Ep 52: What happens in Vagus: guest interview on the Magic of Mamahood Podcast

Dr. Shannon had the honor of being a guest on the Magic of Mamahood Podcast with Caitlin and Stefany, and we’re so thankful that they shared their episode with us at the Aligned Birth Podcast.  They had some wonderful questions about the importance of posture, how poor posture can affect us over time, ways to combat posture issues, chiropractic care during pregnancy and what that looks like, chiropractic care and allergies, pediatric chiropractic care, and more!  You definitely want to listen to the end for my top 3 takeaways about the importance of chiropractic care.  And be sure to check out Cailtin and Stefany’s podcast.  Motherhood takes a village, and their fitness, nutrition, and general women’s wellness knowledge that they share is an important part of our motherhood tribe.  

This podcast was created from a desire to share conversations and interviews about topics from pregnancy and birth to motherhood and the importance of a healthy body and mind through it all.  Our goal is to bring you fun, interesting, and helpful conversations that excite you and make you want to learn more.  We hope what we share will make an impact and help someone else along their journey.  We believe that when you are aligned in body, mind, and your intuition, you can conquer anything!  If you like what you are hearing and you don’t want to miss our newest episodes, be sure and tap subscribe. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Resources:

Magic of Mamahood Podcast 

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Aligned Birth

www.instagram.com/aligned_birth
Dr. Shannon

www.instagram.com/sunrise_chiropractic_wellness
Doula Rachael

www.instagram.com/northatlantabirth

Check out our individual websites:

Sunrise Chiropractic and Wellness - www.sunrisechiropracticandwellness.com

North Atlanta Birth Services - www.northatlantabirth.com

Disclaimer

The information shared, obtained, and discussed in this podcast is not intended as medical a

Transcript

Unknown 0:00

You need to be aligned birth Podcast. I'm Dr. Shaman. I'm one of the hosts. And today I am doing a little intro for an interview I was able to do on another podcast. And so the host over there so graciously shared the interview with me and are letting us kind of rebroadcast it out on our birth podcast, the aligned birth podcast. So I was able to join Stephanie and Caitlin from the magic of mama hood podcast, and they are to like, I feel like fitness extraordinaire women and so Stephanie in the bio on her on their Instagram page, she says mama of three, but I'm pretty sure she just had her fourth because I remember we talked about her being pregnant in when we did the interview. In the episode but she's a fitness instructor and just really loves that pre and postnatal corrective exercises, specializes in training in those things. And that's Stephanie Caitlin is a mom of two and she's a nutrition coach and a fantastic run Coach and an a fitness instructor. And so they have a podcast where they interview women that are important and integral to like the motherhood lifestyle, and so it's mental health. It's doulas. It's OBS like they've had some wonderful interviews and so it was such an honor to be on their show. They gave me a giant list of things that they wanted to talk about. And so I was like, Oh, my this is great. But there were general questions, pregnancy related questions, things about children. And so we talked about posture, why is posture important? My posture recommendations. And then we went into what is Webster certification and prenatal chiropractic care when to go when you should go? What postpartum looks like because I know Stephanie had some very specific questions with that as well too, and really looking at that postpartum type of chiropractic care and then children you know, how young can they be? How old can they be? Why bring them in what's going on? What does pediatric chiropractic care look like? And those type of things so I had so much fun, I took lots of notes to prepare for it. And so we're talking about nervous system function and the causes of nervous system irritation, looking at some of the International chiropractic, Pediatric Association, trainings and everything there so I had a wonderful time. Get to listen to the end of the episode because they like everybody to kind of share three things. Those take home points of what you hope people gather from the interview, and I've had some some friends and moms and patients able to listen to the podcast on that was where originally put out the magic of mama hood episode. And what I had to say at the end really, really resonated with them. And so you got to check out those three little nuggets at the end. I hope you enjoy the podcast episode, and definitely go give them a listen. Go share it and leave ratings and reviews and then while you're at it, do the same thing for the aligned growth podcast as well. Hello, and welcome to the Align verse podcast. We are so glad you're here. I'm Dr. Shane is a prenatal chiropractor.

Unknown 3:30

And I'm Rachel a birth doula and childbirth educator and we are the team behind the aligned birth podcast.

Unknown 3:37

Between us we have experienced a cesarean birth and VBAC hospital births and homebirth our personal experiences led us to where we are today

Unknown 3:45

we share a lot in common.

Unknown 3:47

We are friends from high school who reconnected through our work. We both changed career paths after the birth of our own children. We light up when talking about health and birth and we are both moms to two young boys.

Unknown 3:59

This podcast was created to share conversations and interviews about topics from pregnancy and birth to motherhood and the importance of a healthy body and mind through it all. Our goal is to bring you fun, interesting and helpful conversations that excite you and make you want to learn more.

