You’ve probably already heard a few times now that Osteopathy could help during your pregnancy. But do you know why? and do you really know what your Osteopathic Practitioner can do for you and your pregnancy?
The purpose of this article is not to talk in details about specific issues due to pregnancy, of course we’ll see some examples along the way but it’s more about how your Osteopathic Practitioner can accompany you along this beautiful journey. How they can help you live this amazing experience of life in the best condition and make it as easy as possible for you and your body from the very beginning until the end, and even after.
So if you’re ready and interested…let’s jump right into the topic!
At the very beginning…
Being pregnant is not just about carrying a child in your belly. It’s a lot more than that. It starts a long time before mommy’s seed is fertilized by daddy’s. It really starts when you’re beginning to think about it, when you’re getting your mind ready for the idea of having a child, creating that amazing little Being who will be the most important part of your life. That is really the first step of the journey and here, you can already encounter some obstacles you will have to overcome. But don’t worry, you’re not alone, a lot of therapists and practitioners are here to help you, to assist you, and amongst them your Osteopathic Practitioner.
Fertility
Wanting to have a baby doesn’t necessarily mean being able to do it, or at least not right away. Unfortunately, some people may have fertility issues and difficulties to procreate. But it’s not the end of the journey…there can be a lot of different causes of why you can’t have a child and in some cases options to address them or to help you. Osteopathy may be one of them depending on the cause of your infertility. And because sometimes all your body needs is someone to give him/her a hand (puns intended), that’s when your Osteopathic Practitioner can assist you. For instance, our assistance may help balance your nervous system and regulate your hormones, it may address musculoskeletal and/or visceral issues (like an ante versed uterus or a constrained ovary), which could prevent you from having a baby. At each step of the procreation process there can be a variety of reasons why things may not goes as planned, and Osteopathy may help with a lot of them. If you want to know more about Osteopathy and infertility, read this really interesting article Jen wrote a few months ago on that topic:
“It’s going to be okay in the end. If it’s not ok, it’s not the end” – by Jen Hanson
Prepare your body
Your mind is not the only one who needs to get ready, your body does too. I mean, if you think about what is coming, the journey ahead will be pretty tough on it, don’t you think? So anything we can do to help him prepare is good.
As we heard above, your Osteopathic Practitioner can ensure that the fewer things as possible are interfering with the procreation process, but we also may have to look further than that. It’s not just about preventing what could interfere, it’s also about what will come next, the positive things: you get pregnant and so your body will have to change, to adapt, physiologically and anatomically…your hormones, organs, pelvis – everything. So let’s make it as efficient as possible in prevision of all the changes which will occur. For instance, your Osteopathic Practitioner can work to improve the mobility and alignment of the bones of your pelvis which will have to support a lot of tension, pressure, changes in the months to come. But so do your organs, or nervous system… in fact, your whole body has to be prepared for the process coming.
And now we wait…
Congratulations! You’re pregnant! and noooow…we wait. Well, that’s not quite true. Now is the time of all the changes: your body will make the adaptations it needs in order to be able to bear and carry this new little Human who will be growing in it. To provide him/her with protection, support, comfort, until he/she is ready to go out and see the World guided by you. Even though these changes are more or less progressive, the impact on your body is huge and can result in discomfort and even pain.
As much as you already love your child and willing to endure whatever it takes for him/her, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t mind if the pregnancy could be the most comfortable possible for you too – it just seems fair, right? And it’s a win-win, less pain and more comfort for you means a more peaceful and stress-less pregnancy for your little one.
One important thing though, the first 3 months of your pregnancy is just about you: your body will do its own things to settle, the embryo will fix into your uterus, a lot of critical stuff will be happening during this time and your body doesn’t need us to interfere with that. It needs that time on its own (well, not really on its own don’t worry, I’m talking about Osteopathy, you still have your doctors and medical support with you) and only then we may help and deal with the consequences of these adaptations.
A support for your body
As we’ve seen earlier, there will be a lot of changes in your body, these are necessary adaptations but it can affect the way your body is functioning, creating torsions, tensions, and reducing some range of motion. Due to the hormones influence, your ligaments will become a lot more flexible. In fact, you won’t be as flexible as that again (unless for an other pregnancy of course), which is logical as your pelvis will have to be able to stretch a lot more than usual for the delivery, so it’s a good thing, right? But the downside is that your ligaments won’t be able to perform as efficiently their role of support and guard for the joint, making the bones more prompt to misalign.
So why is your Osteopathic Practitioner a good ally to have in all of that? Well, let’s take a couple of examples: lower back pain and sciatica are pretty common with pregnant women, and completely understandable why that would happen. As we’ve seen, your pelvis will become very flexible with a lot less support from its ligaments, making it more susceptible to misalign and go into torsion. This is especially true with the uneven pressure coming from the organs and the baby, all the twisting efforts you may do during your day, or even some adaptations coming from the legs it may have to compensate for. With your pelvis in torsion, the muscles of your lower back will unevenly tense up to try to compensate and hold it so it won’t go too far. Your Lumbar vertebrae will rotate for the same purpose. If you add to that the pressure from the uterus and the baby pulling on the lumbar area, it’s normal that something that could have been bothering anyone becomes pretty uncomfortable and painful for you in these conditions.
