Why? Because these muscles are known to have active roles in both pregnancy and childbirth, as well as spinal stabilization. When they aren't working properly, health issues such as urinary incontinence and vaginal prolapses can occur. There's a reason these issues are more common after childbirth!
But this isn't all they're responsible for. If they function correctly during labor then they give you the greatest chance at a natural, intervention free birth because they need to be able to relax and contract on cue during labor to help the baby move through the birth canal.
As research has been showing for a couple of decades now that chiropractic care improves motor control, it’s safe to ask the question “will getting adjusted help with controlling pelvic floor muscle function?” This question is even more important when you take into account the fact that currently it's a lottery as to whether a woman will develop stress urinary incontinence post childbirth - we just don't know why some do and some don't!
We do know that the normal timing if everything is working correctly when we contract the pelvic floor muscles, is the left and right sides are supposed to contract at the same time; the superficial muscles are supposed to contract first, and then the deeper muscles follow soon after. In women with stress urinary incontinence this timing appears to be completely out of whack.
To answer this question, a great study has been conducted at the New Zealand College of Chiropractic. Researchers used ultrasound to assess pelvic floor muscle function in pregnant and non-pregnant women before and after chiropractic adjustments.
After the pregnant women were adjusted their pelvic floor muscles appeared to relax more when they were at rest. We know that pregnant women need a greater control over the pelvic floor muscles during childbirth and this certainly aids in making the whole process easier if they do have good control. This relaxation of the pelvic floor muscles in the pregnant women after they were adjusted suggest that chiropractic care may be of benefit to pregnant women, as it may help them have a natural vaginal delivery.
Another very unexpected finding was that the non-pregnant group, who were made up of chiropractic students, were able to contract their pelvic floor muscles to a degree previously seen in only elite athletes. For non-pregnant women who get checked and adjusted regularly, it’s possible that this improves the condition of the pelvic floor muscles, enables greater sensori-motor control, and potentially decreases the risk of future stress urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence and vaginal prolapse (especially following childbirth).
So the ultimate take home message is this: These findings are so exciting! It appears that pregnant women relax their pelvic floor muscles better at rest after they receive a chiropractic adjustment, and this relaxation may mean that chiropractic care could be of great benefit to pregnant women, as it may help them have a natural vaginal delivery. More research needs to be done to see if this is the case or not because this study mentioned as well as the other ones that have been performed are smaller preliminary studies, but this is where research starts. The bigger studies are on the way so we will keep you posted with any results and findings!
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