Unknown 4:14

We believe that when you are aligned and body, mind and your intuition you can conquer anything. We hope you enjoyed the episode

Unknown 4:33

Hi guys, we are so excited to have you listen today because we have an amazing guest Dr. Shannon, she is a chiropractor, local to Metro Atlanta. She is certified in the Webster technique she sees anything from babies to adults. She has a huge interest in taking care of mamas and so we're really excited to talk with her about what she does and how chiropractic care can benefit all of us. So welcome Dr. Shannon. Yay. Thank you so so much. I'm so excited to

Unknown 5:09

talk to you all today. Yes, so are we. So we usually start off our podcasts with weekly wins. And if you want you can go first. You can talk that we do

Unknown 5:20

and I know Sure. Um, I don't know I guess I have to like survive Daylight Savings kind of thing because that oh my gosh, like work for time change I don't know so anyways, I think I've talked about it like every day but that was part of my mindset of like oh that's my when I have survived I'm like God That sounds so like you know like oh God, but um, no, my sweet rescue puppy. We celebrated her seventh birthday. Yeah, we gave well her ish. We don't know when she was born. She's rescued. But yeah, so she celebrated her seventh birthday ish. Yesterday on St. Patrick's Day. So happy

Unknown 5:57

birthday. Oh, that's Yeah, that's really fun. Um, Caitlin, how about you, you can go next.

Unknown 6:04

Okay. So we have lived in this new house since October. And I have not gotten my best friend now lives six minutes for me. And as soon as we moved out here, I was like, I'm going to be able to run into your house which you know, if you're a runner that is huge. Yeah. And I haven't been able to do that because of COVID like us having COVID and the flu and all the things so finally last night, I was able to like get the girls down, render house. And just hang out for a little bit. It was really nice. So that's my win something small, but just so fun.

Unknown 6:43

Oh, that sounds so wonderful. Yeah, that

Unknown 6:45

sounds fine. I'm jealous. I want to look at my best friend.

Unknown 6:49

Okay, what about you stuff?

Unknown 6:51

Um, honestly I would just say just getting through the week. I'm like, I'm just so tired. And just everything's just been we've got we just got back from a wedding and then also like the time change, so it's just been like crazy here. So just getting through the week. It's Friday. You know, not we're not doing anything this weekend. So I'm really excited to just hang out at home. So that's my that's my weekly when

Unknown 7:17

well and remind everyone because the last time we like you hadn't even announced

Unknown 7:25

Yeah, well now I'm like, I think I'm like 34 or 3534 Weeks Pregnant today. So I'm almost I'm almost done with this baby. I started last baby, and we're really excited. But you know, the last month of pregnancy is exhausting. Yes. I know. That's so exciting, though. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Well,

Unknown 7:50

let's jump right in. We have so many questions. I was really excited because people want to know about chiropractic care, and I love it. So we have some general questions here. And the first question is what is the best way to improve your posture?

Unknown 8:08

Um, gosh, that's kind of a loaded question because there's so many aspects to posture, right, I guess. You know, and I really want to dive into like, why and how the posture forms and develops too because that's so important. But what people typically think of with posture, and what we're thinking of nowadays is what we call text neck. So that anterior head translation, and I like to call it almost like that mommy nursing posture to where shoulders round forward, everything caves in the chest. It's that fetal position. It's that motherly, nurturing hugging hold, well, that just compromises kind of everything in the neck, that neck posture. And so that is the, you know, the main one that people think of, and when you're looking at that spinal structure that's impacted as well as the musculature, of course, I'm going to say chiropractic adjustments, making sure we have proper motion in the spine, but then also exercises that we add in and exercises that we do. So I'm looking at really trying to bring that neck posture in the back those posterior cervical muscles.

Unknown 9:19

That's okay, we hear sorry, I know.

Unknown 9:24

But don't we all work well in chaos, right.

Unknown 9:28

That's like the motherhood. Oh,

Unknown 9:30

yeah. I'm like, can I tune that out and keep going? Why yes, I can. But you know, looking at I add in those things, I love foam rollers. I love things that really open up the chest and chest openers. I love yoga, and there's that's why there's certain things I like in that. So that's really looking at that neck posture. But a lot of times too, we can have I was thinking of this earlier, I was like, I don't know if you guys maybe you're my age and you hurt like cheerleader but you know, where you just stick that rear end out and you have that hyper lordosis right? No, cheerleaders, gymnasts that do all of that. That is also a postural impact. So some people forget about that as well too. So that's really like can we strengthen the core can we look at how tight so SS can we work on glute muscles, as well as adjusting and making sure we have that good motion because we can work on strengthening things all day long. But if we're not impacting that spinal structure and making sure that things are moving well, it's just going to kind of revert back to how it was. So that I don't know if that answers it like a whole bunch.

Unknown 10:35

Yeah, no, that does I so I don't know if Caitlyn told you, but I teach prenatal and postpartum fitness. Um, when I do more like corrective like corrective exercise, like it's not like intense fitness like you know, like what normal people think of, but we work a lot with like what you said like the strengthening of the back because of nursing and when you like stand like your posture, the way you stand, like curves out your back and everything. And I this is like my first time I have this is my fourth baby. But this is my first time like applying it to myself while I'm pregnant and I have noticed like a significant change in like the way I stand and my back I usually when I get pregnant have like what you said like that text neck and like my back like my sway back. Yeah. Like I usually have that and with chiropractic care and like what I've been doing, like I feel like like I have I've had like no back pain this this pregnancy and it's been like amazing. It's been so nice.

