Without a doubt, the coolest thing the human body can do is to grow another human. However, during those 40 weeks, the body goes through drastic and rapid changes from the inside out, altering everything from hormone production to physical mobility and appearance. And these changes aren’t just affecting Momma, they are affecting the baby too.
As Chiropractors who specialize in and focus on treating pregnant patients, we will support you every step along the way. Pregnancy can cause a multitude of different symptoms and complaints—things like low back pain, sciatica, muscle tension, and even carpal tunnel.
When you come in for care, we discuss your current symptoms and your goals and expectations for care. Goals often start with decreasing pain, but move towards having a smoother and easier delivery and a quicker recovery postpartum. We discuss things like birth plans and how previous history may impact your plan. We want to know if you’re aiming for a vaginal birth or if you are scheduled for a C-Section. Are you delivering at a hospital, wanting to do a home birth, or going to a birthing center? This information helps us find ways to support you on this exciting journey.
Chiropractic care is one of the best things you can do for your health during pregnancy. Yes, it will help decrease and mitigate pain, but it will also help your body accommodate these drastic and rapid changes. We want this to continue to be one of the most fun times of your life, not one of the most stressful or painful.
$99 New Patient Special
Includes consultation, exam, doctors report of findings, PosturePro analysis, and first adjustment.
How Our Care Plan Works
1. Better
No matter where you start, we can improve together. The first phase focuses on making progress in your current ailments. Typically, this means alleviating pain and helping you return to your daily activities as smoothly and quickly as possible.
2. Stronger
Now that you’ve made progress, how do we KEEP it? We’ve all experienced improvements, only to regress when our focus shifts. This phase empowers your body to sustain the hard-earned progress you’ve worked so diligently to achieve.
3. Healthier
True HEALTHcare! So often, we are only concerned with our sickness and dysfunction, seeking treatment only when we experience symptoms. This is SICKcare. During the healthier phase, we focus on your overall health and maintaining your well-being.
How We Treat Pregnant Moms In Fuquay-Varina, NC
Our goal is to focus on the health and wellness of future generations, starting with helping moms through their pregnancies. Together, we’ll keep you and your baby at optimal health.
Comprehensive Consultation and Exam
When a pregnant patient presents to our office, it starts just like every other new patient, with a complete intake including posture analysis, a full history, and a comprehensive examination. We want to make sure that we can help this patient meet their goals and that we are the right place for this patient.
On day one, one of the most important things is getting a complete history from the patient. We want to know things like how far along the pregnancy is, if there have been previous pregnancies, what sort of symptoms the patient is experiencing, and other pertinent information. All of this information will help us not only understand the patient’s symptoms but also make sure this patient feels completely heard. We work to make sure our patients feel heard, and we understand not only what they are feeling but also how they are feeling.
A challenge of examining a pregnant patient is the patient’s position. Depending upon how far along the pregnancy is, lying on your belly can be uncomfortable. Oftentimes in the office, we have patients lie face down on the table to examine their back. To accommodate the growing abdomen, we have a few specially made pillows that change in size and shape as mom progresses through pregnancy. These pillows make it more comfortable for Momma to lie face down on the table. The best thing we can do is meet you where you’re at, making sure you are comfortable and that we are helping you meet your current and future goals.
Specific Chiropractic Care in Fuquay-Varina, NC
When we analyze the spine, we are looking for subluxations. A subluxation is any change in a joint’s ability to move or function freely and fully as it is intended to. These subluxations can also be called segmental joint restrictions, misalignments, and other synonyms. When we find a subluxation in a patient’s spine, we know that it impacts not only that specific joint, but also all the tissues surrounding that area, specifically the nervous system. Subluxations interfere with healthy neurofeedback – the communication between your brain and body. Because of this, subluxations can create a variety of symptoms – tension in the muscles, creating muscle spasms, or even muscle weakness.
Chiropractors are neuromuscular specialists who spend much of their time locating and identifying subluxations. We use a multitude of treatments for low back pain (as you can see below), but the most powerful and effective are adjustments made to remove these subluxations.
