Chiropractor or osteopath for SPD/PGP what's the difference?

[Belgianchocolates]

I've got PGP (32 weeks pg) and have been looking into treatment as my NHS physio seems to be ignoring me when I say I feel something in my pelvis is out of line. Via the Pelvic Partnership I discovered that manipulation by a chiropractor or osteopath can be very helpful, confirming my gut feeling about my pelvis needing a 'tweak'. However it didn't give any info as to how they differ in their treatment. Has anyone used both and what do they do differently? Oh and if anyone can recomment a chiropodist/osteopath who specialises in pregnancy in the Birmingham area that'd be nice too. It's so hard to do it cold via the Yellow Pages.

i used to see a lovely osteopath in erdington called stephen ling, it was a few years ago so before i became pg but i believe he treats pg women

Generally, a chiro tends to focus on the spine and the spinal nerves whilst an osteopath tends to have a more whole body approach. Chiro treatment tends to be shorter but more frequent, whilst osteopathic treatment lasts usually 30 - 45 mins and less frequent. Both would do pelvic manipulation.

Whichever one you choose find a practitioner registered with the General Chiropractic Council or General Osteopathic Council, (google these and enter your postcode to find one near you), then you can call the practice directly to ask if they specialise in pregnant women and get a feeling of how you would get on.

good luck

Thanks Cathers for explaining the difference to me. I found it really quite confusing I like the sound of the whole body approach favoured by osteopaths, so I think I'll have a look on the General Osteopathic Council's website for one near me.

It's such a shame that people have to go private for this. My hospital has two obsetric physios and both do pelvic realignment, and yesterday mine made me do something that put my back right as well. I feel doubly lucky as I couldn't possibly afford anything other than NHS.

I would write to your PCT to complain.

I saw a fab chiropractor when I had SPD and she made a huge difference with just a couple of manipulations. She said she couldn't treat the SPD itself but by realigning a couple of imbalances in my spine she could relieve the general pressures in the area a lot, and what she did did make it much better. But she also said that if after examining me she felt she couldn't address the problems I had she would recommend an osteopath instead. I took this to mean chiropractors have a more specific range of things they can treat while osteopaths can probably do more.

Hawkmoth The physio I'm seeing at my trust is supposedly an obstetric physio, but clearly she's not up to speed with her knowledge regarding PGP, because she doesn't offer any hands on treatment, but basically seems to spend her time giving out tubigrips, leaflets and crutches.

I have had private chiro and NHS physio.

The chiro got me off all fours and got the baby into a good position for me. The physio did nothing until two weeks ago when he started to stretch the gluteal muscles out, and this made a massive difference, because he also taught DH how to do it and DH has been doing it every night for me as well.

I am baffled as to why more NHS physios fail to lay on hands.

We should have a blardy tubigrip bonfire IMO because they are a substitute for treatment rather than a solution.

And those belts were tested on cadavers and consequently don't work on many real life women.

My physio just gave me a belt too. Now she was fantastic, the belt did help a lot, and she spent ages talking through positions for delivery etc, one of the best health professionals I have ever encountered, but ... I was also surprised she didn't actually do anything physically. I wonder how much evidence base there is though for whether manipulation helps SPD - probably what they can do depends on what else is going on in your body - and in general I think they are very wary of potentially doing harm with a pregnant person.

oh and the chiro did the same Boffinmum, got baby into a lovely position very obviously, I could feel that she had shifted round after the treatment, and I had an extremely easy delivery after a dreadful time first time round, so I do highly recommend chiro from personal experience!

Systemsaddict I got in touch with the Pelvic Partnership and from their leaflets it looks like manipulation should be the first line of treatment, not last. Apparently PGP/SPD is generally caused by a mechanical problem in the pelvis and that can only be treated by hands on treatment. They still recommend a belt, but more for support and for keeping the pelvis from moving too much. Something you'd want if someone has manually put your pelvis back in line I suppose.