Unknown 11:33

That's so awesome. And it's well and I think what you're speaking to as well is it first it kind of starts with like that awareness Okay, awareness of this is where my posture is supposed to be because the ears this be in line with the shoulder, the hip, the knee and the ankle. And so take a look at yourself, take a look at your kids. You know, take that side picture and see it because I do this in the office and I show them I'm like this is where we're supposed to be and we I typically see an inch and a half to two inches forward of that anterior head translation. Yeah, one inch forward, you add 10 pounds of pressure to the spine and that's globally on the spine. So it doesn't mean you know, working with patients, okay, we're gonna work on adjusting your neck. I know you have low back pain, we're gonna adjust everything but that you know, neck back.

Unknown 12:15

It's all connected. Yeah, yeah. So I went with my first baby I had like a horrendous like, it was so bad I couldn't even it like hurt to like just stand and like walk. So I went like to the chiropractor and like she helped so much, but it took so long for it to just like, get normal and get back.

Unknown 12:33

I'm so glad you said that. I was actually going to talk about so this aspect of time so yeah, but I know it just that posture is really important though. Yeah, I know.

Unknown 12:43

And along those lines too. I have so I mostly work with moms too. But at my job at the studio, I have a lot of older clients, and I am like, we have got to work on core strings. We've got to do this because the older you get, it's so much harder to

Unknown 13:02

it takes longer, you know, to really correct some of those things. So yeah, definitely.

Unknown 13:09

Yeah. Um, so I think we've talked about this a little bit better. What how does the how does that posture affect us over time?

Unknown 13:16

Um, I want to go through like a little example with with this. So and it's it's kind of we talked I talked in the office about we've got those big traumas, those slips, falls, major injuries, car accidents, things that we really remember like, oh, yeah, that was traumatic and it could be impacting my spine. But those repetitive tasks we do day in and day out, you know, do you have a long commute? Are you sitting at a desk? Are you dealing with children? Are you picking up things all day? Like what are those repetitive tasks that you're doing day in and day out? Those can also impact the spine just as well. And so when you think of that brain body, body brain connection, how the brain sending that nervous system signal to every cell tissue and organ it's a two way highway, so it's coming back up to the brain as well. And if we have that improper signal coming out or coming back in, it can impact sensory motor aspects of the body entirely. So with you know, someone's been in a car accident, we get whiplash in the neck, we now have a reverse curve in our neck essentially, which can happen or sometimes people have a straight neck that military neck or both that reverse curve. Well, that is essentially my neck. I haven't been adjusted since birth. And so I do have a very, very severe reverse curve on my neck. And so when I was pregnant, I had horrible carpal tunnel. And so when I went to the chiropractor that second pregnancy, when she sat down and really explained, okay, well all the nerves, motor sensation, everything going to your hand is coming from your neck. So that's how neck posture alignment can affect everything you know, so it really affected that hand and so I noticed a big difference. So that's a very simple like, you know, neck to hand hand to neck type of thing. But when you think of it globally, as far as your everything in your body is being controlled by the nervous system, and the posture in the body is there for a certain reason, and it allows for that nerve to have that full room within that nerve current canal. And so when we impact that structure that function, it can really impact some of those downstream things.

Unknown 15:19

Yeah. So and yeah, that's really interesting and goodness. It's crazy. How connected together is

Unknown 15:26

I know that's like the big takeaway. I want people to understand the opposite. I want you to know everything's connected, which can be overwhelming, but don't be overwhelmed.

Unknown 15:34

running through my head is that kid song that it's like, the head bones connected to that.

Unknown 15:40

That stuff's true. I never

Unknown 15:43

do it as children. But the

Unknown 15:45

funny thing is, is you could even say like the neck bones connected to the tailbone like it's that's how it's connected. You know, not directly but even indirectly, so but we don't want to confuse the children.

Unknown 15:55

And the thing too, we've worked with some pelvic floor therapist, especially in what we do, and it's just interesting how your pelvic floor affects so many different things that you wouldn't expect. And so, I think what we're learning is take all of your expectations away and just know everything affects something else in right. You don't realize so. Yeah, exactly. Okay, so how can chiropractic care help in my day to day life?

Unknown 16:24

Um, I think one of the biggest things that I noticed and you know, I have people coming in for certain reasons, typically pain, you know, stuff that you hear, but the biggest takeaways I hear and what the biggest impact in day to day is when people report some of what I call like the fun side effects of chiropractic care when Oh, I have like I'm sleeping better. That's a huge one that I hear, like, so you're able to rest better, you know, and really, if we can move better, so when I deal with moms, and if she's pregnant and has a young one already, when she comes in, it's like, oh, I can take care of my other kid better. Like I can you know, feel that I'm a better mom, because now I'm no longer in as much pain, I have better motion, whatever that thing is, you know, I'm sleeping better. That's kind of the impact to me in that day to day life. And I think it brings awareness to things I mean, that's my word of the year too. So it's funny that I keep mentioning that but that awareness to the importance of our posture and how our nervous system controls everything in the body and just looking at that and giving that some warrant. You know, it just taking that awareness into that aspect of how important the nervous system is, but I think quality sleep is a big one. I

Unknown 17:40

hear that that helped helped me like when I when I was when I started doing chiropractic care helped me it also really helped me I still get like, I had like hormonal migraines. So when I was when I get my period or when I have when I'm pregnant, especially first and third trimester, I always get them like really bad and that has helped a lot like compared from my first pregnancy to now like, I don't I only get them like here and there. Whereas like with Finley or my second I would get them all the time. So that has helped a lot with me.

