Making Pregnancy A Little Easier On Your Body

While you might be thinking about everything that’s coming down the pipeline, from nursing to managing your child’s sleep to ensuring that you have everything you need to raise a baby in your home, pregnancy is still very much happening to your body. It can be uncomfortable, and painful, and if not managed right, it can bring some real risk of long-term physical issues. Here, we’re going to look at a few ways that you can take some of that strain off your body, making pregnancy just a little easier.

Needling down on the issue

While you might not initially like the idea of having needles poked into the skin, the truth is that a lot of women have found acupuncture useful for dealing with a range of the woes associated with pregnancy. It is perhaps most widely used to treat morning sickness, while others say that it can be used to reduce pelvic and backside pain, or that it can even be a helpful way of inducing labor. How acupuncture is effective is still largely unknown, but there is some evidence to suggest that the mild pain of the needles can distract the body from other types of pain, as well as help it release natural painkillers which can affect the whole body.

Take the hands-on approach

Many of the aches of pregnancy can come as a result of the shift of weight and gravity on your body. Your belly’s growing bigger, you’re weighing more, and this is putting more pressure on new parts of the body. Massage therapy can be highly useful, but there are a lot of women talking about the effectiveness of a prenatal chiropractor. Not only can it help to reduce the stress and tension on parts of the body, but it can also help to prepare the pelvis for the process of birth.

Essential oils

A lot of people will attest to the power of essential oils to help deal with things like stress, and chronic pain. However, there have been health warnings that some essential oils can be of high risk to those who are carrying a child, with side effects such as maternal toxicity, fetal disabilities, and even miscarriage. However, there are oils that, when diluted, are safe for use, so look for these pregnancy-friendly oils if you want to try them.

Heat therapy

If you want to go for a more classically approved choice, then heat therapy is one of the best that there is. Heat can relax the muscles, which can release the strain that you’ve been holding in your back, shoulders, and hips. Heating pads, hot water bottles, and even taking a warm bath can be very effective for soothing the body, and can also relieve headaches. However, hot tubs and saunas are typically too hot, as you don’t want to raise the body’s core temperature to a level that might be dangerous for the fetus.

Of course, pregnancy is never truly easy. But with the tips above, you can ensure that you’re taking steps to manage any discomfort you’re in.