In a time where our culture seems to embrace the organic and natural way, it is disturbing to see the percentage of non-natural births increase every year in the United States.  This is not meant to make someone feel bad if you needed an intervention like a c section, but the WHO (World Health Organization) states that about 8% of all births will need a c-section.  Currently in the United State, and many other countries, that number is approaching 40%!!   The use of Epidurals is currently at 90%!!!

One of the first reasons that interventions are used so commonly, is that the mother’s body is not prepared for birth.  Imagine signing up to run a marathon, but not training for it.  Just show up at race day totally unprepared with hours of training skipped.  Now imagine how you might do in that race.  Birth is no different.

The body is perfectly designed to give birth without the use of obstetric interventions if the body is in proper alignment and the muscles are prepared for game day…the birth!

I’m not suggesting you need to have a home birth…those are great, but you can just as easily have a healthy, natural birth at a hospital, you just need to be trained, so you don’t get roped into common (not normal) procedures that you most likely don’t need.  My wife is a physician at Mt. Sinai’s E.R., and we decided to have all of our births at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.  Since we had the proper training which involved not only specific chiropractic care to make sure the pelvis and spine were in alignment, but the Webster technique to avoid breech presentation, prenatal yoga at BLOOM, (if you are looking for a great yoga place and you are new to yoga or prego…check out BLOOM or Om on the Range!)  We also took a 12-week course called the Bradley method, of which my wife is now an official instructor in Chicago.  Go to www.bradleybirth.org and click on your city, to see local instructors.  You don’t have to be someone who wants a natural birth, its just smart to be aware of everything from scary medical nomenclature, to how to get Dad or your partner more involved, to how much protein you should be eating…check out Brewers diet!  Anyway, when you put all that time from reading, exercising, trips to the chiropractor for an adjustment, Bradley classes, yoga, specific foods, etc….you could say we probably had 5 to 6 hours a week of training and education for the entire pregnancy!  That’s over 200 hours of

preparation…intentional preparation.  When you put 200 hours of work into anything, its probably going to work out pretty darn good.  So back to my marathon example….sometime in the hospital, and this literally happened to us on our 1st birth…the nurse walked into the room with the epidural tray and set up, of which we pointed out to our birthing plan…we don’t want or need an epidural…check out our video on how epidurals cause long-term side effects….back to the story…Anyway, the nurse then looked at us and said sarcastically…good luck, followed by “you know you don’t get a medal for that?”….I’m pretty sure that is a line taught at an epidural seminar or conference because I’ve heard that 100 times from my patients who said the same thing happened to them.  In the end, you would never tell someone training for a marathon, Why go through all that pain and training?  for what a medal?  that would be very offensive to say that….but for some reason, we don’t appreciate or respect enough as a culture arguably one of the most important events in your life to train for…..giving birth….which should be a miraculous healthy experience for so many emotional and health-related reasons.

One of the most important reasons for keeping the body in alignment is obviously for comfort.  You hear so many women say or expect their pregnancy to be so painful, either from what other people say or from a prior birth experience.  While their will obviously be some bodily changes that may not be easy, that doesn’t mean it needs to be painful.  So whether you are someone that could care less about natural birth or a true crunchy momma that wants all that good stuff, one of the best reasons to get adjusted throughout pregnancy is just simply to feel better.  You won’t have as much low back pain or neck pain, you will sleep better, and you will breathe better in the 3rd trimester.

The second most important reason is to avoid a breech presentation.  Our doctors are skilled and trained in the Webster technique…link to our website too here….which reduces all of the tightness on the round ligament, allowing the uterus to sit neutral.  It is best to have this done  (only takes 4 to 5 minutes and is painless)….4 times a month or once a week.  Many people get confused and think it is a baby turning technique, and although it helps with that and we are great at helping babies turn if they are breech, it is much better to be proactive and avoid the breech presentation in the 1st place.  The technique is 85% effective, which begs the question of how more people have not heard of chiropractic’s Webster technique… a simply amazing tool!

There are so many more great effects of chiropractic adjustment during pregnancy, but another one I love is that mothers are more likely to get their babies to latch for breastfeeding if they have a comfortable, as intervention free possibly birth.  Getting a baby to latch is of utmost importance to get that natural immunity kicking in.  For those of you that have had a c-section on a previous birth, we are excellent at helping our mothers achieve a VBAC, which means vaginal birth after ceserian….and finally, I’m sure all of you have heard of the potential postpartum depression issue.  The reason why this is so common in c section cases is due to poor oxytocin (natural milk let down hormone) release.  Once the vaginal open hits about 70% wide or crowing, this triggers the release of this hormone, but if a cesarian, then this is skipped and then the body will also not trigger the endorphin release of dopamine and serotonin, or at least not at those levels that should have happened.

This also sets your baby up for success and off the medical treadmill for colic, constipation, ear infections, etc….its all connected, so let’s get you feeling great and have that start to life be as miraculous as you are designed to be!