Unknown 18:09

That's huge, you know, and that's that big quality like so yeah, we remove the pain, you know, that can really add to that quality of life too. So, most definitely yeah, I do. So I don't know. I do want to mention one thing with the curves in the body and the spinal curves because I think it's really fascinating and when we look at how the fetus develops when the babies in the womb that the fetus, it's and why we call that fetal position. It's the spine is in that C shaped curve. So it's just gonna all leaning forward. And when the baby's born and as we go through these milestones when we do tummy time, tummy time is so important because that's where we get that neck extension, right we look up the baby lifts its head it gets that strength. I know it takes them off sometimes, but like, you know, do it little bits here and there because there's a whole world for them to see when we can see the right side we see the left side of the world and we lift that neck up and then when we start to sit up on our own, we really begin that's how the curves of the spine are developed. Are through those developmental milestones, crawling, all of these things are so very important. So I just think it's fun to think of like, oh, that's how those curves formed. Well, let's make sure we're forming those in the most optimal way we can and making sure we've got good alignment from the get go and then maybe I don't deal with the reverse curve of my neck when I'm almost 14. You know?

Unknown 19:32

Yeah, that's so interesting.

Unknown 19:34

Yeah. And especially because like in the womb, they're like there for like so long in the same position.

Unknown 19:40

Exactly. And then if you got twins Yeah, it's always one that like, it's none of the room.

Unknown 19:49

Um, so what's the recommended amount of times to go a month or a year? varies.

Unknown 19:57

I was gonna say, I'm gonna give you my blanket that varies. Yeah, answer but we'll see you have over 200 different techniques and chiropractic as well. So it's, I can't speak to some of those other techniques because some are just instruments, some are manuals, I mean, there's a whole wide range but I can give you what I see in my office and what I what I work with and you know, you have a corrective care base for a little bit to see where we can get persons coming in pain or whatnot, what we've got going on, but my maintenance people, I try to see them two times a month. And I have you know, some I work with some pretty strenuous athletes as well. So if they're training for something, we bump it up. We're maybe doing once a week, couple times a week depends and then we can kind of turn it down if we're in that season, you know, in between seasons or something like that. So and then I have some that do once a month and that's like, this is what fits with their lifestyle and everything. But I do love that aspect of checking people often you know, and checking in because everything can impact

Unknown 20:59

our nervous system. So yeah, of course.

Unknown 21:04

And in the times that we're living where there's high stress everywhere, I feel like it's even more important to have that preventative care so

Unknown 21:11

Oh, yeah.

Unknown 21:16

All right. Sorry. I was just to ask a question. So moving towards pregnancy, because I know you have a lot of experience with this and it's something that you can speak to. But are there any benefits for seeking a chiropractor for fertility?

Unknown 21:36

Um, yes, this is a fun one. Because when you and I actually have it's so fun. I had another patient recently come in and it was for infertility. We've done a lot of IUI you know, trying to figure IVF, but she's going that route and where the clinic that she was at had recommended chiropractic care and was like, that's amazing that they, you know, seeing that So, when you think of again, the nervous system controls all the functions of the body, so it's going to blood vessels, glands, organs, all of that. So when you're thinking of that reproductive system as well, if we can look at and make sure that we've got an optimal nervous system signal coming out to those reproductive organs, as well as that sensory coming back in that's that big thing like, you know, are we perceiving our environment correctly, R is that signal coming from the brain optimal for what the body needs. And so, you know, sometimes there can be misalignments in that pelvis, that sacrum, that lumbar spine because the from that lumbar spine, the low back that's what gives rise to motor sensation, nerves for pelvic floor for bladder, everything lower spine, low back and then reproductive organs as well. So and there's other aspects to it as well, too. I never like to come across as like a chiropractor is going to cure everything. It's like a beautiful like we work with the pelvic floor. Therapist, I love to work with other obese and other Indies and that sort of thing. Because looking at nutrition, looking at Exercise and Movement, all of that can impact that fertility journey, but I do think a chiropractic care I've worked with some acupuncturist as well that do really good with fertility, but I also like to work with the other side of the couple to write because it's not all on mom to come in and get adjusted. I do think it works with a couple because I'm not saying like Oh Dad, you're the problem. You gotta have it. Yeah, you're right. But um, it's the it's the energy in there as well, too. It's the are we getting good rest because our body isn't going to heal and grow if we're not in parasympathetic mode. And so if we are in sympathetic dominant mode, which happens with that poor posture and those rounded shoulders, you can't heal when your body is perceiving that you're running from a bear. So that's another thing to wear chiropractic adjustments and really looking at taking care of that and helping balance out that sympathetic versus parasympathetic part of the nervous system, which a lot is vagus nerve, which comes right out of for instance, right at the top bone in the neck. And so we we make adjustments we can impact, potentially vagus nerve function which is in charge of parasympathetic sorry, there's my life.

