Caesarean deliveries can be cut

TREATING BABY: Chiropractor Sarah Winchester treats a newborn child.

PREGNANT women may reduce the potential for a caesarean delivery with pre-natal chiropractic care, visiting paediatric chiropractic expert and home birth advocate, Dr Jeanne Ohm, told a Coffs Harbour community forum yesterday.

Dr Ohm, a mother of six home-birthed children, speaking at the ‘Chiropractic Care in the Community’ event at C.ex Coffs, said that the high rate of caesarean deliveries in Australia could be cut if more women discovered the benefits of chiropractic care.

“Caesarean deliveries in Australia have risen in the past 10 years from one-in-five births to more than one-in-three,” Dr Ohm said.

“Studies show that this rate could be reduced if more women consulted a chiropractor early in their pregnancy for assistance in adjusting the spine, balancing pelvic structures and allowing the baby best possible position for a non-interventional birth.”

Dr Ohm’s current international research (which includes data from Australian women) on the role of pre-natal chiropractic care throughout pregnancy and its outcomes for a natural birth shows that chiropractic care can assist in a faster, safer, natural birth.

According to the CAANSW, access to chiropractic care for pregnant women – and the community in general – has the potential to not only improve clinical outcomes, but reduce public health care costs, cut hospital queues and free-up the availability of other health services.

Vice President of the CAANSW, Ms Kerein Earney, said the health and financial benefits of chiropractic care are outlined in ground-breaking proposal recently submitted to the NSW Health Minister.