A Gentle Hands On Approach to Premature Contractions

By Dr. Liselotte Schuster, Schuster Chiropractic

Premature contractions are a serious complication and are a sign that there is something happening with the baby or with the mom’s body. The imbalance in the mom’s tailbone may be causing the uterus to tip forward, forcing the baby to apply pressure to the cervix. That pressure will stimulate the release of hormones, which start the uterus to contract early. Some women will have signs of imbalance such as a sudden feeling of extreme pressure in their groin or front of their legs and weakness in trying to walk, then just as quickly that will go away. There also may be a pressure feeling on the cervix or just the contractions. Either way one should not experience any of these symptoms.

Thankfully one can do something to correct imbalance within the body and prevent taking medications or lying in bed for the rest of ones pregnancy. The hands on technique is called “The Buckled Sacrum Maneuver” and was created by Dr. Carol Philips a Chiropractor and Doula. You can read about how to do this in her book “Hands of Love: Seven Steps to the Miracle of Birth” and or come in to see a chiropractor who is trained to show husbands and or birth partners how to perform this during pregnancy. The technique helps to realign the sacral bone, which then lets the ligaments that attach to the uterus get into better position and take pressure off the cervix. During pregnancy ligaments are much looser and a sacrum that may have been injured previously will be much more unstable. That is why this technique can be performed a few times a day to help keep things in the best alignment for mom and baby.

In a nutshell while the mother is standing, feet apart with hands on the wall, her partner has one hand just above her pubic region and the other hand fingers pointing down puts slight pressure to the mom’s low back and gently slides down the sacrum and feels for resistance to that downward movement. If resistance is felt hold that area for a few minutes until the resistance lets go and the hand slides down easily. This is a very gentle move and helps the sacrum to realign itself. Some women who have had this done have also stopped the contractions by lying on the floor with a small rolled up towel and will slide the towel down until they hit resistance and then let the weight of their body realign their sacrum. The main goal is that a woman can live her life more fully with healthy options for a full term pregnancy.