubic pain and pelvic floor problems. Here osteopaths can help to reduce weight bearing and strain onto the front of your pubic bone, can balance out tensions in the pelvis, hips and low back, and may also look at your feet and how you are walking, to make your general movements more comfortable. For the pelvic floor, exercises can be reviewed and help given with ensuring you are doing the right action, as well as local massaging type treatment which will help keep the pelvic floor supple, elastic and more fit in readiness for the birth. Previous episiotomy scars can be treated in this way also, which helps the pelvic floor function better for the second (or subsequent) birth.
Indigestion and breathlessness. For these hormonally related problems of later pregnancy, osteopaths may be able to help by improving the movement and elasticity through your rib cage and diaphragm muscle (through which your gut / stomach has to pass). As your baby gets bigger there is less and less space under the rib cage, and the diaphragm muscle can be quite tight. Keeping these are as freer gives more space for your ribs to 'move out of the way' and thus allows more space for the stomach as well. This often calms down some of your indigestion symptoms, and eases breathing.
Lower back pain. This is obviously one of the most common complaints in pregnancy, and one shouldn't have to 'put up with it'. It is usually caused by the body not being able to accommodate the changing pressures and posture of the pregnancy. So, even people who have never had back pain before becoming pregnant may start to suffer at any point, depending on how their back is adapting to the changes. If there are some symptoms, improving the elasticity throughout the whole spine, hips and pelvis usually allows the pressures and tensions to even out throughout your body, thereby reducing the strain at any one joint or set of soft tissues. This can mean much less pain and suffering. People can be treated throughout their pregnancy.
Sciatica (leg pain). This is another reasonably common complaint in pregnancy. It often comes along in the last trimester when the baby's head begins to press lower down into the top of the pelvis, where the sciatic nerves are found (before they travel down the back of your legs to the feet). Easing movement and the mechanics of the pelvis and low back often enables the baby to settle into a slightly different position, and this often reduces pressure on the sciatic nerves, making things more comfortable. If the sciatica is due to a herniated disc (a "slipped disc"), treatment can also help to alleviate the pressure.
Neck, shoulder, middle back pain. As the mechanics of the lower spine and pelvis change, so do the positions and movements in the rest of the spine. The lumbar region of often curves more forwards, as your pelvis tilts. To stop you toppling forwards, your mid back has to swing back (and increase its backwards curve) and finally your neck and head must lean slightly forwards again, so that your eyes and ears remain level, and that your head is always above your pelvis and feet when you are standing. If your mid back and neck don't easily adapt to these changing positions, then aches and pains can result, and can also upset the shoulder girdle, and the nerves and blood vessels into your arms.
Tingling in the hands and feet. The above mentioned changes in posture and movement in the upper back and neck can impact, as stated, the nerves and blood vessels that travel into the hands. Pressures and poor movement into the back and pelvis can also affect the circulation and nerves into the legs and feet. So, tingling and swelling into the hands and feet, although they are also caused by hormone changes making your tissues swell, may be eased in some cases through osteopathic treatment to your spine and body to improve fluid drainage and keep pressure off nerves.