Unknown 24:24

This is probably TMI for my family, but it doesn't matter because who cares? So on. My husband has been going to therapy and he his his therapist is like it He's been teaching him so many techniques to calm his parasympathetic system. And one of them was specifically to that what did that What did you What did you say? The which one, what is it

Unknown 24:48

vagus Viega.

Unknown 24:49

And he like taught him this technique to like, like like figure out like where it is and like how to bring his body down to relaxation. And that has been like, I've never seen him actually. He's never been able to meditate and like that's like the one thing that he's able to do with like the technique that he taught him and he like, actually calm down. So that's super interesting. Yeah. Like, you're entering that for so.

Unknown 25:15

Yeah, my favorite nerve and that's how the gut communicates to the brain. Yes. So it's vagus nerve. It's parasympathetic. I mean, it's like it really is my favorite nerve. It's very, very beautiful. And it's the it's what it means it's the wanderer. It's like the longest one and the body comes from cranial nerve. It's just it's so good. So but yeah, that breathing techniques to that's why diaphragmatic breathing is so good because, you know, exhaling longer than you inhale. Like all of those things. I do some work on that too. And I get those stuff to kids too, when we're when we need to calm down, you know, and we need that help. Just giving them some breathing Extra. I'm so excited to hear that for your husband. Yeah.

Unknown 25:54

Yeah. And I like teach a lot of diaphragmatic that's like one of like, my main things that I teach for my tween to just, you know, calm down, calm down, you're like to relax and also because it helps with your core muscles back during training, so and I was teaching David that too, but he wasn't like connecting both of them. And as soon as he taught him that he started connecting it with the diaphragmatic breathing, and it's just been like really good for him which is which is amazing. Yes, and then affects the whole family unit. Yes. Exactly.

Unknown 26:23

Where I do love working with families. Yeah. So yeah,

Unknown 26:26

a couple. Okay, so this is kind of like shifting gears a little bit, but not really. Um, can chiropractic help with like nausea that you experienced during pregnancy?

Unknown 26:38

Um, it can in the fact of you know, we just talked about with vagus nerve so that you know, you've got that sensitive stomach, that uneasy stomach sometimes, it can be you know, from vagus nerve and, but there can also be when you have those food aversions, senses are very heightened, then I don't know my sense of smell was crazy. I could like identify things very specifically. And I was like, I need that out of my world, like type of stuff. So

Unknown 0:00

Have you know yeah, there's there's some aspects of that but I do know just with women that we don't have as much nausea and sometimes too if we can move better than we like to exercise more and I think exercise is a really big way to help with the nausea. I know that helps with me a ton. So that can kind of be maybe not directly, you know, always related it can be but helping the body move better. Yeah, make a difference. Okay. And

Unknown 0:31

how often should if, if there you're seeing a woman who's pregnant, how often should she come see you during her pregnancy?

Unknown 0:40

Again, that depends because everybody is different and they're having their different reasons for coming in. You know, if we've got someone late in the game, and we've got someone who has a breech baby, you know, I'm not we probably need to come in a little bit more often than we would say, so I probably would be seeing her maybe three times a week, you know, that type of thing. And then sometimes two to the two times a week if we're starting a little bit late in the game as well, but we don't have a whole or we do have like really bad sciatica. You know, it can be that two times a week. Mostly kind of maybe being around that once a week, just making sure things are staying where they are lined up as baby grows. So again, you know, it all varies, and it depends on technique as well too. So you can have some instrument techniques that work with bombs so but there is that aspect of like, there's probably a more frequency to care if we are you can kind of think of pregnancy as like that corrective care moment, you know, and so then thinking that like, okay, it's not going to be like that for lifetime. Yeah.

Unknown 1:47

Fine. I've only had two but it was so different I had hyperemesis. But it was all the way through my entire pregnancy with my first like, everyone would be like, Oh, it'll clear up in 12 weeks or 16 weeks or 20 weeks and it never did. So don't say that to people. Yes, Josh Caitlin. But I went maybe once a week then because that was about all I could stand kind of the length down and with my second I carried her so low, it was like twice a week, sometimes three times a week just to get comfortable. Exactly. hugely helpful. I don't think I would have been able to, I don't know what I would have done without it to be honest, for quality of life, trying to take care of a you know, 12 month old and being pregnant. So yeah,

Unknown 2:37

exactly. Um, so what can you expect in a visit? Oh, my gosh, what can you expect you to visit to the chiropractor when you're pregnant? So like, how do you lay down like where do you lay down because obviously you have a belly as you get bigger.

Unknown 2:54

Yes. This was always my favorite part was I get to have moms Yeah, in their belly. So I lay on my belly. This past week, I've had two moms where they were like, I was like, Okay, let's get up on hands and knees and we'll sit up. They're like, No, I don't want to move like no, I was like, Okay, we'll just, you know, like just feeling that relief, but I have a table that has a middle part that kind of drops down. Yeah. And then there's typically like these chiropractic pregnancy pillows. So it's like a foam like a real nice foam and just the middle is cut out so it makes a nice little like cocoon for the belly, and then a lot of times after baby's born, if mom's coming in, baby can just kind of hang out in that little pillow as well too. And it like keeps them keeps them there. But not all tables will have a part that drops down in the middle like sometimes you can just use the pillows and you can lift up other parts of the table. So not that that's you know, a has to be that way but um, but yeah laying on. Now laying on your belly is not that everybody prefers that position position because sometimes it can give you some low back pressure just depends on what aches and pains you have. But it is it is safe because you're not there for very long so yeah,

Unknown 4:03

I look that's like my favorite part about going up really because I'm like, I really feel so good on my Fastow.

