Osteopathy during pregnancy

During pregnancy, particularly the through the 2^nd and 3^rd trimesters, the body goes through big physical changes within a relatively short amount of time. As the posture changes to adapt to the growing child, the muscles and joints can become strained, causing them to be over worked and fatigued. If there have been previous injuries or postural compensations within the body, its often harder for the body to adapt to the pregnancy leading to more pain and discomfort throughout the pregnancy.

                Osteopathy can help relieve some of these muscular aches and pains, particularly throughout the lower back, pelvis and hips, as well as in the upper back, neck and shoulders. We use a mixture of joint mobilisations, soft tissues releases and cranial osteopathy techniques to help support your body and relieve stresses and strains that have been building though out the pregnancy.

                Osteopathy can also be useful in your preparations for birth to insure that you lower back, pelvis and hips are mobile and comfortable enough to allow you to freely move between different positions. This is useful for the first stages of labour, as movement can help relax the body in between contractions making the experience more comfortable for you, and all the way through to the final pushing stages where good mobility of the hips, pelvis and sacrum in particular can help make the birthing process easier for you and baby.

Interested in rediscovering your body after birth?

Then come and join us for an evening all about you, with a panel of experts in pre and post natal care, you will receive top tips and advice as well as the opportunity to ask any of those questions about your post baby body you always wanted the answer to! 

So don't miss this evening event for local mums to learn, discuss & ask questions to the panel of experts in pre & post-natal care, including Somacare's Paediatric & Obstetric Osteopath Lauren Storey!

The event is on Thursday 4th April from 8pm - 9:30pm at the Yoga Hall, Hatfield Road, St Albans, AL1 3RR.

Tickets are £4 which includes tea & biscuits.

More details are found on the St Albans NCT website:
http://www.nct.org.uk/branches/st-albans-district/evening-events

Cranial Osteopathy for babies

Whilst labour and birthing is a completely natural process for mum and baby to go through, sometimes there can be difficulties or complications. 

This can mean it becomes more traumatic for the baby and sometimes the medical world may have to intervene with the use of forceps, ventouse or even caesarean sections. This can lead to the baby having difficulties with feeding, sleeping or generally being unsettled.

Osteopathy uses gentle techniques including Cranial Osteopathy in order to help restore balance within the baby’s body, relieving strains that may have remained from birth.

As the child grows they may develop reoccurring problems with ear infections, coughs and cold’s. Osteopathy can help support the child’s developing immune system and ensure there are no stresses and strains putting excess demand onto the body, therefore reducing the ability to fight and clear infections itself.

Osteopathy can also help relieve musculo-skeletal restrictions and pains that may be preventing your child from fully reaching their motor development milestones and they go from turning, to crawling, to walking and beyond.

Please feel free to call the Somacare Osteopathic Clinic on 01582 769 411 if you would like further information on how Osteopathy can help you & your baby

Back into the garden

The arrival of spring means a lot of us enthusiastically return to gardening, regardless of how fit or physically active we have been during the winter.  As a result, many people experience gardening-related injuries and pain.  

Gina Guscott, Osteopath at Somacare Osteopathic Clinic recommends some simple steps to follow to reduce the chance of injury by changing the way you garden and looking  after your back before, during and after gardening.

-       Begin slowly!  Treat gardening like any other exercise: Warm up before and warm down after to keep your muscles loose and perform a few lower-back stretches to prepare your muscles for the lifts and bends that accompany weeding and planting

-       Map out your plans and don’t try to do everything in one day

-       When digging take small spadefuls or use a small spade

-       Buying the right gardening equipment makes a difference. Choose lightweight long-handled gardening tools, which keep you from bending over unnecessarily and straining your back

-       Raised garden beds are an excellent idea for those with chronic back problems or arthritis. The recommended height for a raised garden bed is 2 to 3 feet tall, which allows you to sit on a chair or bench while gardening

-       When weeding and planting use a proper kneeling pad with side handles to enable you to get up using your legs/knees

-       When pruning be careful not to over-reach and try to cut as close to your body as possible

-       Once you begin gardening, change positions every 10 to 15 minutes

-       Take regular breaks, stand up and walk around for a couple of minutes to help keep your back muscles loose

Osteopathy & Asthma

           At this time of year there are often patients, both children and adults that present to the clinic who have been diagnosed as having asthma. Whilst Osteopaths in no way treat conditions; asthma or otherwise, we are very interested in treating people. Lauren Storey & Gina Guscott, Osteopaths at the Somacare Osteopathic Clinic in Harpenden explain how Osteopathic treatment can be helpful in managing asthma.

          Asthma has been defined medically as a ‘Chronic inflammatory disease, (which has) an associated hyper responsiveness that leads to recurrent episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness and coughing.’¹. There are thought to be many associated environmental and genetic links which lead to this response ² ³.  If you have these symptoms & suspect you may have asthma, you must see your primary care Doctor.