The same thing is happening with your sciatic nerve: when the pelvis goes into a torsion, it creates tension in some muscles that are in close proximity to the sciatic nerve, and in some cases one it may passes through, hence its compression and stimulation leading to this irritating nerve pain we all know too well. Your Osteopathic Practitioner can give you some relief with that by addressing the compensations, the misalignments, working on the muscles, the fascia. And not just on the pelvis, that was just an example, but it’s the same in the whole body.
Delivery is on its way
Giving support to your body, relieving your pain and bringing you some comfort is important, but that’s not all. You won’t stay pregnant forever, and at some point you will have to deliver that amazing baby of yours. To that end, Osteopathy could help too. How? By making sure your pelvis is aligned and the bones can move properly with no restriction, especially in the movements they will have to perform during the delivery: the Sacrum (the tail bone), needs to be able to move around its horizontal axis, while the iliacs need to be able to open both their upper (crests) and lower (ischions, where the hamstrings are attaching) parts. Indeed, during the delivery your pelvis will do a lot of movements to allow the passage of your baby, and especially his head and shoulders.
First, the sacrum will become more vertical, its top will move backward and up while the coccyx will move forward and down. In the same time, the iliac crests will spread while the ischions will pull together. This will enlarge the upper outlet of your pelvis allowing your baby to engage his head and shoulders. Once it’s done, the pelvis will do the opposite: the sacrum’s top will move forward and down as the coccyx will go back and up, while the iliac crests pull together and the ischions spread from each other. That’s also when the pubic symphysis spreads too. This will enlarge the lower outlet of the pelvis so the baby can go through. So working on it before all of that and addressing anything that could prevent your pelvis from moving freely could be a good way to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible, considering the task.
The end of the journey?
Alright, take a break now, you deserve it, you’ve done a great job! What an amazing little Human Being you’ve brought to this Earth, what a wonderful gift, thank you! Hopefully he/she will be grateful for it, but maybe don’t hold your breath on that… at least you will know what you’ve done for him/her 🙂
It’s time to rebuild
But is this the end? Really?… No. Let’s be honest, your body has been through a lot. Your pelvis is more likely to be out of alignment after the baby made his/her way through, your organs have been crunched for months, your diaphragm pushed, your rib cage as well, your lumbar vertebrae pulled forward by the weight of the baby, the balance of pressure between your abdomen and thorax is certainly pretty poor, your hormonal and nervous systems are probably not at their best either, and it keeps going. So now you will have to rehabilitate your body, rebuild it. And your Osteopathic Practitioner can assist you with that. They will work on the alignment of your whole body, balancing your different systems, helping them work together, releasing the tensions, working on your organs, your breath… Osteopathy can be a good complement to the other therapies and may potentiate their rehabilitation work.
Osteopathy considers a person as a whole, body and mind. For some women, it can also be pretty tough on their mind, and some studies tend to show that Osteopathy may participate in improving postpartum depression conditions. Jen wrote an other great article on that topic:
“The Hidden illness of Postpartum Depression” – by Jen Hanson
What about C-sections? Well, even if your baby didn’t go through your pelvis, your body still had to endure the pregnancy and its consequences, plus a surgery, so yes, it could definitely use some attention here too. Osteopathy may help with post-surgery care and scar treatment (whether they are painful or not). Some women can experience numbness after a C-section, and sometimes this could be addressed with work on scar tissues, on fascia tensions for example.
And for your little one?
The delivery was a team effort, and you can be sure it was really tough on your baby too! And even during the pregnancy, while in the warmth and comfort of mommy’s uterus, your baby was still impacted by the tensions, the pressures, the emotions, the outside world. So when your baby comes out, even if they brand new, he/she is not free from all of this tensions which could have consequences later on mobility, behaviour, sleep and even the way he/she feeds…Osteopathy can help address these, but this is the subject of an article by itself. You can find a lot of useful information in this great article about Osteopathy, newborns and GERD written by Anouk:
“Are Happy Spitters really happy?” – by Anouk Sanchez
Pregnancy is a wonderful journey. It’s different for everyone. Some women will have it very easy, while it can be pretty tough for others, but in the end it is definitely worth it. I know it could sound pretty scary with everything your body (and your mind) will have to go through, but keep in mind that your body has been made capable of such a thing, it comes with the tools to be able to do such a feat. Because it really is a feat when you think about it, and for that you deserve all the respect in the World. And remember, you’re not alone, there is a lot of people out there to help you, assist you, be there for you when you need. And as Osteopathic Practitioners we can participate in relieving some of your pain, bringing you some comfort, trying to make it happen as smoothly as possible. That’s why osteopathy and pregnancy are such a great match, we are here to accompany and support you all along that experience from the very beginning until the end.
See? You survived after all, and now you can embrace this whole new journey which is in front of you: Parenthood… Lucky you! 😉