By Zane Josie
Pregnancy and parenthood cause profound physical, emotional, psychological, and social changes in women. It’s critical that you feel supported during this period of change. Some doctors are dedicated to providing education and pregnancy osteo services in Melbourne during the early stages of parenting to ensure that you and your baby are physically and emotionally well.
Treatments are designed to assist you in maintaining body balance, reducing physical stress throughout pregnancy, and promoting a healthy, joyful postpartum recovery. The production of feel-good hormones that affect the growing baby and boost growth in a stress-free and emotionally nourishing environment may be aided by maternal sensations of relaxation and wellbeing!
What role does Osteopathy play in pregnancy and childbirth?
Pregnancy and childbirth bring with them a slew of changes. The ones that have an impact on your body arrive swiftly. Your body may struggle to adjust to the change at times. Osteopathy assists in identifying changes and assisting the body in adapting to such demands. There are strategies to assist the body to adapt even better, whether it’s the effects of bearing an ever-increasing burden on your lower back, hips, and feet or nursing a kid after birth.
The fewer surprises you have during your pregnancy, the better. The treatment provided by an osteopathic physician is gentle and delicate, and it can help with a lot of the changes and side effects that come with pregnancy. Some of these may be familiar to you:
- A posture with a wider stance may impact the hip muscles.
- As the baby grows, it may require more space and push upwards, causing shallow breathing.
- If there have been previous injuries, the adjustments listed above may aggravate them.
- Increased leg load combined with flattening of the arches in the foot might cause fatigue.
- Putting more weight on your lower back while swaying might tighten the muscles in your lower back.
Gentle pressure point massage and gentle rocking and movement techniques are used to assist the body cope with these changes. There will come a moment when you won’t be able to lie on your back any longer. In that scenario, there are a variety of alternative postures that can help you feel more at ease.
Pregnancy musculoskeletal changes
Pregnancy causes significant musculoskeletal changes in your body. These alterations affect your biomechanics, put a strain on your joints, and can cause muscular tension and pain for a long time. We can increase mobility, aid release restrictions, prescribe corrective exercises to support regions of hypermobility, improve tissue texture, and reduce discomfort with osteopathic treatments.
Health and well-being during pregnancy
As your pregnancy progresses, your posture, gait, and functional mobility alter, resulting in losing balance when walking. Expert osteopaths can provide soft-tissue massages, stretching, and delicate balancing treatments to reduce the risk of falling and increase comfort. All of these therapies seek to restore balance and flexibility throughout your body, allowing you to better adjust to the weight and biomechanical changes.
Is Osteopathy Safe for Women Who Are Pregnant?
Although osteopathic care is widely accepted as an appropriate form of manual therapy during pregnancy, it is recommended that you consult your general practitioner or obstetrician first if you are in the ‘high-risk’ group. To ensure that osteopathy is an appropriate kind of care for you, our osteopaths will spend time learning about your current pregnancy, obstetric and gynaecological history, as well as your general health profile.