Unknown 4:07

Good I remember that too, because I was always belly sleeper and I was like, Yeah,

Unknown 4:14

you guys I slept on my stomach until 20 weeks. My first and like 22

Unknown 4:20

Yeah. Are you like in this like twisted torsion? Like, like this? Like job

Unknown 4:25

security, right? Yeah, exactly.

Unknown 4:26

Exactly. I'm like, sleeping again. And my husband I when I was pregnant, we would we had a beach trip and so I remember him digging a hole. Lay on my belly and last week yeah, yeah, it was amazing. Yeah, and then we dug another hole. Like next year we went we had the baby you can just put them everywhere.

Unknown 4:49

So this is why this doesn't list a question for like postpartum but is it beneficial to go to the chiropractor after you give birth and how soon after you have the baby can you go? Um, I love

Unknown 5:00

I mean, I love taking care of moms in all seasons of life. So I do love preconception of pregnancy but like so much postpartum I'll never forget one of my moms came in postpartum and she said her husband you know during birth just she had a water birth and it was this amazing, beautiful thing but he everything he saw he was like, Oh my gosh, you so need to go back to the chiropractor, like after the baby's born just how the body just expands you know and grows and just all of that. So I look at it as like okay, let's make sure everything gets lined up properly. Postpartum for me was the biggest thing because with my story, I had an emergency C section with my first and I wasn't under chiropractic care, and then I didn't start on the care till I was 36 weeks pregnant with my second and so I had had really bad hip pain after my first and I would still run but it was just kind of that nagging pain and so kind of had to throughout pregnancy not as bad. Sometimes that happens because we have relaxed and then the body and we're just moving things around. But I stayed under care with postpartum because I tried again, trying to running I was like this is excruciating. And it went away with those postpartum adjustments and that was life changing because running is my life. So that was huge. And so in that aspect of things, yes, but then looking at Mommy posture was holding baby. You know, there's so many things that go into and balancing the stress. I mean, there's a big event that just happened, ya know, really looking at balancing nervous system and it really depends on when Mom is ready to come in. You know, I know it's a lot to get out. The house and got other kids and what stresses you out and I love the aspect of laying in for several days after you know, just whatever, whatever works. And then if you've had a C section like you just have other things to think about. So I always just say like as soon as possible.

Unknown 6:49

So yeah, okay, that's good to know because I feel like I always skip out on postpartum chiropractic. I went with like my last three kids, and I like skipped it out if I didn't go to way later and I've always had like terrible back pain like from giving birth. So this time I'm gonna go when I feel like you know, like when I have a little bit of time like to take care of myself. I'm gonna go because I feel like it would really help especially with like, breastfeeding and this everything Yeah,

Unknown 7:17

the set huge posture and like, I do a postpartum re exam in my office and then I do I just add in the newborn exam, like right with that. So I make it to where people can book that. So like, Hey, bring baby in. And we'll do we'll take care of everything. Okay, cool.

Unknown 7:33

That's awesome. That's a perfect segue to our next one. Yeah. I didn't see that. I

Unknown 7:38

was like what is the youngest age someone can go to the chiropractor. Um, what do they say you can go womb to tomb?

Unknown 7:49

Yeah. Just it's I've had my dear friend, Dr. Tiana, who she and I are each other's chiropractors. She's adjusted the baby like still attached to the placenta. I'm not even lying. Yeah, so because if you've got a home birth and if sometimes the chiropractor needs to be there, like all kinds of things, so she has definitely adjusted like I have not

Unknown 8:14

seen but so so crazy. I mean,

Unknown 8:15

how amazing is that? Wow. But so you know, as young you know, as young as can be, I guess can be the answer. So yeah, there's really not an age of and, you know, pediatric justments look different within that whole pediatric realm. I mean, infant adjustments look different than when I'm working with a toddler toddler looks different than when I'm working with my teens, you know, on and on and on and on. So and then it kind of as we get older we revert back to those like, you know, more gentle adjustments as we get older

Unknown 8:46

with the sign and that sort of thing. And I'm just going to ask this because I know I've been asked this many times by several family members, but um, because my brought my son to get chiropractic care, but how safe is it? For babies to get chiropractic care like that young?

Unknown 9:03

You know, it's so it's so very safe and effective because there is no when you're looking at chiropractors that are trained through for pediatric care. So the international chiropractic Pediatric Association has so much wonderful research out and that's where I've gotten all of my training done. So yeah, you do want to make to work with pediatric patients. Just like you take your kid to a pediatrician or we're not going to like big person, Doc, but you know, it's so very gentle there's no twists and turns in any sort of thing. And it's really just, it doesn't take a lot of pressure at all. I had a 12 year old come in the other day, and he was asking about like, Well, how do you just baby's nose, like, do you want to feel the pressure that I use? And he was like, Yeah, and so I went up to his neck and it's like how you test like the rightness of a tomato like it's just very, very instant on it doesn't take a lot. And so he was like, Oh, wow, I know, I do try to warn my patients. I'm like, it doesn't look like I'm doing here. There's a lot going on, right? Yeah.

