Chiropractic Plays an Important Role in Pregnancy

Recent research reported in the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health – Chiropractic on a pregnant woman reveals that chiropractic may play an important role in helping pregnant women deliver normally.

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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. 

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 structural 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 30-year-old woman in this case was 39 weeks pregnant.  She was having discomfort and the fetus was in the breech position.  Her doctor offered to turn the baby using external cephalic version, but she declined after learning the risks.  

The chiropractor examined her and found spinal structural shifts in her pelvis and sacrum.  She also had tender points along her round ligament.  These structural shifts can lead to obstruction of the nerves and it is this obstruction, called vertebral subluxations, that chiropractors correct. 

Following chiropractic care she experienced a lot of movement in her belly and an ultrasound confirmed the baby was no longer in the breech position.  She avoided a cesarean section and gave birth vaginally with no complications. 

The study’s author called for additional research to investigate the clinical implications of chiropractic in this population.

Contact Information: 

Matthew McCoy DC, MPH
Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health – Chiropractic
http://www.chiropracticpediatricresearch.com
support@vertebralsubluxationresearch.com