Specialist Midwife Osteopath

These Osteopaths are very hard to find so what more could you ask for when you are pregnant.  Pregnancy is often a time when a woman begins to experience the aches and pains related to childbearing.  Osteopathy is a safe and effective way to control and monitor these changes in order that women can maintain a comfortable pregnancy with the minimum of discomfort.  Midwives are known to be the experts in normal birth and are able to highlight many important aspects to enabling women to progress through the pregnancy, making appropriate referrals should any deviation of the normal be found.  Our specialist osteopath oversees all the treatments and progress of all the pregnant patients treated at Perfect Balance Clinic directly or indirectly.

Being treated by an Osteopath who is also a registered, actively working midwife should enable women to gain as much information as possible into the health and well-being of her body so that she can progress throughout her childbearing years with less discomfort and more information. 

Conditions that we treat include:

• Nausea and hyperemisis gravidarum (morning sickness)
• Low back pain
• Sciatica
• Symphysis pubis dysfunction (pelvic pain)
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Meralgia paraesthetica
• Scoliosis
• Sacro-iliac Joint Dysfunction

With an understanding of the pregnancy and birth process for each woman the osteopath midwife can enhance your treatment with a follow up in the postnatal period.  This includes treatment of the newborn infant, especially if the delivery was a traumatic one. 

Pre-pregnancy health is something that can aid prompt conception and the best start to the developing foetus. Nutrition is hugely beneficial to the pregnant woman and her partner in order to maximize this process. Natural therapeutics (such as diet and lifestyle) are considered an important, non invasive way of helping a woman and her partner to create a healthy environment in which to ‘grow a baby’. At Perfect Balance we have the added bonus of having osteopaths who also are qualified naturopaths, to help you make the best of yourselves before embarking on the journey of parenthood

Structural, fluid and hormonal changes associated with pregnancy predispose the patient to discomfort, congestion and somatic dysfunctions (body). Osteopathic treatments have the potential to provide:

1. Symptomatic relief from somatic pain
2. Assistance in the homeostasis through the structural, fluid and hormonal changes in pregnancy
3. Support of labour and delivery (Jones and Lockwood, 2008)

Whilst every osteopath has the goal to improve symptoms of a condition it should be highlighted that all the practitioners at Perfect Balance Clinic will strive to treat the person as a whole and not the condition producing the symptoms, resulting in an optimal solution and management strategy to the problem.

Pregnancy is a time when women are more aware of the workings of their bodies. It produces the largest postural changes that a woman’s body will undergo. For many women pregnancy entails having to cope with a wide range of symptoms from back pain to morning sickness. A woman’s centre of mass changes and thus poses bio-mechanical challenges to the spine and body as a result of adaptation to the developing baby. This can lead to a variety of aches and pains. Breast changes and increases in weight can exacerbate aches and pains which can lead to upper back and neck discomfort as well as affecting the lower back.

 It should be highlighted that the antenatal period represents the longest time period of the pregnancy cycle – 280 days. The labour and postnatal period are far shorter, therefore in order to create a positive experience throughout the labour and postnatal time, emphasis should be made on health and vitality of yourself within the antenatal period.

...It is therefore apparent that there could be potential for developing health in the newborn by correcting any impairment that may have arisen from the physiological motions of birth. This means that any birth whether it be a straight forward vaginal delivery, a forceps/ ventouse delivery or a caesarean section may benefit from osteopathic treatment. With their gentle touch, Osteopaths are able to ease muscle tightness and restore optimal function to problematic areas as well as encourage you to carry out exercises with your baby to help promote health and future development

Cranial Osteopathy is a refined and subtle type of osteopathic treatment that encourages the release of stress and tensions throughout the body, including the head. Keeping true to the Osteopathic philosophy the Cranial Osteopathy technique aims to restore the function and integrity of the human body which is lost during injury and trauma.

Many Children when they are born, suffer from tension patterns and strains that may have occurred whist being in utero or due to the physiological process of labour. When being treated by an Osteopath from Perfect Balance Clinic, you will receive a full detailed consultation that will aim to highlight every aspect of the antenatal and birth process in order to apply as perfect a treatment as possible to suit the needs of the child.

Osteopathic techniques for babies, include using the cranial osteopathic concepts amongst other approaches, which are gentle yet extremely effective and may be used in a wide range of conditions for people of all ages, from birth to old age. As a parent or guardian of the children that are treated by Perfect Balance Clinic, it is imperative that you leave the treatment room informed and educated by the principles applied to treat your child. This allows children to feel as though they are in a safe environment where interaction between all parties is a healthy contribution to the development of a small person. It also allows the parent to play a role in the treatment process. Often parents are also involved with simple exercises and lifestyle advice which complement the Osteopath's treatment