Mama Chiropractor

How do you differentiate these days between what is real vs what is done through AI? There is SO much information out there, on everything!! These days you can put anything into ChatGPT and regurgitate it as a blog piece or for content on Instagram. This is certainly not that!

When I fell pregnant, I was overwhelmed with all this information, some of it a complete load of nonsense spewed by influencers who have no place giving medical information. But it sticks with you!! It gets into every crevice of your brain. I wanted to write a piece about my experience of being pregnant and becoming a mama, especially as a health professional. Chat GPT can’t give you that 😉

I have treated many pregnant women and babies in my 12 years of working as a Chiropractor. At the start of 2024 I fell pregnant. It was a strange process for me as I knew I wanted a child but didn’t know how I would react mentally(or physically) once it was real. I didn’t have the urge to join groups or read books or follow pages. I was in the middle of finishing my Kinesiology Diploma and had enough on my brain. I took it in day by day, got advice from those close to me and stuck to what I thought felt right.

I am very fortunate to have a really good “gut feel” about things and I know my body pretty damn well. I always encourage others to get to know their bodies well too- it’s actually how I managed to fall pregnant. I have tracked my cycle for 10 years and can feel every hormonal change, ovulation and all the things that come with being a woman. Pregnancy was no different. I stuck to drinking my one cup of coffee a day, even though the internet may say otherwise. I ate sushi from where I always order it and even had some soft cheese and salami when hiking in the Alps when I was in France. I know many women probably think I am mad and irresponsible but that’s what society has done to us. Fear mongering. Yes there are cases of things going horribly wrong but look at the actual statistics, it’s over dramatized. I was given the best advice to just keep living my life the way I do and to keep doing what I usually do. Gosh did that keep me mentally sane. HOWEVER, the only thing I didn’t manage to keep up was my running and this killed me inside. Initially I wanted to be this picture of health running fit pregnant Mom that you see on Instagram, that managed to run all the way through up until the last day. Ha ha ha, it’s true! But 10 weeks in I started spotting after every run and didn’t enjoy the feeling of running on my pelvic floor so that was that. But somehow I still believe it was all meant to be, the universe was on a mission to slow me down. Walking has now become one of my favourite things to do, its gives me time to ponder about life, my decisions and anything that may be sitting on my brain. It calms me and grounds me. I am better for it.

Fast forward through my pregnancy, which was a really easy going. Thank you lucky stars! However, did I enjoy the process? Absolutely not(please don’t judge me)! I didn’t enjoy how my body changed and looked, I didn’t enjoy being nauseas and the change in my senses and I didn’t enjoy how I was limited. Not many women speak about not enjoying pregnancy, I feel it’s because (often, not always) it’s a choice to become a mama. Also and what I assume, women may feel bad about speaking negatively towards pregnancy because some ladies go through hell and back trying to have children. There’s your good ol’ social media, filled with how you “should” feel and react and I definitely wasn’t a rainbows and unicorns pregnant dancing fairy. BUT I did decide to embrace it and stay positive. I listened to all the good music and did all the self-care, in order to send only positive vibes to my boy. I was making another human being and that was one insane thing to think about. My body creating another body, another life, another beating heart and buzzing brain. To think of pregnancy like that, made it pretty cool.

Jump forward to how I gave birth. WOW I did not realise how controversial this would be. Again so much out there making you feel guilty about your choices. I actually have a heart condition that was picked up when I was in my 20’s. At 32 weeks I had a full cardiovascular work up, my cardiologist was amazing and I really liked and trusted him. So took his advice to have a c-section. But just imagine those poor women who have been abused or raped or those who have extreme anxiety towards childbirth. Imagine questioning them? One thing I learnt whilst being pregnant, DO NOT QUESTION A PREGNANT WOMEN’S DECISIONS! Hells bells we go through enough and definitely think through our decisions about 100 times. Someone even made this comment to my husband, “oh what a shame”! I just took it as maybe they cared? Ha ha! Did I feel guilty, yes! I mean I’m a complementary and alternative health care professional. I should be encouraging the “natural route”. But towards the end I embraced my decision, I stopped listening to podcasts and stopped watching birth videos, I stopped following certain people and pages and I wryly smiled at people who spoke negatively about “the procedure” and sent them off with love 😊

In the end, everything turned out fine. I knew it would. The epidural didn’t hurt and my boy came out just perfect, thank you God. I must say, post op recovery was a tad bit more painful than what I expected, my incision tore as they were pulling him out. Not fun! A few things I also didn’t know:

You have to have a catheter. That removal was not pleasant, as was the first pee… ffffffff.
The bloating was something else, and I struggled SO bad to have a number 2. Enter the glycerine suppositories. Why didn’t I know about this? Ha ha ha! The most unglamorous thing ever!
The morning after, at 5am, “you have to get up, ma’am.” The first walk, the first shower—all whilst having to be a new mama between breastfeeding, painful nipples, eating, drinking enough, and getting enough contact time in. Right into the deep end.

However, everything made sense after those few days. All the stories, all the silent nods, all the people that checked in. At the end of the day though, those memories of the crazy tough moments all melt together into your beautiful bundle. Those sweet sounds and overwhelming new smells. There is some innate switch that flips and all of a sudden you’re in Mom mode. You manage. You get through the hard parts and you make things work. Your maternal instincts kick in and you just thug it. It’s a challenge but you survive 😊 I’m 4 months in and this hood is unlike any hood I’ve been in, it’s filled with all the extremes but I’m learning more about myself every single day. Something changes, something softens, something strengthens. Motherhood.