Chiropractic Care While Pregnant: Yes or No?

Hi Everyone!

My back has been bothering me, so I made an appointment with a chiropractor and went today. I went to someone who specializes in prenatal care, and thought some of you might be interested in how it went. 

The Good:

• My back is sore since the visit (she [the chiropractor] said it would be), but the pain I've been living with is essentially gone
• She has a table where the belly drops out, so I got to lay on my stomach for the first time in a while...so nice :)
• She did a lot to monitor my babies/my general health, including taking my blood pressure, listening to the babies' heartbeats, measuring my belly, etc. Always nice to get a peek into what's going on inside me. The more monitoring, the better, I say, as I still have a little bit of fear that something could be going wrong in there. (By the way, she said one baby had a heart rate in the 120s and the other in the 140s, which she said was fine and Dr. Google agrees)
• She also told me regular visits would help make labor a lot easier, which of course is a desirable thing 

The Bad:

• There was a lot of judgement about having ultrasounds (bad for the baby, I was told...and why had I had so many?), and taking Zofran and the occasional Tylenol. And the way it was presented was not the best. It's one thing to say, "Going forward, consider not doing this;" another to say, "What you've already done is bad."
• Also a lot of judgement about using IVF to get pregnant. I really believe in alternative medicine, but I'm sick of having practitioners tell me that IVF was a waste of time and money and if I'd just been more invested in natural/alternative medicine, I would have gotten pregnant no problem. That may be true, but there were so many things demonstrably wrong with me (5 separate issues diagnosed)...I don't know...I have a hard time believing IVF was a bad choice. And over the years I tried to get pregnant without medical intervention, I went to a chiropractor, acupuncturist, did a lot with nutrition, stress relief, massage, etc. I could have done more, I'm sure, but it's not like I didn't try that route. I still get defensive when people act like I just didn't try hard enough and going to an RE was kind of a cop-out

Bottom Line:

I can pretty much brush off all the judgmental stuff that was thrown at me today (it wasn't upsetting or scary, really, I was more just annoyed). And if it continues to help my back feel better, I'm going to keep going every two weeks as recommended. It feels safe to me (especially with this doctor having done a lot of work with pregnant women), and if it helps to make my pregnancy more comfortable, why not, right?

Anyone else been to the chiropractor while pregnant or trying to conceive? What did you think?

XO

Good News From the Chiropractor

There were alpacas hanging out in a field on the way to my chiropractor appointment (his office is on the north side of town, which is more rural)...alpacas are sooooooo adorable.

So I went to the chiropractor that my yoga teacher recommended today...I told him (the chiropractor) I was feeling hugely depleted after the pregnancy/miscarriage, and wanted to be as healthy as possible for the upcoming FET. He did his assessment and then sat me down to talk with me.

"You know," he said. "You're pretty darn healthy already, and I don't usually say that to people."

That made me sooooooo happy to hear, because I've been trying soooooo hard.

Here are some other things he said to me: 

• That I am VERY sensitive to caffeine, and should avoid it completely...even the tiniest bit of chocolate every once in a while is off limits, which is really no big deal...I'm not a huge dessert person 
• He said usually he'll assess a person and give them dietary recommendations (eg, low carb, vegetarian), because their body is really sensitive to things. "You," he said, "Your body's not picky. Pretty much anything you want to eat, as long as it's healthy"
• He did say when I eat meat to make sure it's meat that's hormone-free
• And he asked me to eat as much kale, collard greens and broccoli as I can
• And to eat cold water fish (wild not farm-raised) 8 oz a week
• AND, he told me my body is sensitive to electromagnetic fields, so not to sit with a computer on my lap when we're doing the FET/if I get pregnant. Which is something I've thought about...I'm on the computer essentially all day for work and my preferred way to work is in a comfy chair with my laptop on my lap. When I was pregnant and spending a lot of time in bed, it would have been comfortable to rest my laptop on my belly, but I was very careful not to do that. I Googled it and couldn't find any studies/information showing laptops were harmful, but still felt uneasy about it. "Laptop on your desk, as far away from your uterus as possible," is what my chiropractor said, and even though it's outside my normal routine, what I'm going to try and do. 

Glad I went...good to hear some new ideas for healthy things for me to do, and it was so nice to go to someone and hear them say I'm doing pretty well health-wise...gives me a little boost of confidence that certainly doesn't hurt. :)

XO

{Image credit: Muffet}