New Research on Chiropractic and Vaginal Births After Caesarean

Recent research reported in the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health – Chiropractic on a woman experiencing a vaginal delivery after three previous Caesareans reveals that chiropractic may play an important role in helping pregnant women deliver normally in such situations. The research discussed a case of a woman 28 weeks pregnant with her fourth child who wanted to deliver vaginally after three previous Caesareans. The woman was also experiencing spinal pain. 

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“Research is revealing that chiropractic care can play a crucial role during pregnancy, labor and delivery” stated Dr. Pamela Stone, the lead author of the study. “The research showing that chiropractic can result in these types of outcomes thereby avoiding dangerous interventional techniques such as C-sections is growing” added Dr. Stone. 

Despite widespread education and efforts to curb dangerous birthing interventions such as caesarean sections, their use remains high and concerns amongst health care advocates is growing. The concern centers around the use of high risk interventions for “convenience” of the doctor or mother without taking into consideration the long term effects of a traumatic birth on the child.

“It makes a lot of sense when you think about it” stated Dr. Matthew McCoy, a chiropractor, public health researcher and editor of the journal that published the study “We see this shocking increase in the number of interventional procedures during birth when there are alternatives such as the use of chiropractic to allow the mother and child to have a normal birth. We need to take advantage of these advances.”

As pointed out in the paper, chiropractic can play a beneficial role during pregnancy and the birth process in cases where the mother is experiencing some type of distortion or twisting of her pelvis and related musculature that is interfering with the baby’s position or the delivery process.

“The goal is for the mother to be checked prior to the time of delivery so that these problems can be corrected beforehand” remarked Dr. Stone adding “While this is only a single case study, coupled with numerous other case studies that have shown similar outcomes, it’s time that health care providers started taking it seriously.”

Spinal and pelvic distortions, termed subluxations by chiropractors, result in structural and neurological interference to the spine and nerve system. It is this interference that may interfere with the birth process and chiropractors correct or reduce this interference.

The patient reported on in the study was a 39-year-old mother referred to the chiropractic office by her doula. She had a history of three caesarean sections and presented to the clinic when she was 28-weeks pregnant with her fourth child. She had a desire to have a vaginal birth. She presented to the clinic with hip, low back and mid back pain, headaches and numbness in her hands. She had a history of trauma including a car accident and falling down some stairs.

For her three previous births her doctors pressured her to have Caesareans. With her fourth birth, the patient was determined to have a vaginal birth so she switched doctors and found a maternal specialist willing to deliver a baby vaginally after three Caesarean sections.

The patient was examined and found to have subluxations in her neck, mid back and pelvis. Chiropractic care was initiated and after 14 visits the patient reported improvement in her pain complaints and gave birth vaginally after 12 hours of labor.

The authors of the study call for more research on the role of chiropractic care in pregnancy and delivery.

Contact Information:

Matthew McCoy DC, MPH

Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health – Chiropractic

http://www.chiropracticpediatricresearch.net