Whether it’s getting caught up in medical appointments, or the abundance of other things you need to do to prepare for your new addition, taking time for yourself can fall by the wayside.
Many expectant mothers fail to prioritize their manual therapy appointments during pregnancy, but there are benefits to maintaining your massage, physiotherapy and chiropractic appointments through all trimesters.
Here are some of the benefits to including manual therapists in your pre- and postpartum care:
Strengthen and Support Your Pelvic Floor
With roughly one in three women in Canada and one quarter of women in the United States experiencing some form of pelvic floor dysfunction, pregnancy can be an important time to prioritize pelvic floor health.
Your pelvic floor is responsible for supporting your bladder, uterus, and bowel and make sure your bowel and bladder function as they should.
During pregnancy and postpartum your pelvic floor stretches along with your growing baby which can exacerbate or contribute to new and existing pelvic floor issues such as incontinence.
Incorporating pelvic floor physiotherapy can help manage these symptoms of pelvic floor dysfunction and ensure that your pelvic floor muscles are prepared for birth.
Seeing a pelvic floor physiotherapist such as the ones at Emerald Hills Physio & Sport Clinic can be a great addition to your pre and postpartum health team – helping you to better manage certain pregnancy symptoms and supporting your recovery postpartum.
Also Read: Orthodontist – 4 Ways Orthodontist Can Save You Money
Relieve Pain & Symptoms Associated with Pregnancy
It’s no secret that pregnancy isn’t easy and often comes with a whole host of symptoms and pains. While these pains and symptoms are things that many women experience during pregnancy that doesn’t mean you have to suffer through them.
Having a healthcare team like Dynamic Health Therapy with access to a variety of healthcare practitioners experienced in women’s health and pregnancy such as physiotherapists, registered message therapists, osteopaths allows you to take a management approach to your symptoms.
As your body changes to accommodate your growing uterus, posture is often impacted which can result in an increase in back and pelvic pain and manual therapies can help you manage that.
Prenatal massage therapy has an abundance of benefits such as management of back and SI pain, helping with the swelling of joints, and stress reduction and relaxation.
Similarly, chiropractic treatments have been shown to help decrease the pain experienced during pregnancy and labour.
Whether you’re experiencing acute pain or you want to manage your symptoms throughout your whole pregnancy, booking an appointment with a manual therapist can help make your pregnancy as pain-free as possible!
Manage Stress
While pregnancy is an exciting and joy-filled time, it does come with it’s share of stress – both on your body and your mind.
Giving yourself the time to slow down and take care of yourself (you’re growing a human, you deserve a bit of self-care!) is important.
While taking a warm bath is a nice treat, taking the time out of your busy schedule to make your manual therapy appointments a priority can go a long way in helping you manage stress.
While manual therapies like massage therapy have a variety of benefits such as pain management, they can also be an important tool in relaxation and stress management.
Manual therapies don’t always need to be for injury or ongoing treatment of a particular issue, massage in particular has been shown to decrease feelings of stress and promote feelings of relaxation with as little as 10 minutes of massage of any type.
The benefits of manual therapies in pregnancy are abundant, but overall it’s important to look at these appointments as taking time to care for yourself.
It’s easy to focus all your attention on preparing to become a new parent, but an important part of that is learning to balance your needs with the needs of your growing family.
Manual therapy appointments allow you to take the time to do something for yourself that supports you through the process of pre- and postpartum as well as encouraging you to take the time out to relax and feel taken care of.
Your manual health team is there to help you be the best you can be both during pregnancy and into motherhood, and that kind of self-care should be a priority.
References & Further Reading:
https://bcparent.ca/health/pelvic-floor-health-the-low-down/
https://americanpregnancy.org/healthy-pregnancy/is-it-safe/prenatal-massage-1071/
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/massage-measurably-reduces-stress#The-study
Hi, I’m the Founder and Developer of Paramedics World, a blog truly devoted to Paramedics. I am a Medical Lab Tech, a Web Developer and Bibliophiliac. My greatest hobby is to teach and motivate other peoples to do whatever they wanna do in life.