Oh my aching... everything

I visited the chiropractor yesterday, at the advice of my midwife. As I reported earlier, the baby is breech. The Webster Technique, administered by a qualified chiro, can help remedy the situation, by relieving "intrauterine constraint" that keeps the baby from being able to move around freely. The midwife sent me to a very specific chiropractor who is very good at this maneuver. Her name is Linda Mullin, and she decidedly rocks.

I decided at my visit to also complain about my various other aches and pains: aching hips when I wake up in the morning, sharp pains in those same hips throughout the day, mid-back pain, and lower back pain. Apparently, part of the Webster Technique's success comes from administering it as the only adjustment to a patient on the same day, so my other pains will have to wait, a sacrifice I will gladly make to help the baby turn into position.

After the treatment (which caused a very satisfying crack to emit loudly from my pelvis and back), Linda checked my abdomen for sensitive pressure points that the tension she had just relieved would have caused. She commented on the strength of my abdominal muscles -- she used to be a physical therapist so I'm taking her word for it. I have been told from time to time that I have an athletic build, but since my career in any given sport is always short and not entirely successful (yoga not withstanding), I always dismissed that assessment (unless, of course, I needed an excuse for my thighs not fitting into a particular pair of jeans). ANYway, she pointed out that women with strong muscles tend to have more aches and pains during pregnancy, since the miraculous hormone that relaxes the ligaments in preparation for childbirth, relaxin, has no effect on the muscles. So when the ligaments get all loosey-goosey in there, stronger muscles are left to try to catch up, causing more aches and pains.

This may be her observation only, I haven't done any research on it, but it was just a little comforting to know this. I have been thinking to myself the past few months: I wasn't in terrible shape before I got pregnant, why am I so achy? Knowing that it might just be the fact that I was in decent shape before I got pregnant makes me feel a little better about the whole situation.

Finally, the doctor taught me a few stretches that she says every pregnant woman needs to know, so please let me know if you are pregnant and I will teach them to you. One of them is even called The Hooker Stretch. Sounds like a fun one for an expecting woman, eh?