Chiropractic Care for Pregnancy in Clarksville TN
Pregnancy changes how the low back and pelvis carry load, and musculoskeletal aches are among the most commonly reported complaints during it. This page describes what changes and when, which symptoms belong with your obstetric provider rather than with us, and what the options are for the aches that are genuinely musculoskeletal.
Your obstetrician or midwife is managing your pregnancy. Nothing here is advice about it, and any decision about care during pregnancy belongs in that conversation. For the safety question specifically, and for what the evidence does and does not show, see is chiropractic safe during a pregnancy.
What changes, and roughly when
First trimester. Hormonal change is the prominent feature at this stage. Nausea, fatigue and breast tenderness are common. Headaches are also common in early pregnancy and have many possible contributors, including hormonal change, dehydration, disrupted sleep, and reduced caffeine intake. The mechanical changes described below are mostly still ahead, which is worth saying because early pregnancy discomfort often has a cause other than load.
Second trimester. This is when the mechanical picture changes. The uterus grows, the body's centre of mass moves forward, and the lumbar spine typically compensates by increasing its inward curve. The hormone relaxin increases ligament laxity, including in the pelvis, which allows the pelvic ring to accommodate birth and also reduces the passive stability those ligaments normally provide. Low back pain and pelvic girdle pain most often appear or worsen from here on.
Third trimester. Load and laxity are both at their greatest. Pelvic girdle pain, felt at the front of the pelvis or over the joints at the back of it, is common. Sleeping positions become harder to find, and rib and upper back discomfort is common as the ribcage accommodates.
Symptoms that belong with your obstetric provider or emergency care
Some symptoms in pregnancy are not musculoskeletal and must not wait for a chiropractic appointment. Two of them matter especially here, because they can be mistaken for the aches this page is about.
Call 911 or go to an emergency department now for:
- Chest pain, or difficulty breathing
- Pain, swelling, redness or warmth in one calf or leg
- Severe abdominal pain
- Fainting, or a seizure
- Severe headache with visual changes
Pain or swelling in one leg can be a blood clot, and chest pain or breathlessness can be a clot that has travelled to the lung. Pregnancy raises the risk of both, and both are routinely mistaken for a muscular problem. Do not bring either of those to a chiropractic appointment.
Contact your obstetrician or midwife the same day for:
- Vaginal bleeding, or loss of fluid
- A reduction in fetal movement
- A headache that will not go away
- A fever
- Any symptom that concerns you
Headache in later pregnancy deserves naming on its own. A new severe or persistent headache, especially with visual changes or swelling, is a reason to contact your obstetric provider promptly. It is not a reason to book with us.
What manual care is and is not used for here
Manual care during pregnancy is directed at musculoskeletal complaints: low back pain, pelvic girdle pain, and related stiffness and movement restriction. That is the whole of it.
It is not directed at organ function, at digestion, at the course of the pregnancy, at the length or difficulty of labour, or at the likelihood of complications. We do not make those claims, because the evidence does not support them.
A visit is a history and an examination first. There are presentations in which manual treatment is not appropriate, and finding that out is what the examination is for.
We will tell you what we find, including when what we find is not something we treat. If we are not able to help you, or if your presentation belongs with your obstetric provider, we will say so and point you there.
The alternatives, and what they offer
Pregnancy-related back and pelvic pain is treated in several ways and manual care is one option among them:
- Guided exercise programmes are widely used for pregnancy-related low back pain and can be continued at home. Whether a particular programme suits you depends on your pregnancy and on screening for the conditions that make specific activities unsuitable, which is a question for your obstetric provider.
- Obstetric or pelvic-health physiotherapy is specifically trained on this population.
- Pelvic support belts are used for pelvic girdle pain. They are inexpensive relative to a course of treatment and are worn externally, so they carry little of the risk a hands-on treatment does.
- Heat, rest and activity modification address a good deal of it without any provider at all.
- Analgesia chosen with your provider, where medication is appropriate in pregnancy.
A realistic assessment of the risk. Manual care in pregnancy is generally described as well tolerated and serious adverse events reported in the literature are rare. It is not risk-free, no manual therapy is. Rarely reported is not the same as rare. There is no systematic reporting system for adverse events after manual therapy, so published counts describe what has been written up rather than what has happened, and the true rate is not known. Reported effects are most often short-lived soreness after treatment.
Any of these alternatives may be a better fit than chiropractic care, and a reasonable discussion with your obstetric provider includes them.
If you are pregnant, dealing with back or pelvic pain in Clarksville TN, and want to know whether this is something we can help with, call our team at Source Chiropractic and we will tell you honestly.
Follow the evidence
Research, with context.
Published sources behind the discussion. Read the findings alongside the limits; a study is not a diagnosis or a promise of a result.
A randomized controlled trial comparing a multimodal intervention and standard obstetrics care for low back and pelvic pain in pregnancy
169 pregnant participants enrolled at 24–28 weeks, with outcomes assessed at 33 weeks.
What it foundManual therapy, stabilization exercise and education alongside obstetric care improved pain and disability compared with standard obstetric care alone.
What it cannot tell usThe combined program does not isolate the effect of an adjustment. This study does not establish benefits for delivery, fetal position or infant health. A correction is linked from the publication record.
Publication details & citation
George et al. A randomized controlled trial comparing a multimodal intervention and standard obstetrics care for low back and pelvic pain in pregnancy. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2013. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2012.10.869.
Read the publication record
Read our editorial policy for how sources and clinical review are identified.