Once diagnosed, Osteopathy can help with the mechanical effects placed on your body by asthma. There have been recent studies which have looked at the ways in which Osteopathy can benefit the way in which your lungs function. Osteopathic treatment has been shown to increase the amount of air your lungs can hold and increase the amount your rib cage can expand to allow it to do this⁴. It has also been shown to improve the function of your diaphragm, the primary muscle used in breathing, enhance the clearing of airway secretions, and to possibly enhance autoimmune function⁴. Studies since this have then gone on to again show improvement in chest expansion and mobility⁵ and peak expiratory flow, the maximum speed at which you can forcefully breathe out⁶.

           How is it that Osteopath’s can help the lungs to function in this way? As Osteopaths we look at the structure of a patient’s body as we believe this is important to the way in which it functions. Using our hands we can gently enhance the movement within joints, soft tissues including muscles and fascia. We do this to help the body reach its full potential by removing any barriers preventing it working to its full potential. As Osteopaths we are also happy to discuss the varying ways in which asthma can be helped through lifestyle and environment.

                For further information as to how Osteopathy can help you, call Somacare Osteopathic Clinic on 01582 769411.

References    

1 As defined by Global iniative for asthma (GINA) in ‘Prevention of allergy and allergic asthma’ World health organisation (WHO) document based on WHO/WAO meeting Geneva January 2002

2 M Innes Asher, Alistair W Stewart, Javier Mallol, Stephen Montefort, Christopher KW Lai, Nadia Aït-Khaled, Joseph Odhiambo and The ISAAC Phase One Study Group. (2010) ‘Which population level environmental factors are associated with asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis and eczema? Review of the ecological analyses of ISAAC Phase One.’ Respiratory Research. 11:8

3 Miriam F. Moffatt, D.Phil., Ivo G. Gut, Ph.D., Florence Demenais, M.D., David P. Strachan, M.D., Emmanuelle Bouzigon, M.D., Ph.D., Simon Heath,Ph.D., Erika von Mutius, M.D., Martin Farrall, F.R.C.Path., Mark Lathrop, Ph.D., and William O.C.M. Cookson, (2010) A Large-Scale, Consortium-Based Genomewide Association Study of Asthma. New England Journal of Medicine. 363:1211-1221

4 WA Rowan and MP Rowane (1999) ‘An osteopathic approach to asthma’ Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. vol. 99 no. 5 259

5 SE. BOCKENHAUER, KN. JULLIARD, KIM SING LO, E HUANG, AM SHETH (2002) Quantifiable effects of osteopathic manipulative techniques on patients with chronic asthma. American Osteopath Association vol. 102 no. 7 371-375.

6 PA Guiney, R Chou, A Vianna, J Lovenheim (2005) Effects of Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment on Pediatric Patients With Asthma: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. vol. 105 no. 1 7-12

 

Babies head shapes - flat head syndrome

Flattening of the head, known most commonly in the medical world as plagiocephaly, is something that Lauren Storey, Osteopath frequently sees in clinical practise. Often parents are concerned that there is a patch at the back or side of their baby’s head that appears to be flattened and causes the head, and in more extreme cases the face, to have an asymmetrical shape.

Commonly the flattening is caused when a baby has a preference for lying with their head in the same position and as babies have malleable skulls, having an external force placed repeatedly on the same area of the head can cause a growth distortion. However, the skull continues to grow and shape a great deal over the first year, so if the flattening is noticed and dealt with early on it has a better chance of resolving.

Babies will always lie in the position that feels most comfortable to them and so if there is stiffness or discomfort within the neck they will avoid certain positions or movements. This can be influenced by the position they grew in when in the uterus, trauma to the necks during the birth (especially during very long labours or those which needed the intervention of forceps or ventous) or habit after birth.

In most cases the flattening presents a purely cosmetic worry for parents however as the head growth is encouraged by brain growth and development, it is important to prevent the problem getting to a stage where it could impede on brain growth and development. In cases where babies have a particular preference for right or left rotation, they often play and interact with the hand on that side more frequently leading to a hand dominance which should not be seen before the age of  1 year.

Tips for how to prevent flattening of the head:

·         Encourage your baby to turn their head to both the right and left when sleeping. This may mean putting stimulus such as light, toys or yourselves on their non favoured side. One good way to do this is to turn them the other way round in their Moses baskets or cots.

·         Alternate sides when feeding. When breast feeding you will do this naturally however its important to switch sides when bottle feeding if your worried your baby is developing a preference for either rotation.

·         Dedicate time each day to tummy time. This will mean they spend a little less time lying with pressure on the back of their heads and is an important position for physical development. Start off with only a couple of minutes at a time and build up gradually as your child gets used to the position, observing them at all times when on their front.

·         Talk to your local paediatric osteopath!

Osteopathy for babies is a little different to what you may have experienced if you have been to see an osteopath yourself. We take a full history going back to the pregnancy and birth, give a thorough physical examination to assess both physical and neuromotor development, then treat using a very gentle approach including both cranial and structural techniques. With the development of head flattening the approach usually involves ensuring that the child has full range of motion within their spine whilst removing any internal tension that may prevent the cranium from growing symmetrically.