Unknown 10:08

Yeah, I was so scared to take my first daughter she had she had really bad reflux. And so my pediatrician was like, You need to take her to the chiropractor.

Unknown 10:17

You know, so yay for that pediatrician, that

Unknown 10:21

she's also the one who started spotted postpartum depression and, like, that's amazing, incredible. But anyway, so I was so nervous. And then yeah, it you're kind of like, Oh, is that it? And it was hugely helpful for the reflux. So if anyone's listening, that's just our story. But yes, it was really good.

Unknown 10:43

So yeah, and I will like any of the things I'll send you the links to everything that I mentioned it because there's some Dr. Joel and canteras are really big researcher in the icpa world and Dr. Math, Matt McCoy, who actually worked with him on the research track while I was in chiropractic school. And so because I have that research background a bit, and so I'll give you links to everything too. If people want to look at Hey, look at this paper. And that type of thing. So, okay, that's awesome. Yeah,

Unknown 11:09

we'd love that. We'll post it up for you guys to see.

Unknown 11:13

Yeah, so I think I mean, you probably mentioned some of this, but what are some benefits for infants and babies that are seeking chiropractic care?

Unknown 11:23

I know Caitlin just mentioned reflex. That's one of the ones on my list. You know, I'll tell you my my own little story because this is a big reason why I shifted career paths a bit but so I when I had stayed well, I had my feedback. So that was really big. And I really do say that chiropractic care helped a ton with that. So then I was feeling high, you know, from having that VBAC success and then my chiropractor is like, you should bring your kids in and I was like, huh, and I really like everything seems fine, but we'll do it. And I noticed like because you hear the things common versus normal, right? So like, oh, this reflux is common. This buildup is common, this constant it's totally common for a kid not to poop for nine days. I very much disagree with that. And so in dealing and taking him in, I was like, Oh, this is what this is optimal function. This is what it could look like for him and the benefit for him and so no more constipation, no more reflux for him and then we brought my oldest son who was three and every winter he would get a cold and he wouldn't even nebulizer. It was like story of our life. It was so frustrating. And then you hear oh, it's just common. It's common for kids to have these asthmatic tendencies. It's common common common, and he's never needed a nebulizer since he started under care. Why? And so those two things, they're kind of shifted my husband, he's like, Oh, this is kind of cool. So he started getting into care, because, you know, the guys are always like, there always was. But that was that big shift for me to understand, okay, what is this optimal function of what could this mean for other families and so I do see a lot of that, like, Oh, no more antibiotics. I have a lot of kids that like it's that improved immune function. And so because the nervous system is directly connected to the immune system, I mean, they communicate all the time, and especially in the gut, because that's where a lot of the immune system lives and you have the vagus nerve. See, it's all connected. It's all connected. So, but I got I've had a really big influx of nursing issues, whether it's a lip tie, tongue tie, buckle tie, torticollis maybe not nursing on one breast versus the other. That's not normal, you know, those types of things. So, yeah, and doing some cranial work, but those are the big ones that come to mind sleep Bedwetting, older kids with Bedwetting, that's a big one too, walking on the toes, all of those little things. I'm trying to think of the people that come in and what we've worked on when

Unknown 13:38

I went in for my son because he wasn't he was having a hard time figuring out how to like crawl and like, his, his like legs like his hips and stuff and because he was like so tight like his hips were so so tight. So like we I brought him for IP still going but I when I when I first brought him like he went like No, I'm not even joking like the next day. He started like, pushing himself up and like figuring out like, how to like, move his his like hips, and my husband was like, Is this from the chiropractor, and I'm like, I haven't been doing it before. Yeah, that was how

Unknown 14:14

my husband was to,

Unknown 14:15

like, the asthma stuff is like, Wait a minute. No, yeah, no.

Unknown 14:21

I love it. I'm gonna jump ahead because you talked about the nebulizer and that. Can chiropractic care help with allergies?

Unknown 14:31

I just sent a newsletter out and I talked about like Spring is in the air, because I do love to see people regularly do during these allergy seasons. Because again, you're processing everything in your environment through your nervous system. And so yeah, there's going to be allergens and things that like there's one reason why you're having that reaction to it. But the biggest thing I noticed is not as often of the sinus infections, so maybe we still have a runny nose or stuffiness and sometimes if that's all that we had, that can tend to go away if we're doing some regular care. But the big one that I noticed for most of my patients is if we are under that regular care, we there's a huge decrease in that number of sinus infections towards actually getting to that really, really bad stage. Yeah. Yeah.

