Pregnancy and childbirth are major life events that can take a toll on a woman's body. During pregnancy, your body undergoes significant changes to accommodate the growing baby, and the delivery process can be physically demanding. As a result, many women continue to experience aches and pains even after delivery. Postpartum chiropractic care can be an effective way to help you recover from pregnancy and childbirth and manage postpartum symptoms. We have compiled our top 6 reasons to see a postpartum chiropractor.
1 Low Back and Pelvis Recovery
Once you deliver, your body won’t just “bounce back”. You WILL recover but for best results you will need to take a proactive and intentional approach throughout the postpartum recovery process. Postpartum chiropractic care and rehabilitation can greatly decrease postpartum pain and will help reduce recovery time. Getting postpartum adjustments can help ensure your body heals properly and help prevent chronic low back pain that could come as a result of improper recovery. While you are pregnant your center of gravity is pulled forward by your growing belly. Your body will compensate for this by your upper body leaning backwards and your pelvis rotating forward. This leads to your low back being in a hyperextended position for most of your day and can cause low back and pelvic pain while pregnant. For some this pain will continue even after delivery if it is not addressed and treated.
2 Neck and Back Pain Due to Breastfeeding
Breastfeeding is such a wonderful bonding experience for you and your baby but it can definitely take a toll on your body. Bending forward to nurse and looking down at your baby are both common positions that you will find yourself in for extended periods of time. This sustained forward flexed posture can lead to discomfort in the neck and mid back. Postpartum care can help relieve this discomfort. Our chiropractor in Littleton will teach you how to set up your space to take some of the strain off of your body and make nursing a more comfortable experience with a more ergonomic set up.
3 Help you Return to your Favorite Activities
It is a common misconception in our society that once you have a baby your body will never fully heal or recover. This can lead some mommas to avoid certain activities they enjoyed before becoming pregnant. While it is true that pregnancy and labor change your body, and you will never be exactly the same as you were before you were pregnant, it is absolutely not true that your body is forever broken in any way. With the proper postpartum care and postpartum rehab you will be able to return to the activities you love and live just as active a life as you lived before becoming pregnant. Our postpartum chiropractor in Littleton will help you modify activities throughout your healing process to avoid injury while allowing you to do the things that make you, you.
4 Assessment and Recovery of Diastasis Recti
Diastasis recti is a big buzz word in the prenatal and postpartum community. Often people want to know how to avoid diastasis recti or how to prevent diastasis recti. Unfortunately this is impossible. 100% of pregnancies result in diastasis. This is because your rectus abdominus or what most people know to be your abs, are connected by what is called the linea alba. This piece of connective tissue stretches throughout your pregnancy to make room for baby. The degree or depth of stretch is different for each individual. During your fourth trimester, it is important to seek care from a chiropractor specializing in postpartum to be properly assessed and receive individualized rehabilitative exercises to improve tensile strength in your linea alba and core canister as you heal.
5 Assistance with Cesarean Delivery Recovery
A cesarean delivery is a major surgery. It is also one of the only surgeries in America where they do not require any rehab post op. This is pretty wild considering they have to cut through 7 layers of tissue to retrieve the baby. While it is important that we wait until your incision site is fully healed before we put you in any kind of rotational position, it can still be very beneficial for you to have a chiropractor on your rehab team. Our postpartum chiropractor in Littleton will also discuss with you how to care for your incision site to help reduce the amount of scar tissue that can form during your healing process. Not addressing scar tissue can lead to many problems down the road such as chronic low back pain, pelvic floor weakness and even headaches.
6 Self Care Momma you Deserve It
This is the understatement of the century!! You deserve to be taken care of momma. You just spent nine months growing another human. Not to mention you kept on with the rest of your life like normal. And then you powered through labor like an absolute champ. Whether your labor was fast or slow, lasted a few hours to a few days, ended with a vaginal delivery or via c-section, you did that. You deserve the recovery care your body needs. Labor and delivery can be likened to an olympic event and you know what olympic athletes do after their event? They take time to care for their body and help it recover and you should too!!
It's important to note that postpartum chiropractic care is safe for both mom and baby. Our postpartum chiropractor in Ken Caryl is trained to work with pregnant and postpartum patients and will modify their techniques as needed to ensure the safety and comfort of their patients. Additionally, postpartum chiropractors can work closely with other healthcare providers, such as obstetricians, postpartum doulas and pelvic floor therapists, to ensure that patients receive comprehensive care.
Overall, postpartum chiropractic care can be an effective way to help you recover from pregnancy and childbirth and manage common postpartum symptoms. By improving spinal stability, reducing pain and promoting rehabilitation, chiropractic care can help women feel more comfortable, energized, and ready to tackle the demands of motherhood.