DR. MO ESTEPAThe Baby Whisperer

Pathways Connect Gathering Group - San Diego Starting For Families Who Are Interested In Creating A Conscious Living Community

6/26/2014

San Diego, CA - Are you the parent of a small child or infant and interested in connecting with others devoted to exploring the many challenges of raising healthy children? Are you interested in learning more about conscious living choices like breastfeeding, healthy diets, and compassionate parenting, and would like to explore these and other issues that emphasize making personal choices responsibly and in a loving manner?

Pathways Connect Gathering Group - San Diego is organizing to serve families in Mission Hills, Bankers Hill, Hillcrest, Mission Valley, University Heights, North Park, South Park, Normal Heights, and Kensington. If you would like to be part of a fun and nurturing group that supports, educates and empowers parents to meet their children’s needs, contact Dr. Mo Estepa Jr., Chiropractor at (619) 291-5433 or email [email protected].

Please visit the Pathways Connect Gathering Group - San Diego calendar at www.meetup.com or visit www.DrMoChiropractor.com for information on our upcoming meeting topics, events and field trips.

Pathways connect is a non-profit educational outreach program of Pathways to Family Wellness magazine. www.PathwaysToFamilyWellness.org

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Newborn Chiropractic Care

6/20/2014

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Do babies really need newborn chiropractic care? Can babies be adjusted? Is it safe to adjust a baby? These are the three most popular questions that I get when I tell people that I specialize in chiropractic care for pregnant mamas, babies, and children. With certainty, I always answer these questions with, “Yes!”

So why does a baby need newborn chiropractic care? Consider how a newborn baby is handled. A parent would never pick up a baby by their head. Why? Picking up a baby that way might hurt their neck. However, that was already done to the newborn during the birth process. In fact, normal, uncomplicated births (including c-sections) exert 90-120 lbs. of force on a newborn’s neck. That’s over 10 times the baby’s weight exerted on their neck! And if the pregnancy involved a malposition (breech) and/or the birth involved dystocia (difficult labor), forceps, or vacuum extraction, then the stress on the baby’s neck increases further.

The force on a newborn’s neck during birth is more than enough to subluxate (misalign) their vertebrae and to disrupt proper nervous system activity. When this happens, a newborn can present in a variety of ways: difficulty latching, problems nursing, spitting up after nursing, acid reflux, colic, restlessness, and poor sleeping.

Many of the newborns that I see come in for support for these conditions, after other forms of conventional and alternative remedies proved unsuccessful. Parents are often pleased with the results generated through chiropractic.

One misconception about adjusting newborns is that the adjustment is similar to the high-velocity, low amplitude adjustment performed on adults. This is not the case. Adjustments on babies are both gentle and safe. When I adjust newborns, I use the same amount of force it takes to push your cheek in with your finger. In fact, parents often don’t realize that I’m adjusting their child when I’m supporting the baby’s head and neck with my hands. In addition, I can adjust the child while their parent is still holding them.

Newborns are born with a wealth of potential and possibility for their life. Chiropractic enables them to function optimally, so that they can achieve their greatest potential. Who wouldn’t want that for their child?

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Chiropractic during Pregnancy: The Webster Technique

9/3/2013

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Chiropractic adjustments are one of the best things a mom can do during her pregnancy. A well-adjusted spine is necessary for optimizing health during pregnancy, optimizing the baby’s development, as well as creating conditions favoring a positive birth outcome. One of the most effective techniques for pregnant women is the Webster Technique.

Chiropractic adjustments correct subluxations, or misalignments in the spine that disrupt the proper performance of the nervous system. These disruptions diminish an individual’s ability to function optimally. This is key during pregnancy because a mother’s functioning becomes challenged, due to the rapid changes of her growing baby. Furthermore, her baby’s growth and development hinges on her functioning and the internal environment that she creates for her baby. The Webster Technique specifically addresses the subluxations in her sacrum and pelvis.

