Chiropractic care helps new mothers get their body back to normal and maintain a healthy nervous system that will allow them to handle all the activity and stress of motherhood.
How can a Chiropractor help a woman who just delivered?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: You know, I find it very interesting that we see a lot of moms during pregnancy. That is usually what introduces people to our office, and while they are pregnant, the whole time they’re here, once they get past month three, they’re just so looking forward to making the delivery and thinking that life is going to get infinitely easier once the baby’s born. I know they kind of know what’s coming down the pike, but you know really it is their orientation to the world that will start to change post-delivery.
Now, all of a sudden, you’re bending over constantly, you’re leaning over your baby when you’re changing a diaper, you’re bending forward and looking at your baby while the baby’s breastfeeding, you’re sitting for longer periods of time, you don’t leave the house without a baby attached to you somehow, carrying a pack and play and a diaper bag, plus your gear. And in the city, it’s even more difficult.
You see people getting into elevators, riding the subways with their kids and trying to get through the turnstiles and navigating the subway. I mean, life gets a lot harder once the baby is born. You know, changing diapers, lifting and carrying the baby and all the work. It really puts a lot more strain on the spine for the new mom, who is already been through a little bit of an ordeal with all the ligaments and muscles stretched in the abdominal area post-delivery.
So, it’s super important time for moms to be getting care to get their body back to the way that it was while they’re being introduced to all these new stresses and strains of being a mom. Which again, most people think that actually everything gets easier once the baby’s out, but it actually makes life a little bit more difficult in just getting around in your daily chores and it’s no longer about you; it’s about the baby all of a sudden, so that’s really where their focus goes.
Another thing that’s really interesting with Chiropractic is that women who have scoliosis while they’re pregnant, they secrete that hormone relaxin, which kind of loosens up the ligaments and tendons, and if someone has scoliosis, they still have relaxin in their body postpartum, and it’s really a great opportunity to work on correcting subluxations because while these hormones are coursing through the woman’s body, it’s a lot easier to make a longer lasting and stable correction to the spine; so it’s a great time to actually clear out the subluxation patterns and also make sure that new patterns don’t form with the new stresses of being a mom.
Do you recommend specific Chiropractic services for new moms?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: Absolutely! Usually postpartum we will continue with the Webster Technique, which we’ve described in previous interviews, and it’s really just a system to maintain the alignment of the pelvis sacral area. Postpartum woman are treated just like everyone else. We’re looking for where those subluxations and misalignments are causing stress to the spine and pelvis; but because of some of the activities of a new mom, it is something that is really important for the first couple of months postpartum to help her get her body back to where it should be. But most of the time, with Chiropractic, we always try and be as specific as possible. We’re not doing regional manipulations just trying to adjust everything; we really want to focus on the pelvic alignment and where those specific issues are in the new mom.
Postpartum depression is very common. How can Chiropractic help?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: It is a really tricky question, and I would never want to go out and make a blanket statement that Chiropractors can treat postpartum depression, because if I said that, I would be practicing Psychiatry without a license. There is a big change in a woman’s life. There are added pressures; basically their whole life has been turned upside down, they’re no longer connected to the life that they used to have, and more commonly, postpartum women will have back pain and neck pain from the additional lifting and carrying. And typically, women are going to feel better when they are under Chiropractic care. Pain and all these other things are more likely to contribute or exacerbate depressive episodes. I would not say that Chiropractors specifically treat postpartum depression, but if someone is in the midst of postpartum depression, it can always be better to go through it without extra pain, without extra nerve interference on your spine and nerve system, which ultimately is going to help them cope and deal with whatever they are going through.
So, again, can we help a woman while she’s going through it? Yes. But am I treating postpartum depression? Absolutely, 100% no.
Your experience working with pregnancy and infants is very impressive. Can you give us your unique perspective?
Dr. Gregg Rubinstein: Oh Liz, I want to thank you for crediting me with this unique perspective, and I wish I could say that my approach and perspective was unique to me. But everything that I have learned and that I preach and teach in my office was taught to me by the people who came before me: The ICPA, Larry Webster, the woman who is now running the ICPA, Jeanne Ohm. Basically I stand on the shoulders of giants, because they’re the ones who made Pediatric Chiropractic credible, specific and scientific. And standing on their shoulders, I can espouse what they say, and I can say that I’ve mastered the skills that they taught me, and I feel really good about how I apply these techniques and get a lot of success in practice, but it’s truly not my own perspective.
It all boils down to the same thing that Chiropractors have always talked about. That your nerve system is the master system and it runs and regulates your entire body. The clearer the communication the body has from the brain to the rest of the body, the healthier you and your baby are going to be. Regular checkups are vital to keep your spine and nerve system healthy. If you keep your spine and nerve system healthy throughout the course of your lifetime, the future can be super bright and really provide that. Again, I wish I was the one who innovated all of this stuff. All I did was take what I learned from everybody else, and applied it in the best manner, with love and attention to detail, and that’s what gets results.
I thank you for crediting me that, but again, everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned from somebody else, and I’m just sharing it with the rest of the world.
Learn More
To speak with Dr. Gregg Rubinstein, visit www.ChiropractorMidtown.com or call 917-534-6484 to schedule an appointment
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