Unknown 15:21

So how often and I think you've like touched on this but how often should a child see the chiropractor? I guess it also depends on what the child Yeah, it

Unknown 15:31

depends because if I've got if we're working on plagiocephaly so we've got like flathead, one side is that you know, and really structure determines function. So yes, aesthetically, we want a nice, you know, pretty little round head but also the brain is going to form to how that skull is and so you might need to be seen a little bit more often as an infant then maybe two times that week or something like that. Again, it all depends on technique, and what's going on that patient history as well to kids in sports. Sometimes we see you know, my kids play soccer, so sometimes I'm adjusting them like once a week because their ankles just are crazy. Soccer ankles or it's like a whole other thing. So yeah, it just depends and especially those oh my gosh, my my teens that I have these really heavy backpacks because I've been told and it is it's like the worst thing I've ever seen. They get bigger since we've been in school. It's worse and you're absolutely we're safe to carry every arm. Yeah, and so

Unknown 16:29

I feel like that middle school age, I have read whoever and they just really put everything in that's crazy lockers as much,

Unknown 16:38

ya know, and that you know, the schoolwork I guess every school is different. They don't have the lockers now. So yeah, they I mean they have them in the school. It's just I don't know, there was from COVID They didn't use them. And I guess there was also aspects of like, you know, just most issues happen, you know, at the lockers. I'm like, I don't know, but their little signs are being compromised, so can't even so it just depends. It just depends on the seasons of life of where we're at as far as how often to go. But again, every care plan is different. And so I think that's the good thing to look at and notice is like, okay, there's that corrective time period, and then we get to that maintenance time period, and I think that would be the thing to look for because I do know chiropractors are like you need three times a week for the rest of your life. Sign up for this care plan. It's going to cost you $10,000 Now, yeah, I get those people in the office because they're like, that's that's not that's not doable. So, you know, shop around. Yeah.

Unknown 17:36

I love how you know, you're being honest, like it depends on what you're looking at. And what you need because I feel like we talked before with OBGYN and she was saying you have to find a good partner for you in whatever, you know, whatever care you're seeking, and I feel like it's the same way with chiropractic care. This is your team. This is your partner through it and you have to feel connected and exactly and safe. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Um,

Unknown 18:08

so usually we end our podcast with three takeaways that you want listeners to know like just the three main important things I know there's a lot that we talked about. But what do you think if you could if you could pick three most important things? What would they be? Um, I would.

Unknown 18:27

I would definitely say that. Chiropractic is so much more than like a pain management type of thing. You know, I you know, seeing a lot of people because of neck pain, back pain, headaches, whatever it may be, but I hope we at least touched on a little bit of like those other quality of life, things that it can impact, you know, like, you know, better sleep and that type of thing. I just, I want people to kind of understand that and really understanding that that optimal potential that they have for their nervous system function, just by looking at this one aspect of their life. I know so that's one thing that I would think I would hope people take away from this the another one would be that a Webster certified chiropractor can be an important part of a family's birth support team. Because I've experienced that birth without and one with and just I mean, you see to that with we have a chiropractor on the team. Sometimes we have other team members that come in, you know, and we just expand that knowledge that we have of birth and birth support and what that can look like. And so I think, I don't know I just would love if every person could have a chiropractor on their birth. Support Team. And there's the aspect of and you touched on this earlier Stephanie says when I wanted to circle back around to it, but was it's that concept of time healing takes time. I mean, we are these beautiful, amazingly, wonderfully made. You know, beautifully made creatures, and it's so wonderful to see how life unfolds, but just understanding that, you know, if I've got someone coming in, and they're 30, and they want one adjustment to like, undo everything that's happened to 30 years of their life. It's just like healing takes time, just like we're just in such a quick fix society that I wish people understood that yeah, sometimes it is that one adjustment sometimes with my kids. I'm like, Oh, look, we're nursing better now. Immediately after the adjustment and then other times, it's like, okay, this is taking a bit so for whatever the reason, but just that yeah, that healing takes time.

Unknown 20:37

Those are awesome. Those are amazing. I wrote them all down. So I can remember.

Unknown 20:41

Yeah, like visiting soaking it in. I feel like I've been quieter this time because I'm just soaking it all in which it's so interesting because I found Dr. Shannon through a recommendation through I feel like it was Atlanta moms or Marietta moms. And then I started following her and I was like, Oh my gosh, this is like the chiropractor for me. She's a runner. He understands like holistic wellness, loves yoga, all of these things and I don't know it's been really cool to connect and see that we have a similar passion and step two for moms and caring for moms. And all these different ways. And so I know thank you for what Yeah,

Unknown 21:23

I love this. I know and I had I mean, I did have lots of notes here of like, oh my gosh, I didn't mention

Unknown 21:27

this or that or No, I know I want to do we talk Stephanie I about doing maybe a running specific podcast and I'd love to have you on to to talk a little bit more.

Unknown 21:39

Oh, yeah. Oh, I know, because I have a blind birth podcast because that's what it's about. There's the nursing posture. One I've done and that was one thing I wanted to at least mentioned with nursing as far as it goes in depth with that sympathetic posture. So sorry, sidebar.

Unknown 21:58

That's right. We will also link Yeah, Dr. Shannon's podcast so you guys can check it out because this is like tip of the iceberg stuff here. And she is a wealth of knowledge as is her co host so give it a listen. Thank you so much, Dr. Shannon, for your time.

Unknown 22:15

Yes. Thank you so much.

Unknown 22:16

I had a blast. Yeah, we'll talk soon. Bye. Thanks.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai