Improving Your Pregnancy with Chiropractic Care

Today's woman constantly juggles an incredible number of responsibilities; jobs, children, friendships, marriages, errands, appointments - the list is endless! You've got to be healthy just to keep up. Women have special health concerns during every phase of their lives; pregnancy is certainly one of the most important and complex phases. Although the changes women experience from pregnancy are natural, a little extra help is sometimes needed to cope with the dramatic changes in their bodies.

A Perfect Pregnancy

In addition to the noticeable changes pregnancy causes in a woman's body, pregnancy can cause subtle changes in the muscular-skeletal system; changes your chiropractor is able to detect and correct. Because the baby lies forward in the woman's body during pregnancy, her centre of gravity shifts and the spine alters itself to accommodate this change. As a result, many expectant mothers may experience low back and pelvic pain. These stresses and strains can be relieved with regular chiropractic care. Many chiropractic patients report that their deliveries were faster and more comfortable than deliveries prior to chiropractic care.

It's especially important during pregnancy that nerve impulses flow from the brain to all parts of the body. A slightly out-of-place vertebra can create nerve irritation that snarls the body's communication system. Using gentle spinal adjustments, the chiropractic doctor can relieve this nerve irritation, allowing the body's energy to flow freely again and eliminate periodic pain through nature's own healing power! Your chiropractic doctor will use special, modified techniques during your pregnancy to make your spinal adjustments easy and comfortable.

Choose Chiropractic Care

It's easier to be fit, healthy, and experience a trouble-free pregnancy when your body freely sends the right messages. Chiropractic care focuses on the overall effects of spinal misalignment on the nerves that carry health-giving energy to every cell of the body. Chiropractic helps women get well and stay well - before, during, and after their pregnancies.

Chiropractic is for the whole family. It’s never too soon!

Common Questions & Answers regarding Chiropractic & Pregnancy

Q: Is chiropractic safe in pregnancy?
A: Chiropractic is very safe and very sensible for both mother and baby.

Q: Is it difficult to receive a chiropractic adjustment when pregnant?
A: Not at all. Chiropractors are trained in adjusting the spines of pregnant women and many chiropractic adjusting tables have special modifications and pillows for the pregnant figure.

Q: How late in pregnancy is it possible to get an adjustment?
A: Patients have received adjustments even during labour, as that is when movement/shifting happens in the mother's pelvic area.

Q: Can spinal care help postpartum depression?
A: For years chiropractic's beneficial effects on emotional stress and personality have been noted. At least one journal has quoted a doctor as saying that "postpartum depression is a rarity in patients receiving chiropractic care".

Q: Can back pain be helped with chiropractic?
A: With chiropractic spinal adjustments the body will be better able to heal its back and spinal pain, as well as many other health problems. Studies have shown a significant decrease in back and labour pains in mothers receiving chiropractic care.

Q:Do I have to have a problem in pregnancy to see a chiropractor?
A: Not at all. Chiropractic should be used as preventive maintenance. Periodic spinal checkups during pregnancy should be as common as periodic weight checkups.

Q: Can my baby receive chiropractic?
A: Infants a few hours old have been given spinal checkups and adjustments, if needed.

Tips to Ease the Strain of Caring for a Baby

Caring for a baby is rewarding - and hard work. Like other kinds of work that require lifting, bending, long periods of sitting, and repetitive motions, it can be harmful to your body. Try these simple tips to prevent problems before they begin.

~ Put one foot on a box or low shelf when you stand and change nappies. This causes your pelvis to tilt in a way that decreases pelvic fatigue.
~ Keep work surfaces at a comfortable height. Put something under the legs of the changing table, for instance, to raise it if you're tall.
~ Don't try to hold the baby and wrestle the side of a cot down at the same time. Instead, drop the cot side before you pick up the child.
Don't bend from the waist when you lift the child. Squat with your back straight, keep the child close to you, and use your leg muscles to rise.
~ Don't bend over into the car when putting your child in the car seat. Sit sideways on the seat with the child on your lap, then rotate to face front and put the child in the seat.
~ Make sure your feet touch the floor and your back is supported when you sit holding your child. Keep your knees at the same height as your hips or slightly higher.
~ Adjust stroller handles so you're not bending over when you push.
~ When loading a pushchair or groceries in the car trunk, rest one foot on the bumper and keep the load close to your body.