This all holds true during pregnancy as well. Momma’s nervous system is working in overdrive while she is growing an entire human. It’s probably the most remarkable thing a human body can do. So we want to work extra hard during pregnancy to make sure your nervous system is functioning at its highest capacity.
Webster Technique
The Webster Technique is a form of chiropractic analysis for the pelvis primarily utilized for pregnant patients. It addresses the joints, muscles, and ligaments that are often changing as mommas progress through pregnancy. The Webster Technique is recognized not only among chiropractors but among all other providers who treat pregnant women and babies.
After graduating from chiropractic school, providers go back and take additional classes through the ICPA (International Chiropractic Pediatric Association) to get certified in the Webster Technique. Although all chiropractors can treat pregnant women, you are more likely to get the care you need from a doctor specifically trained to adjust pregnant women. Below we list the definition of the Webster Technique from the ICPA, where you can also find our office listed as a Webster Certified office.
“The Webster technique is a specific chiropractic analysis and diversified adjustment. The goal of the adjustment is to reduce the effects of subluxation and/or SI joint dysfunction. In doing so, neurobiomechanical function in the sacral/pelvic region is improved.”
Shockwave for Carpal Tunnel
A common condition during pregnancy is carpal tunnel syndrome. This condition is caused by increased fluid retention and swelling. The carpal tunnel is a tunnel within your wrist made by the small wrist bones on one side and the retinaculum (dense band of fascia) on the other. Inside the carpal tunnel are nine different tendons, the median nerve, and two arteries.
Symptoms arise when the tunnel gets too crowded and the median nerve gets compressed, usually creating tingling in the hand but sometimes pain and decreased motor function. Many things can make the tunnel too crowded. It can be caused by inflammation of the tendons, compression of the tunnel through the retinaculum, or, like in pregnancy, an increase in swelling in general. Although carpal tunnel is a potential side effect of pregnancy, we can still treat the wrist and forearms to try to decrease the symptoms.
The best way to treat this is with Shockwave Therapy. Shockwave helps decrease tension in the nine different tendons and speed up the inflammatory process, meaning your body will work to reduce the inflammation quicker. When mommas bring up carpal tunnel symptoms during pregnancy, they are often told they will just have to deal with it until they give birth, but in fact, this is something we can work to address and treat here in the office.
Custom Pregnancy Exercise Plan
One of the hardest parts about pregnancy and continuing to move well is knowing what’s safe to do and what to avoid. Especially postpartum. Most mommas want to get back to feeling like themselves ASAP, and a big part of that is figuring out how to return to activity properly.
As a movement-based office, we prioritize movement and exercise. We build this into every treatment plan we prescribe. We find ways to get momma moving, no matter how far into her pregnancy she is. After momma gives birth, we shift our priorities.
Oftentimes, mommas struggle with upper back tension and pain due to their time nursing and holding their newborn. They also may struggle with pelvic floor dysfunction. We discuss tactics and rehabilitation exercises to work through these symptoms. After creating a plan, we utilize ChiroUp to send a list of the exercises with descriptions and videos on how to perform the exercises. This gets shared both through our app and through email, so there are plenty of ways to get the information. We help empower mommas to be the best version of themselves they can be.
Common Causes of Pregnancy Pain in Fuquay-Varina, NC
Low Back Pain
Low back pain is the most common reason patients go to the chiropractor. And that’s not even during pregnancy. So it makes sense that so many pregnant patients would struggle with low back pain. The good news is that chiropractors are great at treating low back pain when patients are not pregnant, and with a little bit of extra training, they are great at treating low back pain in pregnant patients as well.
