“Relax.”
“Just breathe.”
Easier said than done, right? It can be hard. Women are pulled in a thousand different directions in a day. As a pregnant woman, your body is changing physically and hormonally at a such a significant rate on top of the daily stressors of life. Additionally, you may be worried about your labor and delivery, bringing home baby, and the new experience of motherhood.
Many expecting moms seek out a Webster-certified chiropractor because they know (or have heard) that this chiropractic technique can ease tension, relieve sciatica and balance the pelvis, maximizing space for the baby.
But did you know that chiropractic care during pregnancy can also help moms adapt to daily stress?
Chiropractic focuses on the relationship between the body’s structure—mainly the spine—and the global functioning of the nervous system. The nervous system includes the brain, spinal cord, and the network of nerves that travel to every organ, tissue, and gland in the body. One component of the nervous system is the autonomic functioning. The autonomic nervous system works similarly to a cell phone. Have you ever been on a road trip when you’re in what seems like the middle-of-nowhere and suddenly you don’t have 5 bars anymore? Google Maps isn’t telling you where to go or maybe you can’t look up a place to stop for food. In that moment, you are relying on your cell phone to function so your life can function.
In your body, the nervous system is doing the exact same thing as your cell phone;
it’s connecting all the pieces so that communication can happen between the brain and body (i.e. so that you can have 5 bars). The autonomic nervous system coordinates the body’s response to stress and maintains a balance between the “fight or flight” response and the “rest and digest” response.
To really understand this, let’s go back in time a few thousand years ago. You are an evolutionary cave woman that is pregnant. All of a sudden, a saber tooth tiger jumps out at you. Your body is going to launch into a state of “flight or fight.” Would you want to have your baby that moment when the tiger may attack? Or would you be safe, run to your cave and protect yourself away from the tiger? Personally, I would choose the cave as opposed to the field where there may be a tiger. Obviously, today you don’t have a tiger to worry about. But that tiger is now the stress of your 9-5 job, the baby’s nursery, finding time to ready baby books, your mother-in-law, etc. The stress is different for everyone.
The “rest and digest” mode is what helps mom have the most comfortable pregnancy.
More importantly, it is also the mode necessary to produce the hormone “relaxin”. This helps baby engage, mom dilate and labor progress. Using advanced chiropractic technology, we can now safely and effectively measure heart rate variability (HRV). Which, is a measurement of the variation in time between each heartbeat. HRV is directly controlled by the nervous system and assists in identifying imbalance and stress within the nervous system. This means it is now possible to measure whether mom is predominately in “fight or flight,” “rest and digest” mode, or in a more balanced state of ease. Checking HRV provides us with a picture of how you’re adapting. Then gives us a greater understanding of how we can better care for you!
As Carrie Fisher said, “everything grows rounder and wider and weirder and I sit here in the middle of it all and wonder who in the world you will turn out to be.” If you are experiencing anxiety about the changes in your body and your upcoming labor and delivery, that’s completely normal! But know that chiropractic care and checking the performance of your nervous system is essential and will help you calm both your mind and body.
Written by our friends at Root and Bloom Chiropractic