Teresa has experience treating women during pregnancy and in labour, please ring to ask more about this.

Also available Cranial-Sacral Therapy which will be discussed in a future article.

Teresa can be contacted via the wellbeing clinic on 01672 513583

The Stigma of Mental Health

"Psychologies magazine recently ran an article about the stigma attached to mental health. Thanks to well-known figures like Stephen Fry and Ruby Wax who have shared some of their personal experiences of mental health and shown us that there are people and places supporting those with mental health disorders, we are beginning to move towards removing some of this stigma.

Rethink's Stigma Shout survey revealed that people experience most discrimination about their mental health problems from those close to them, family, employers, neighbours and friends. Rethink, Mind, Kings College London and Mental Health Media are running a project this year aiming to change our cultural perception of mental health and how we treat people who suffer from mental disorders, " to create concern for mental health and to challenge apathy and neglect" (MIND). Time to Change's Get Moving Week (3rd-11th October 2009) is the opportunity to run events nationwide to promote the benefits of exercise for mental health sufferers. Time to Change is the largest project yet aiming to end discrimination that people with mental health issues face in the UK.

We at the Clinic are fully supportive of these campaigns and complementing medical intervention we offer a valuable source of additional therapies. We have excellent resources available to help people deal with these issues in their daily lives. We have expereinced therapists who have been trained in mental health who can offer counselling, healing, and help with life choices to provide practical and emotional support to face challenges particular to mental health issues day to day. The Clinic has helped sufferers with bipolar disorder, post traumatic stress, clinical depression, anxiety, post natal depression, eating disorders, phobia and many other conditions, working with different types of therapy isuch as counselling, coaching, cognitive behavioural therapy, NLP, therapeutic massage. "

Useful links

www.mindapples.org
www.standtoreason.org.uk
www.bbc.co.uk/headroom/rubys
www.rethink.org
www.thelondonroadwellbeingclinic.co.uk

Acupuncture in Gaza

Gisela is a friend of, and used to work from the wellbeing clinic - if you feel able please support her endeavours.

Dear Friend,

I am going to the Gaza Strip to work voluntarily, as an acupuncturist, in the Occupied Territories for two weeks in October this year.

I will be part of a group of health practitioners, who are mostly acupuncturists, helping to treat citizens and refugees suffering from the physical and emotional effects of trauma and war. My aim is for this project to be ongoing and will include training the local medical teams so that they can continue our work.

I am raising money for a charity, World Medicine and I'd really appreciate your support.

Your donation would be greatly appreciated. Donations are needed to cover the cost of travel, lodgings, translators and equipment. It's easy to donate online by credit or debit card - just go to my Justgiving page

www.justgiving.com/Gisela-Norman

Justgiving sends your donation straight to World Medicine and automatically reclaims Gift Aid if you're a UK taxpayer, so your donation is worth even more.

For more information on the charity, do visit www.worldmedicine.org.uk

Please reply to me if you would like to receive our report of the Project on our return.

It would really help us greatly if you could forward this email to your contacts for a wider chance of raising the funds.

With very many thanks and best wishes.

Gisela

What is Chiropractic?

Chiropractic is a drugless and non-surgical form of health care that aims to treat causes rather than symptoms. The term 'chiropractic' literally translated means 'done by hand' and chiropractic restores health by adjustments of the spine and other joints of the body using the hand. The basic principle of chiropractic is that disturbances of the nervous system, resulting from subluxation of the bones of the spine and other parts of the body, are a primary or contributory factor in the pathological process of many common human and animal ailments.

