County Osteopaths : Osteopathy in Pregnancy

Birth involves strong muscular effort and can leave you achey or tense perhaps leading to backache, sciatica and achey knees. Osteopathy may help you get back to normal.

OR you may feel great after birth but then find that the very physically and mentally demanding job of caring for your new baby brings out aches and pains.

Caring for a baby can place enormous strains on your back and knees as you feed them for hours in uncomfortable positions, lift car seats in and out of the car, reach down into the moses basket/crib repeatedly or bend over to change their nappies.

Of course there’s no substitute for adequate rest (as if!) and careful lifting and bending. However, Osteopathy may help too by easing the aches and releasing the tension.

Baby

See our pages on Osteopathy for Babies and Osteopathy for Children and pages about Crying Babies, Sleep Problems in Babies etc...

Pregnancy is a unique and powerful experience

but it can be painful too. If you are suffering from aches and pains, muscle tension or spasm, poor circulation, digestive problems, sciatica, backache, PGP / SPD or neuralgia Osteopathy may be able to help.

Please ring us on 01905 45 45 50 for more information or appointments.

Osteopathic treatment may help with aches and pains such as backache, sciatica, aches in the abdomen, pelvis, legs or feet. These are common during pregnancy because the mother’s body has to accomodate the increasing size and weight of the uterus AND at a time when the ligaments of the whole body are softeing to prepare for birth. For extra info on SPD or PGP click here.

Digestive Problems and Breathing Difficulties

As the uterus expands, it can stretch the diaphragm whilst at the same time postural changes through the lower ribs and spine can further impede its action. This may contribute to digestive problems and breathlessness (there are other causes of breathlessness so make sure you mention this to your Midwife or Doctor). Osteopathic treatment may reduce the tension in the stretched diaphragm and improve function throughout the muscles of the entire rib cage, spine and pelvis. This allows for better use of available lung capacity and may leave you feeling better.

Poor circulation

Tension within the pelvis or diaphragm can increase resistance to the return of venous blood to the heart from the lower half of the body. This can contribute to poor circulation. Osteopathic treatment may improve local circulation helping with any aches that this has caused.

Osteopaths are highly skilled and undergo a minimum of 4 years training. Gentle osteopathic techniques are perfectly safe at all stages of pregnancy. The cranial osteopathic approach is a particularly gentle way of working with the body’s own natural mechanism for releasing and re-balancing tensions, without force.

Cranial Osteopaths are trained to feel a very subtle, rhythmical shape change that is present in all body tissues. This is called Involuntary Motion or the Cranial Rhythm. The movement is of very small amplitude; therefore it takes practitioners with a very finely developed sense of touch to feel it.

Tension in the body disrupts the cranial rhythm. Practitioners compare what your rhythm is doing to what they consider ideal. This shows them what stresses and strains your body is under at present, and what tensions it may be carrying as a result of its past history. It also gives them an insight into the overall condition of your body, for example if it is healthy, or stressed or tired.

Cranial Osteopathy works very well in pregnancy where its gentle approach may help mums relax deep tension in their muscles.