Flipping Babies (The Webster Technique)

Am I trained to correct a baby breech presentation? Nope. No chiropractor is.

Whoa, hold on a minute, you crazy chiropractor! What are you doing adjusting all those pregnant patients with breech babies?

Well, I’m not flipping babies that’s for sure.

Everything in our office is focused on structural correction. I am simply using chiropractic adjustments and sometimes other therapies and exercises specific to the patients need to adjust and correct structural shifts in the pelvis.  This is where the primary problem is often found in pregnant mothers with a breech presentation.  I have never and will never attempt to turn a baby, nor should any other chiropractor. The reality is that the baby will often flip themselves the way they were intended to do when the pelvic bowl and especially the sacrum is balanced and no structural shift is present.

I have been adjusting pregnant mothers for years in my practice.

I currently utilize the Webster Protocol as part of our structural correction, which was developed by Dr. Larry Webster, after watching his own daughter suffer through a long, painful labor with a baby in the breech position. This chiropractic technique balances the pelvis properly and reduces the stress to the ligaments that support the uterus, more specifically the round ligaments. As a structurally focused chiropractor, we always take structural radiographs to determine a spinal structural shift.  However, during pregnancy and because of the baby, we don’t take pelvic or lumbar x-rays. The Webster Technique allows us to analyze the position of the sacrum as specifically as possible without x-rays so that we can still be structurally focused without using any radiation.

The goal of a chiropractor using the “Webster Technique” is to reduce the effects of sacral and pelvic shifts as well as SI (SacroIliac) joint dysfunction which can result in secondary conditions like (but are not limited to: low back pain, sciatic neuralgia, and difficult labor for the mother (i.e., dystocia).  Dystocia is often caused by inadequate uterine function, pelvic contraction, and baby mal-presentation. The CORRECTION of sacral shift often has a positive effect on all of these causes of dystocia.

The most likely reason for factors during pregnancy that contribute to dystocia are sacral misalignment, pelvic misalignment and the tightening and torsion of specific pelvic muscles and ligaments.  The resulting tense or tightened muscles and ligaments can pull on the uterus preventing the baby from comfortably assuming the best possible position during pregnancy for birth. It can also cause uterine nerve interference. All of which are easy to adjust for a chiropractor using Webster Technique.

Bubble Boy

Imagine you’re a “Bubble Boy” stuck in a plastic bubble with about the same available space that you have in the back seat of your car. This roughly 3’x5’x6’ bubble is suspended in the air held in place by a matrix of hammocks.  Yes, I get that this is a bit of a stretch but most of us understand that a hammock can support you comfortably while still having a fair amount of slack.  Now if I start pulling a few of these hammocks surrounding your bubble super tight can you see how that may reduce some of the available space in the bubble because of the tension of the hammock pulling and pressing the bubble down to a 3’x4’x5’? Good, because this is the simplest analogy I can think of for this situation. Now try flipping yourself around to lay in the opposite direction and you may find it challenging instead of easy to get into that position.

If you haven’t figured it out, the bubble is the uterus, you’re the baby and the surrounding hammocks are the supporting muscles and ligaments. Here’s the catch.  Those muscle/hammocks have to be tied to something. That’s where your sacrum and pelvis come in.  Correcting any shift in the foundation of your body’s structure (sacrum and pelvis) can help to alleviate this inhibiting tension on the uterus, which is especially stressed during pregnancy. This is why women often don’t experience back pain or other problems except during pregnancy.

For more information on finding a chiropractor in Greenville, NC using the Webster Technique, click here. If you are pregnant, the time to get under chiropractic care is yesterday. Chiropractic, including the Webster Technique, will stack the cards in favor of you and your growing baby.