CAN I BE TREATED IF I'M PREGNANT?

Yes and no … it depends!

If you think you may be pregnant, but are not sure, and still need to see your osteopath, then do mention your possibility of pregnancy when you see him or her.

If you know you are pregnant, but are still under 16 weeks or so, then unless you have a serious problem needing osteopathic treatment, the general consensus is that it may be better for you to leave things as they are till 16 weeks or more, when the pregnancy will be well established.

If you are above 16 weeks, and have no significant complications or previously ‘difficult’ pregnancies, then treatment will be both safe for you and the baby, and just as effective as if you were not pregnant;

• you may have a previous problem that is still bothering you and you want sorting out before you get a lot heavier!
• you may find that the changes your body goes through in pregnancy expose for the first time a ‘weakness’ in your spinal functioning - a good example is where the extra weight at the front starts to overload a stiff mid back with resultant aches and pains
• you might find that - and this is especially true in later 3rd trimester pregnancy - that the body just starts to groan with the extra weight on increasingly lax ligaments and muscles

If you have had previously complicated pregnancies, then osteopathy may still be able to help, but for obvious reasons the osteopath will proceed a lot more carefully.