There are many chiropractic approaches and techniques used around the world, often named after their originator. The McTimoney method of chiropractic is typified by a whole body assessment and swift, light force adjustments, which makes it a comfortable treatment to receive. The subtlety of the adjustment demands great sensitivity and mechanical skill, and once mastered the technique is extremely effective.

Chiropractors consider that the body benefits from having periodic chiropractic treatments on a preventative basis so that incipient problems may be avoided.

Many people wonder what the differences are between the various manipulative approaches. In general terms, physiotherapy works on the soft tissue between the vertebrae and other joints and does not usually involve spinal manipulation; osteopathy tends to apply long lever techniques if the spine is manipulated, whilst chiropractic applies short levers in a precise adjustment of the individual vertebrae. Soft tissue work and rehabilitation is often an integral part of the chiropractic treatment also.

Conditions Commonly Treated

Chiropractic has provided effective relief to millions of individuals suffering from back and neck ailments. Chiropractic has also provided relief from many other musculoskeletal complaints ranging from knee and ankle problems to carpal tunnel syndrome and tennis elbow. In fact, musculoskeletal pain or discomfort in any area of the spine or extremity is a candidate for safe, natural, non invasive chiropractic care. If a condition exists which is better suited for treatment by a medical specialist, chiropractors are fully trained to identify such conditions and make the appropriate referral. However, most patients suffering from musculoskeletal complaints can and are successfully treated with chiropractic every single day.

Common musculoskeletal conditions treated:

• low back pain and stiffness
• neck and upper back pain and stiffness
• mid back pain and stiffness
• headaches and migraines
• leg pain, weakness, numbness and tingling
• arm pain, weakness, numbness and tingling
• extremity joint pain and dysfunction
• carpal tunnel syndrome
• reduced degeneration and tissue injury risk
• enhanced tissue injury
• decreased tissue inflammation
• decreased stiffness

Common Injuries Treated

Chiropractors commonly treat all types of injuries and recognize the unique findings associated with each. For example, it's important to understand that auto injuries often involve a delayed onset of symptoms which commonly surface weeks and even months post-accident. In work injuries, chiropractors routinely look beyond the actual injury and address such things as work station setup, ergonomically correct equipment, and proper work techniques. For sports injuries, chiropractors often check for biomechanical and muscle imbalances as a routine part of the treatment plan. Treating the whole person and optimizing health is what chiropractic is all about

• car accident and whiplash injuries
• on-the-job and lifting injuries
• sports/athletic injuries
• slip and fall injuries
• chronic injuries

Non-Musculoskeletal Conditions Treated

In addition to musculoskeletal problems, chiropractic treatments have also been shown to benefit many individuals suffering from "medical" ailments such as chronic ear infections in children, menstrual pain and irregularities in women, and arthritis in the elderly. Although chiropractic care is not a specific form of treatment for such conditions, research has shown that many "medical" conditions can be caused or aggravated by irritation to spinal nerve roots which share an intimate relationship with the spinal structures. By restoring proper nerve functioning and by normalizing spinal structure and function, we believe some individuals suffering from these "medical" ailments may obtain partial and in some cases, full relief.

Non-musculoskeletal conditions which studies have shown may benefit from chiropractic:

• asthma
• attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
• dizziness and dysequilibrium
• dysmenorrhea
• infantile colic
• low energy levels
• otitis media (ear infection)
• ulcers
• sense of well being
• balance and coordination

Please note these are conditions seen commonly in clinic. Many are cured, many are improved, some require another approach depending on their individual histories which are thoroughly examined in the course of an assessment.

To those interested it is well worth exploring the vast amount of evidence based research gathered which supports the chiropractor’s everyday findings.

This is the first article in a mini-series written by Dr Teresa Mann, McTimoney Chiropractor at the wellbeing clinic, Marlborough, Wiltshire, SN8 1PH