Is Chiropractic Safe During a Pregnancy in Clarksville TN
Can you see a chiropractor while you're pregnant? We regularly treat pregnant patients at our Clarksville office, and your OB or midwife should be part of that decision. Is chiropractic safe during pregnancy? Serious problems have rarely been reported, but the research is too limited to say how often they actually happen. Below is how we adapt our care and what the evidence shows.
Your obstetrician or midwife manages your pregnancy, and nothing here is advice about it.
Why pregnancy is hard on your low back and pelvis
As the baby grows, your center of mass moves forward, and your lower back usually answers by curving inward more. At the same time the hormone relaxin loosens ligaments, including the ones around the pelvis. That's what lets the pelvic ring make room for birth, and it also means those ligaments hold the joints less firmly than they normally do.
A shifted load on looser joints is why low back pain and pelvic girdle pain are among the most commonly reported musculoskeletal complaints of pregnancy, often showing up or getting worse in the second and third trimesters. Our guide to chiropractic care for pregnancy goes through it trimester by trimester.
What a prenatal chiropractic visit looks like here
It starts with your history and an exam: what you're feeling, where, when it started and what changes it, and how your lower back, pelvis and hips are moving.
If care is a fit, we use pregnancy pillows so you can lie comfortably, we modify our adjusting technique, and we generally use less force. None of our chiropractors currently holds a separate prenatal certification; these adaptations are how we work in pregnancy, and our prenatal chiropractic care page covers them in more detail. We'll go over what we found before we recommend anything, and it's worth mentioning the positioning and technique to your OB or midwife too. Pillows make the table easier to lie on, and a lighter touch changes how the adjustment feels. Safety is a separate question, and the research on it is below. How you'll respond to care is something nobody knows ahead of time.
We'll tell you what we find, including when it's not something we treat. If we are not able to help you with your problem or are unable to reduce your pain levels, we will make sure to give you a recommendation to another experienced provider. And if what you're dealing with belongs with your OB or midwife, we'll say so and send you to them.
Are chiropractors safe during pregnancy? What the research shows
What we know about risk. Manual therapy isn't risk-free, ours included. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) notes that serious adverse events during pregnancy have rarely been reported, but rigorous research is limited. That's a small body of research, and it doesn't establish safety for every pregnancy or every technique. So we want the treatment, its benefits, risks and alternatives talked through with your OB or midwife before you start.
Where the evidence stops. NICE, which writes England's national clinical guidelines, reviewed the research for antenatal care and found insufficient evidence of benefit from manual therapy alone for pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain. We offer this care, so you should hear that from us. Nobody can predict how you'll feel after treatment, and we won't promise you how it'll go.
The other options. For pelvic girdle pain, NICE supports considering a referral to physical therapy for exercise advice, a non-rigid pelvic support belt, or both. Which of those fit you is your OB or midwife's call. Exercise plans also have to account for any medical or obstetric complications, which is why the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends a clinical evaluation before an exercise program.
What about sleep, lifting and posture?
ACOG suggests sleeping on the side in the second and third trimesters, with pillows between the knees or under the belly for support. The NHS advice on pregnancy back pain covers supportive shoes, bending the knees when lifting, and supporting the back while sitting. That advice is about comfort and staying active. It isn't a way to realign your pelvis. Your OB or midwife will know which of these fit your pregnancy.
Breech babies and chiropractic
This page doesn't offer an adjustment as a way to turn a baby or weigh in on how you should give birth; your baby's position and delivery plan are for your OB or midwife. The medical procedure here is external cephalic version, where an obstetric clinician tries to turn the baby from the outside, with assessment and fetal monitoring. ACOG's patient guide covers when it may be considered, its risks, and the delivery options. It's a different procedure from a chiropractic adjustment.
When to call your OB or go to the emergency room instead
Vaginal bleeding, fluid loss, a severe or persistent headache, changes in your vision, severe abdominal pain, or your baby moving less than usual all need medical attention right away. Before 37 weeks, so do the signs of preterm labor ACOG lists, which include regular or frequent tightening or contractions (often without pain), pelvic or lower abdominal pressure, and a constant, low, dull backache. Contact your obstetric team now, and if you can't reach them, go to an emergency department. Call 911 if you may be having a medical emergency. The CDC keeps a list of urgent maternal warning signs. Please don't wait to see us first.
If it's none of the urgent signs above and your back or pelvis is making this pregnancy harder, give our Clarksville office a call and we'll take a look at what's changed.
Follow the evidence
Research, with context.
Selected published sources behind what we've written, each with what it found and what it can't tell us. We give you both halves because no paper can diagnose you or predict how your own care will go.
A randomized controlled trial comparing a multimodal intervention and standard obstetrics care for low back and pelvic pain in pregnancy
169 pregnant participants enrolled at 24 to 28 weeks, with outcomes assessed at 33 weeks.
What it foundManual therapy, stabilization exercise and education alongside obstetric care improved pain and disability compared with standard obstetric care alone.
What it can't tell usBecause the program combined several things, it can't separate out the effect of an adjustment. It doesn't show a benefit for delivery, fetal position or the baby's health. The publication record links a correction.
Publication details & citation
George et al. A randomized controlled trial comparing a multimodal intervention and standard obstetrics care for low back and pelvic pain in pregnancy. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2013. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajog.2012.10.869.
Read the publication record
Our editorial policy explains how to read these sources and what our clinical-review labels mean.