We can explain many of the symptoms of pregnancy-related low back pain from a biomechanical perspective. As the baby grows, it becomes harder and harder to create intra-abdominal pressure, which is the technical term for core stability. With a lack of core stability, the lower back is more susceptible to injury. On top of this, most mothers also experience an anterior pelvic tilt. This anterior pelvic tilt is caused by hypertonic, or tight hip flexors and low back muscles, as well as hypotonic or weak core muscles and glutes. This tilt once again puts the lower back in a compromising position. Add these biomechanical changes to the hormonal changes that happen quickly during pregnancy, and pregnant mommas have an uphill battle.
To treat these complaints, we focus primarily on biomechanical and movement patterns, working to address what’s going on at the moment and prepare them for the rest of the pregnancy and delivery. The Webster technique is our primary adjustment technique, but we also mix in other modalities, like rehabilitation exercises, to provide as much help for each momma as possible.
Pelvic Pain
The pelvis undergoes drastic biomechanical changes during pregnancy, which makes pelvic pain very common. Your pelvis has to go from normal activities of daily living to being prepared for the childbirth process. Most moms have heard of relaxin, the hormone that aids in the birthing process by helping the muscles, ligaments, and tendons relax and stretch more. This is a significant component of pelvic pain. As mommas progress through pregnancy, the relaxin increases, which means there is more instability in the pelvis itself.
The pelvis has three joints: the two Sacroiliac Joints on the back side and the Pubic Symphysis on the front side. Dysfunction within any one of these joints can create pain that will often increase if left untreated.
Symphysis Pubis Disorder (SPD)
Symphysis Pubis Disorder occurs in about 85% of pregnancies. The Symphysis Pubis is one of three joints within the pelvis. It is on the front side of the pelvis and is one of the few joints outside the spine that has a disc. This area has very little motion throughout everyday movements, but when pregnant, it may have decreased stability and therefore become a point of pain.
Treating Symphysis Pubis Disorder has several components. The primary treatment involves adjusting the pelvis and surrounding subluxations. The next step is to add some soft tissue work. This will be focused on the pelvis but may also include work on the adductors. The third step is to work on increasing the stability in the glutes and deep glute muscles.
Round Ligament Pain
The round ligaments are two of the four ligaments that tether the uterus to the pelvis. On the back side of the uterus, there are the uterosacral ligaments, which attach the uterus to the sacrum. On the front side of the uterus, there are the round ligaments, which attach the uterus to the front side of the pelvis. All four of these ligaments are crucial for helping the uterus grow and move appropriately as the pregnancy progresses.
We often use the analogy of a hot air balloon. Imagine the uterus is a hot air balloon, and the ropes that hold the basket to the hot air balloon are the ligaments that attach the uterus to the pelvis. If there is tension in any one of those ropes, there will be tension and torsion in the balloon. Same in the uterus, if there is too much tension in any one of those ligaments, there will be tension on the uterus, not allowing the baby to move in the uterus appropriately.
The Round Ligament gets discussed more than the uterosacral ligaments because it is very common for women to experience round ligament pain during pregnancy. This pain is common when there is too much tension on the round ligament. When treating round ligament pain, we first start by addressing the subluxations within the pelvis. Then we do some soft tissue work on the round ligament itself. It is located on the lower front part of the belly, between the hip and the belly button. After we address the ligament tension, we discuss techniques for continuing to treat it at home. Although round ligament pain is extremely common, it can be simple to treat.
Breech Baby
Telling a momma she has a breech baby can often create stress and can change her birth plans. A breech baby refers to the position of the baby in the uterus.
When the baby is born, the head will be the first thing to exit, meaning “head down” and pointed towards Mom’s feet. This usually happens between weeks 30 and 34. Up until that point, the baby will move around in multiple different positions.
A breech baby is when the baby is still head up, feet down. Most OBGYNs will only allow a momma to vaginally deliver the baby if it is head down. Meaning a breech position baby could ruin many mommas’ birth plans, forcing her to have a C-Section.
For many years, the Webster Technique was known as a “baby-turning technique.” We have since updated what the Webster Technique actually does, and as chiropractors, we don’t “turn babies.” When seeing a Webster-certified chiropractor, the chiropractor is treating momma and only momma. We adjust subluxations in the pelvis, decreasing both muscle and ligament tension.
