Pregnant Women Can Do Something - Almost Anything- And Improve Their Birth Outcomes

So the title might seem like a strange statement. However, after reading through studies and articles in pregnancy magazines, I find that the same theme comes up over again and again.

For example, an article on prenatal chiropractic in Midwifery Today's Summer 2014 issue stated that mothers and infants had better outcomes including higher fetal weight, less prematurity, and fewer interventions. After reading many studies of massage during pregnancy, that article could have had the word chiropractic replaced with the word massage, since the results were the same. Since prenatal chiropractic is a special certification, you can find a chiropractor at icpa4kids.org by clicking here.

In a studyon our website about prenatal yoga compared with massage, the attendants of prenatal yoga classes had similar results to those mentioned for chiropractic. Prenatal massage has also been show to reduce prematurity, improve birth outcomes, and significantly shorten labor times. Many other alternative practices have similar results, shown in other studies.

So I started to realize that if a pregnant woman does just one thing from a choice of many, she improves her chances of having an uncomplicated birth with a stronger infant. I think a study should be done to show what happens when more than one of these things are combined. Are the effects cumulative? Considering that the benefits of massage have been shown in another study to be cumulative, I suspect that the benefits of all of these alternative healthcare methods are.

So what does this mean for pregnant women? Basically, it should be recommended that every pregnant woman do at least ONE of these things during and possibly after her pregnancy. But the best advice would be that every pregnant woman should do as many of these things as her budget and time will allow.

Every pregnant woman who wants to go through labor and avoid a C section should take a childbirth class. In addition, every pregnant woman should have at least one massage, chiropractic session, or acupuncture session, depending on her preference. She should also sign up for and take a series of prenatal yoga classes. This will help her to have the best birth outcome possible for her and her baby. Many midwives and obstetricians are beginning to realize the benefits of alternative care for pregnant women. This is likely to increase in the future, since an uncomplicated pregnancy makes their job easier.