Self Care is NOT Selfish

In fact, I wouldn’t even consider seeing prenatal support providers as self care. In my world, this is a necessity…even in the absence of symptoms.

Focusing on wellness and lowering stress is a necessity during pregnancy and especially for birth, as well as setting the foundation for a healthy postpartum period.
Some of my favorite providers to enhance your pregnancy are:

Perinatal Chiropractor

A perinatal chiropractor is specially trained to support you through your pregnancy, has extensive training in birth knowledge (and many, like myself, even have birth doula training!), and is also well-versed in the needs and changes during the postpartum period. Your perinatal chiropractor can absolutely help you with things like back discomfort, pubic symphysis pain, round ligament pain, and sciatica, but can also help optimize things like fetal position (literally SO many babies have flipped head down since beginning chiropractic care with us!), better sleep and energy for mama, and helping prepare pelvis to be a nice smooth outlet for baby to exit during birth! All such great benefits that I don’t think any mama should be missing out on!

Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist

I hear SO many people say that to prepare for birth, they’re doing things like kegels to help strengthen their pelvic floor.
And while a strong pelvic floor is important…it’s also not something most of us have to worry about. In fact, so many of us have VERY tight pelvic floors 😣 So here’s the thing: the job of the pelvic floor for the majority of our life is to hold strong and hold all your organs in. So whether it’s tight or strong, it’s going to hold your organs in. But during birth, the job of the pelvic floor is to get out of the way. And a strong pelvic floor has the ability to relax and get out of the way. But a tight pelvic floor? That won’t. This can make birth take a very long time and be very difficult. Working with a pelvic floor physical therapist to figure out whether you’re tight, and how to best help prepare your body for birth, as well as preparing for healing postpartum is such a great choice for so many women!

Prenatal Massage Therapist

Happy muscles are so important in your growing and changing body. It does so much for you physically, but also so great for you mentally! Keeping stress (both physical and mental) low through pregnancy is so vital for birth and healing!

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a great way to help ease any aches and pains during pregnancy, decrease stress…and also help get stubborn breech babies to turn head down!

Mental Health Counselor

I’ll be completely honest here: I’ve struggled with postpartum mental health challenges myself. So this is something I don’t shy away from having conversations with mamas about. I struggled pretty bad after my first, and braced myself expecting it to be worse with the second (due to more life stresses, exhaustion, etc. since I was not only taking care of a newborn, but also a toddler). But guess what? I was perfectly fine after my second! The only difference I made was that I was well-established with a mental health counselor for over a year before I had my second. For anyone who has struggled with mental health challenges, or even just feels “off”, I urge you to please not wait until you’re in crisis before reaching out for help. There is no shame in needing support for your mental health.

If you’re looking for some of my favorite resources local to the Roanoke, VA area who provide these services, grab my birth & baby provider resource list HERE.