Why You Should See a Chiropractor After Giving Birth

I want to start this blog article out with a bit of a disclaimer.  I am a male chiropractor, so far be it for me to render judgement on the experience each mother goes through while giving birth.  But I can provide the following data based on my experience as a chiropractor of many years and as a dad watching my wife give birth to our daughter.  So, here it goes.

Giving birth is an extreme physical activity. And recovery from the delivery can be a bit of a problem. And for many women, postnatal recovery is more difficult than they anticipated. That’s because childbirth can result in conditions like: 

• Damaged or weakened pelvic floor muscles
• Misaligned spine and sacro-iliac joints
• Torn tissues, muscles, or ligaments

These conditions can be painful and make your postnatal recovery much more difficult than it needs to be. In this post, I’ll explain how chiropractic care can help relieve these painful conditions and allow your body to heal faster after childbirth. 

What Is Chiropractic Care?

Chiropractic care focuses on the musculoskeletal and nervous system. Think of your nervous system like a super highway. All the cars driving on the super highway represent the nerve messages being carried between the various parts of your body and your brain. When any part of your body is out of alignment pinching a nerve, it’s like a traffic jam on that super highway.  The communication throughout your body will be jammed where the nerves are pinched–Ouch!–at the expense of the rest of your body’s functions. 

What I do is use my hands to adjust your spine and other joints to put them back into proper alignment. This gets rid of the ‘traffic jams’ that are causing your pain or discomfort. By doing adjustments, your nervous system is better able to function and handle your body as a whole. Instead of focusing just on the affected area–the traffic jam–it can focus on the areas that the nerve messages are supposed to go to.  That’s how you can heal faster from injuries and experience less pain with chiropractic adjustments. 

How Can Chiropractic Care Help Relieve the Effects of Childbirth?

Chiropractic care is an excellent way to recover from childbirth faster and with less pain. This is because spinal and other adjustments will improve the flow of energy through your central nervous system. This makes it easier for your nervous system to handle your body more broadly without reducing function in any other areas. 

When you see a chiropractor after giving birth, we can help you recover by: 

• Restoring alignment to the spine and joints
• Improving nerve function
• Reducing inflammation
• Relieving muscle tension 
• Relieving aches and pains

This will enable your body to heal faster and with less pain. If you’re interested in a smooth postnatal recovery, I would highly recommend you get a chiropractic adjustment to correct any misalignment and pinched nerves that occurred due to the physical exertion of giving birth. 

When Can Women Start Getting Chiropractic Adjustments After Childbirth?

I generally recommend that women who’ve had uncomplicated deliveries start getting chiropractic adjustments about a week after giving birth. That is a good amount of time to allow your body to rest and start healing before we work to gently move your spine and other joints back into proper alignment. And by uncomplicated, I mean a natural child birth without the need for surgery or any serious emergency measures. 

For women who’ve had C-sections, you should wait about six weeks after your surgery to start getting chiropractic care. This is because your body needs more time to start healing from the surgery, so I would not do lower back/sacro-iliac adjustments until it had been at least six weeks post C-section. However, if you’ve had C-section, you can come in sooner than six weeks for a neck adjustment. This will provide some relief and assist your recovery without aggravating your surgical site.

Visit Mattingly Chiropractic for Postnatal Recovery

If you’re a new mother, I hope this post has given you some valuable information about how chiropractic care can help you recover from childbirth. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact my office. I’d be more than happy to answer them. And if you’re interested in speeding up your postnatal recovery, schedule an appointment for an adjustment. I’ll also provide Pressure Point Therapy, which is a fantastic and simple way to relieve pain from specific nerves in your body and help you relax. 

Call us at (314) 310-8359 to schedule your appointment today.