How to determine if your body is ready for labor and delivery?
Wondering if your body is prepared for labor and delivery? We measure the “stress” in your body to find out.
Our bodies are well equipped to handle stress in small doses, but when that stress becomes long-term or chronic, it can have serious effects on your body and its ability to innately give birth.
Why is it important for your body to be prepared for delivery?
Bringing your baby into the world is like a marathon. You wouldn’t try to run a marathon without preparation. Right? Then, how could you bring your baby into this world without any preparation? Childbirth requires endurance, strength, flexibility, and the right mindset. And all of this is only possible if your body is ready for it, and is not in a constant state of stress.
The bad news is that stress during pregnancy is more than just an inconvenience, it’s actually unhealthy for you and your baby. Don’t let the desire to “get it all right” cause you to feel stressed instead of relaxed.
How to measure if your body is ready for labor and delivery?
Most pregnant mamas wish there were a magic way to check in with their bodies to see if they are “ready” for labor! Wouldn’t be great if there was a quick and easy way to do just that? There is! It’s called a Heart Rate Variability (HRV) scan that tells how adaptable your nervous system is. And that adaptability gives us huge insight into how your labor and delivery will go!
This scan reflects how adaptable your body is to stress, and how your nervous system is currently adapting to stress and gives us insight and a goal to prepare your body for birth. If your heart rate is highly variable (green zone), this is usually evidence that your body can adapt to many kinds of changes and your nervous system is ready to respond appropriately to labor and delivery. As your body moves through stages of labor, your nervous system is able to guide those innate abilities that the body has to birth an entire human.
On the other hand, low heart rate variability (red zone) shows your body is less resilient and struggles to adapt to stress as it encounters it. When you go into labor, your nervous system’s going to stay in “stress” mode so your body is focused on survival. When your body is in survival mode, you aren’t able to tune into those innate abilities for labor and delivery.
Calculating a person’s heart rate variability is a great way to analyze and measure their autonomic nervous system! So, regulating your HRV to maintain a healthy functioning autonomic nervous system is crucial through your pregnancy and heading into delivery!
How can chiropractic care improve heart rate variability?
Chiropractic adjustments directly influence the autonomic nervous system, improving heart rate variability and increasing the heart’s ability to recognize and adapt to stressors. Subluxations produce interference in the central nervous system, altering the information sent from the brain to the body. The primary objective of chiropractic care is to detect and correct these subluxations, enhancing the nervous system function in order to improve overall health and wellness.
As a result, when your heart rate variability is monitored throughout your pregnancy, chiropractic care can help your results move from “the red zone” into the “green zone” and you shift from a constant state of stress to being a happy and healthy mama, exactly the way you are supposed to be!
Conclusion
The Heart Rate Variability Scan is something that we do for all of our Blossom mommas throughout their pregnancy. And we expect to see their results move from “the red zone” into the “green zone“. When you’re ready to give your body the ability to adapt during pregnancy through chiropractic care, we’re here to hold your hand every step of the way.
As St. Petersburg’s top Prenatal chiropractors, we’re always striving to provide you and your baby with the best care and experience. If you are in the Tampa or St. Pete area and are looking for a prenatal chiropractor, contact us to schedule an appointment to see how we can help during your pregnancy!