In some cases, the baby may be breech due to excessive tension within the uterus. As we discussed with Round Ligament Pain, when there is tension in the Round Ligament or Uterosacral Ligament, this can create tension in the uterus, not allowing the baby to move the way they should.
As chiropractors, we will address that ligament tension specifically. Often, when that tension is removed and proper biomechanics restored to the pelvis and abdomen, the baby is free to move on its own in the way that it needs to.
Sciatica
Sciatica is extremely common in the pregnant population. The sciatic nerve is a nerve that originates in the lumbar and pelvic spine and then runs down the back of the leg to the feet. Sciatica is just inflammation of the sciatic nerve. This is extremely common due to the change in biomechanics of growing a human, and from the hormonal changes of pregnancy, which increase fluid retention.
As chiropractors, we will focus on addressing the biomechanical changes within the spine and pelvis. We have fantastic success with sciatica in the non-pregnant population, and with a few extra classes and training, we have outstanding success with pregnant patients as well. By restoring proper motion to the lower back, we can decrease the likelihood of sciatica making your pregnancy harder than it needs to be.
Check Out Our Location Near You
609 Attain St #141, Fuquay-Varina, NC 27526
Frequently Asked Questions
Is chiropractic safe during pregnancy?
Chiropractic is safe, even during pregnancy. In fact, many OBGYNs suggest Webster Certified chiropractors during their pregnancy.
When should you start seeing a chiropractor during pregnancy?
The sooner the better. Your body changes drastically and quickly throughout pregnancy. Having consistent chiropractic care throughout pregnancy will help your body adapt as rapidly and efficiently as possible.
Can chiropractic adjustments cause miscarriage?
No. No research or evidence shows chiropractic can contribute to or cause a miscarriage. It is entirely safe.
Can you go to the chiropractor in the first trimester?
Yes! The sooner you start treatment, the better results you can see.
Is it normal to have lower back pain in early pregnancy?
It is common to have low back pain during any stage of pregnancy, but just because it’s common doesn’t mean it’s normal. This shouldn’t be something so many women struggle with. Chiropractic care early in pregnancy can help diminish and eliminate low back pain during pregnancy.
How do you relieve lower back pain during pregnancy?
The primary tool for relieving low back pain during pregnancy is chiropractic adjustment, specifically the Webster technique. Depending on the case, other modalities and exercises may be used to supplement chiropractic adjustment.
When does low back pain start in pregnancy?
Low back pain can present at any point during pregnancy. The earlier it starts, the more common it is to progress during the pregnancy. A patient who starts with low back pain during the first trimester will often have significantly more pain during the third trimester if left untreated.
How do you relieve pelvic pain during pregnancy?
When trying to relieve pelvic pain during pregnancy, it is crucial to rebalance the pelvis’s biomechanical movement. This is exactly what we are doing during a Webster technique. Allowing the pelvis to move properly will decrease the tension causing most pelvic pain.
Is it normal for your pelvis to hurt during pregnancy?
Just because it may be common doesn’t mean that it is normal. If you are experiencing pelvic pain during pregnancy, it is advised to consult your OBGYN and your Chiropractor as soon as possible to treat it appropriately.
Who is the best chiropractor for pregnancy in Fuquay-Varina, NC?
Pinecrest Chiropractic is the only Webster-certified office in Fuquay-Varina, NC. Although any chiropractor can treat pregnant women, getting certified in the Webster technique shows that our office is dedicated to being the best office we can be, helping both mommas and babies be the best they can be.
Top Prenatal Chiropractor in Fuquay-Varina, NC
If you’re pregnant and experiencing any pain or discomfort, contact our clinic today to schedule a prenatal chiropractic care appointment. We’d be honored to help you through your pregnancy and postpartum so you can minimize the impact on your body and stay on the path to optimal health.
Contact us today to book your appointment!
$99 New Patient Special
Includes consultation, exam, doctors report of findings, PosturePro analysis, and first adjustment.