Pregnant moms are more susceptible to sacral and pelvic subluxations because of increased hormones (relaxin), weight gain, and the associated changes in her posture. The aim of the Webster Technique is to decrease the effects of subluxations in the sacrum and pelvis through a specific chiropractic analysis and adjustment, in order to improve neuro-biomechanical functioning to the sacral/pelvic region. Restoring this neuro-biomechanical functioning may affect the baby’s spinal and nervous system development, improve the baby’s positioning and birth outcome, prevent dystocia (difficult labor), and relieve general aches and pains in the sacrum and pelvis.

In practice, the feedback received from mothers that I performed the Webster Technique on during pregnancy has been overwhelmingly positive. I observed marked improvements in their health, quality of life, and overall disposition as they continued care throughout their pregnancy. They reported positive birth outcomes with beautiful birth experiences. In fact, many of the moms didn’t receive the Webster Technique during their previous pregnancies. They noted having a better pregnancy and birth this time around because of chiropractic and the Webster Technique. First-time moms expressed gratitude for the care received during pregnancy.

Pregnancy is a critical period for both the mother and the baby. It prepares the baby for the external world that they will enter and it lays the framework for their future health. A baby’s potential is a quality developed during pregnancy. It needs optimum physical, chemical, and emotional conditions to manifest its greatest possibility. Through the chiropractic and the Webster Technique, a mother can achieve optimal functioning of her nervous system, which in turn improves her health and creates conditions for her child to be born with the greatest potential possible.

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Chiropractic during Pregnancy

8/26/2013

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As a chiropractor that specializes in delivering the finest chiropractic care to pregnant moms and their children, I see on a regular basis how vital chiropractic is to a healthy, happy pregnancy. Time and time again, moms tell me how much better their experience was with this pregnancy and birth compared to previous ones, because they received chiropractic adjustments during pregnancy. First-time moms tell me that their births were amazing because they received regular chiropractic adjustments. I’ve even had a first-time mom tell me, “I don’t even know how women [give birth] without regular chiropractic.” With all this great feedback, it’s easy to forget that popular culture doesn’t think of chiropractic as a key element to a happy, healthy pregnancy.

So how does chiropractic help during pregnancy? To answer this question, we have to understand the nature of chiropractic. The purpose of chiropractic is to correct subluxations, or misalignments in the spine that disrupt proper functioning of the nervous system. The chiropractic adjustment corrects subluxations to improve nervous system functioning, which optimizes a person’s health. For pregnant mothers, chiropractic not only improves her health, but it also improves the growth and development of her child.

During pregnancy, a mother becomes more susceptible to becoming subluxated. First she produces the hormone relaxin, which reduces the stability of her spine by relaxing the ligaments throughout her body. Then her body changes quickly and dramatically as her baby grows and develops. The changes will distort the alignment of her spine and subluxate her. Coupled with the increased instability within her spine, these subluxations may induce additional subluxations in other areas of her spine.

Subluxations during pregnancy may lead to pain and discomfort including sinus, neck, shoulder, arm pain; carpal tunnel syndrome; low back pain, leg pain, sciatica; allergies, nausea, poor digestion, trouble breathing; and difficult labor (dystocia). From clinical experience, I’ve witnessed marked improvements to health, functioning, immunity, and comfort in my practice members that received regular chiropractic adjustments during their pregnancy.

For the developing baby, regular chiropractic adjustments to their mother during pregnancy supports their optimal growth and development. From a neurological perspective, when a mother is unsubluxated, her baby neurologically develops in a state that is favors growth, development, and immunity. From a physical perspective, when a mother is unsubluxated, her baby can grow and develop in the optimum position. Optimum positioning contributes to the favorable spinal development of the baby and a favorable labor and delivery for the mother.

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Pathways Connect Gathering Group - San Diego Starting For Families Who Are Interested In Creating A Conscious Living Community

Newborn Chiropractic Care

Chiropractic during Pregnancy: The Webster Technique

Chiropractic during Pregnancy

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