4 Common Issues a Chiropractor in Portland Can Help During Pregnancy

Chiropractors work with people to naturally align their bodies and maintain health. Pregnancy is a time when maintaining your health becomes a lot more important. As your body goes through rapid changes, so do your health needs. This can be a lot to keep up with and deal with. Chiropractic care is one way you can take care of your health and manage the changes.

Many people don't first think of a chiropractor when they're putting together their health plan for pregnancy. Portland chiropractors are trained to help people through pregnancy. They even have adjustable tables to perform adjustments on as the belly grows.

Let's take a look at some common examples of what chiropractic adjustments help with during pregnancy.

1. Lower Back Pain in Portland

The body's natural alignment shifts during pregnancy. As the distribution of your weight changes, so will the way you walk. The lower back is an area many people experience the most trouble during pregnancy, especially as their belly grows.

Chiropractic adjustments can help gently and naturally reposition your spinal column to reduce this pain. Your chiropractor can also talk to you about ways you can move and sit during the day to help reduce any lower back pain you're experiencing.

2. Reducing Nausea

The spinal column is made up of many small parts, mostly your 24 vertebrae stacked together to protect your spinal column. As your body changes, your spinal column may shift and vertebrae can come out of alignment. Because many of your body's nerves also travel near the spinal column, misaligned vertebrae can compress or irritate any of these nerves, causing a lot of different problems. Often, we notice this as pain in the arms or legs. However, we often have health problems we don't realize are due to misalignment.

While nausea during pregnancy is caused by a variety of factors, chiropractic care can help reduce nausea by generally improving your health. One reason this may help is that your central nervous system can function optimally.

Nausea is a common and disruptive system, so everything you can do to reduce this during the early months of your pregnancy, the better.

3. Sciatica

Your sciatic nerve is the longest nerve in your body. It travels down the backs of both legs and under the feet, and across the lower back. When you have a spinal misalignment in your lower back, this can press on the sciatic nerve. This often causes either pain or numbness in one or both legs.
Because of all the changes during pregnancy, especially to your lower back, sciatica is a common condition.

Your Portland chiropractor can perform a gentle spinal manipulation to relieve your symptoms and realign the spinal column.

4. Help With Sleep

It's difficult to sleep when your body is just uncomfortable. Finding the right position as your body changes can become another difficulty. Many people find that chiropractic care at North Portland Wellness Group help relieve their discomfort. Your chiropractor can also talk to you about the best sleep postures and habits that will improve your quality of sleep as your pregnancy progresses.