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“Research is revealing that chiropractic care can play a crucial role during pregnancy, labor and delivery” stated Dr. Matthew McCoy, a chiropractor, public health researcher and editor of the journal that published 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. McCoy.
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. McCoy. “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 obstruction 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. McCoy adding “While this is a single case study, coupled with numerous other case studies and some larger clinical studies that have shown similar outcomes, it’s time that health care providers started taking it seriously.”
The patient reported on in the study was a 38-year-old female in her 30th week of gestation with twins in a footling breech presentation. According to the patient, she received no previous chiropractic care and experienced three previous singleton pregnancies without complication.
The chiropractor examined the woman and found anterior head carriage, abnormal posture and structural shifts in her low back and pelvis. These structural shifts can lead to obstruction of the nerves and it is this obstruction, called vertebral subluxations, that chiropractors correct.
The patient was adjusted to reduce the vertebral subluxations over a period of 11 days consisting of five patient visits. Both fetuses turned from the footling breech position to a normal position, facilitating a successful vaginal birth without the use of medications.
These results along with previous research suggest a possible link between breech presentations and spinal subluxations. Correcting the subluxations through the use of specific chiropractic adjustments appears to facilitate correction of the abnormal positioning.
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
