Pregnancy
The following articles are intended to provide helpful information so that women can better navigate their pregnancies with healthier choices. The first relates to chiropractic benefits for the ladies while the other two are taken from recent British Columbia newspapers and are therefore matters of public record.
Chiropractic and Pregnancy - All Pregnant Women Should Read This
Pregnancy is a special time in a woman's life. It is a period of rapid development with many physiological and hormonal changes taking place. Chiropractic care helps to normalize nervous system function for both mother and baby and allows for the best pregnancy possible.
Fifty percent of all women complain about low back pain during pregnancy, partially due to ligament laxity and the protruding abdomen.
By relieving the discomfort many women experience during pregnancy, chiropractic becomes an important component of prenatal care that can make both pregnancy and delivery easier.
Clinical studies have proven the benefits of Chiropractic care during pregnancy. One such study was conducted by lrvin Henderson, MD, a member of the AMA Board of Trustees. The study concluded that women who received chiropractic care during their third trimester of pregnancy were able to carry and deliver with more comfort.
The many advantages of Chiropractic care are not limited to pregnancy, but are especially beneficial during delivery. Patients report that their deliveries while under chiropractic care are faster and more comfortable than during prior pregnancies. Dr. Per Freitag, MD, a well known orthopedist, conducted a hospital study that incorporated chiropractic adjustments during the patients' pregnancies. The study concluded that the need of the chiropractic patients for pain killers during delivery was reduced by half.
If you are pregnant and suffering from neck or back pain, you need to look at chiropractic.
Chiropractic can be the right alternative to living in pain or masking your discomfort with medication. Chiropractic back and neck pain treatment is drug-free, and during pregnancy that is a huge benefit regarding the health of your unborn child.
Jason Rexroth, an M.D. OB-GYN recommends chiropractic as an alternative. He says “I am very familiar with the chiropractic approach to health care. As an OB-GYN, I know chiropractic care is the best treatment for common backaches and joint problems experienced by many women during pregnancy. I refer all my patients to doctors of chiropractic for these symptoms. As we all know, the less medications taken by a pregnant woman, the better it is for her yet-to-be born child.
Over the years, I have seen the benefits of the care only a doctor of chiropractic can provide significantly reduce a pregnant mother’s reliance upon pain and narcotic medications.”
Pregnant mothers should consider chiropractic care. The body changes and forward weight bearing stress on the neck and back can especially be improved with chiropractic treatments. Sometimes all you need is an adjustment to bring better balance to your body, reduce pain symptoms without the need for drugs and allow your developing baby to have a good chance to grow into your beautiful, healthy child.
For your pregnant moms, give us a call at (360) 734-5433 and we will be delighted to provide you with a consultation and screening evaluation in order to determine if chiropractic could be of significant help.
Study Links Miscarriages to Painkiller Use
By Charlie Fidelman, Postmedia News September 7, 2011
Women know that smoking and drinking during pregnancy will harm their babies, and most stay away from tobacco and alcohol. But when it comes to common painkillers, the kind that fill most home medicine cabinets, few people recognize that these, too, are dangerous to the fetus and may cause heart defects.
A study by Universite de Montreal researchers shows taking antiinflammatory drugs in early pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage by more than double. About 30 per cent of women exposed to such medication are more likely to spontaneously abort.
Published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal this week, the UdeM study warns that the risk is associated with pills in a class of drugs called non-aspirin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), regardless of type and dose. These include naproxen (Aleve, Naprosyn), ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil, Midol), diclofenac and celecoxib, said the study's senior author, Dr. Anick Berard, director of the Research Unit on Medications and Pregnancy at Ste. Justine Hospital in Montreal.
In conjunction with the Ecole Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Analyse de l'Information, in Rennes, France, the Montreal team used data from the Quebec Pregnancy Registry, which includes all Quebec pregnancies since 1997.
They compared 4,705 women who miscarried before their 20th week with 47,050 matched "controls" - women from the registry who didn't miscarry.
A total of 352 women - 7.2 per cent - of women who miscarried had filled at least one prescription for non-aspirin NSAIDs.
"Even if you do everything perfectly - you don't smoke, you eat well, you exercise - you still have a 15-per-cent chance of miscarriage," said Berard, because there is no such thing as a zero-risk pregnancy.
© Copyright (c) The Province
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/health/Study+links+miscarriages+painkiller/5363127/story.html#ixzz1h0Ijyecf
Two-thirds of B.C. Women Prescribed Drugs During Pregnancy
By Randy Shore, Vancouver Sun December 16, 2011
The study of 163,082 pregnancies between 2001 and 2006 found that 63.5 per cent of women filled at least one prescription during pregnancy. One in 13, or 7.8 per cent of women, were prescribed drugs that carry some risk to the unborn child, affecting 12,676 pregnancies.
The risky medications fall into two categories: those drugs with known human fetal risk but whose potential benefits may outweigh that risk; and those drugs causing demonstrated fetal abnormalities that outweigh potential benefit to the patient.
In the first category of medications with known risks, the most often pre-scribed were benzodiazepines, a group of medications used to treat insomnia and anxiety.
Drugs in the second category, with a demonstrated risk of fetal abnormalities, were prescribed in 3.9 per cent of pregnancies. But 99.5 per cent of the drugs prescribed from that high-risk category were either contraceptives or fertility treatments, which researchers suggest may not have been ingested once the women became aware of their pregnancy.
Because few drugs are given to pregnant women in clinical trials and safety testing, many medications come to market before their effects on the fetus are known, said study co-author Steve Morgan. "Research ethics boards specifically prohibit researchers from enlisting pregnant women into drug trials," he said.
This study is a way to begin to fill in the data gaps, said lead author Jamie Daw. "There are two categories of drug that we know carry some risk, but for many more we can't even categorize them as safe or risky," said Daw. "Ideally, women would have full information about medications and be able to talk about that with her health care provider."
Drugs used to treat depression, anxiety and insomnia are commonly pre-scribed and may carry risks to the fetus that outweigh the benefit to the mother, Morgan said.
The study was undertaken in order to prioritize which medications war-rant further study for a Canadian research initiative called the Drug Safety and Effectiveness Network.
"We were able to see that there are promising signs of precautionary use of drugs during pregnancy," said Morgan. "There does appear to be a reduction in the use of medications with known fetal risk during pregnancy."
The number of women prescribed drugs dropped when compared with the period before conception, from 45.33 per cent in the four to six months before pregnancy to 33.64 per cent in the second trimester. But during the three-month period immediately after giving birth, 61.43 per cent of women were prescribed a medication, a period in which many of the new mothers are likely to be breastfeeding.
"Physicians must balance ensuring the safety of the baby and the mother with the risks of a mother not taking her medication - such as mothers with epilepsy or depression," said B.C. Medical Association president Nasir Jetha in an email interview.
PRESCRIPTIONS MOST FREQUENTLY FILLED DURING PREGNANCY
Respiratory drugs: 25.7% Nervous system drugs: 12.8%
Antibiotics: 30.5%
Dermatologics: 13.4%
69% Women aged 20 years or younger were most likely to take prescription drugs during pregnancy.
The lowest rate occurred among those aged 30 to 35 years.
On average, 62% pregnant women filled prescriptions for 2.6 different types of drugs.
15% used five or more prescription medications during their pregnancy.
VANCOUVER SUN
rshore@vancouversun.com
© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/health/thirds+women+prescribed+drugs+during+pregnancy/5870694/story.html#ixzz1h0J1xvvJ
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