BoffinMum at the tubigrip bonfire. But only after I've had my baby. It does help me a bit at the moment.

I have been around the houses since November with SPD, and the only things that really really helped was:

1. The chiro clicking things back into place at the first chiro session.
2. A subsequent chiro and an NHS physio stretching the glutes, starting from 2 weeks ago.

I think the reluctance to do anything useful is exactly as you say, an odd reluctance to treat pg women. But I suspect in my case if they had taken the risk, and spent a bit less time talking out their backsides for weeks and weeks at me, I might not have been reduced to using a wheelchair. I did ask for the manipulation, but the NHS in particular almost wilfully refused to do it.

BoffinMum I think people seem to be reluctant to do anything to pregnant women, but there's plenty of evidence out there that gentle manipulation helps and fixing your pelvis can only be good for the time of childbirth and afterwards so you can look after the baby without needing help.

How is your pelvis now? Do you still need a wheelchair? With 2 older dcs that would be my worst nightmare, but I don't think it'll come to that, now I've taken the step to go private for treatment.

I use a wheelchair out of the house, and crutches to get from the car to a building.

Yesterday I had to use crutches around the DCs school as DS2 had a class assembly, and it did quite a lot of damage, but I simply couldn't lift the wheelchair out of the boot myself and assemble it, so I had no choice.

I was in a bad way by bedtime, but DH did a lot of manipulation (taught by the physio) and things have settled today.

I really am a great believer in manipulation. In an ideal world all pg women would have attention paid to their pelvis anyway, not just those with SPD.

Belgianchocolates - I am off to see an osteopath today after getting a shooting pain in my bottom which I think may be Pelvic Girdle Pain. He sounded lovely on the phone so we shall see how it goes but I will come back and report on how it went afterwards in case you are interested.

I saw an osteopath yesterday and I don't think I'll go back to him, but try someone else. Somehow he didn't seem to know as much about pregnancy or PGP as his colleague made out. He told me that he wouldn't advise pg women to do yoga . It's one of the gentlest and most popular forms of excersise for women out there. It's good preparation for birth and it's very adaptable, so my teacher always gets me to do different things while the others are doing lunges or similar things.
Anyway, after my 1st session with him I didn't feel any difference. I've now heard of another osteopath in the area who works closely with a fertility clinic, so hopefully he's a bit better. I'll phone him first thing on mon.

boffinmum That sounds awful what happened to you. Is there any chance that you will recover or is the damage permanent? I have found that as soon as I do ANYTHING slightly out of the ordinary, I pay for it. We went to Cadbury World today (with crutches) and this evening I'm very very sore and really need my crutches. I suppose I'll spend the next 8 weeks now doing nothing and hopefully I'll spring back together after the birth...

Thanks for asking, Belgianchocolates. The feeling is that I might be one of the lucky ones who is a lot better immediately after delivery. I am trying to hang onto that thought, tbh. Just three weeks until the due date now.

Good luck BoffinMum I hope you'll get better. Do you think you'll need more treatment after the birth? I suppose if things have been out of line for so long they'll need a while to get back to normal.

That osteopath I saw on Fri was surprised that I waited this long to go seek help, but TBH I was convinced the NHS physio would sort me out and it's only now that I've realised that actually a tubigrip and crutches is all that I'll ever get out of her.

I think I will probably feel quite a lot better once this baby has his head out of my groin, but they have warned me to have a proper 6-week confinement like the olden days, and not rush about like usual, and then spend 2 years gradually getting back to full fitness. The physio is going to do lots to me, apparently, and I have the option of continuing with chiro as well.

It sounds quite sensible to give yourself a proper 6 week confinement. I would have thougt that your pain wouldn't miraculously dissapear like it tends to with mild PGP (with my last pregnancy this happened). Good of your physio to give you lots of support after as well. What are your plans for the birth? I am planning to have a pool birth, because whenever I'm in water it feels like I'm back to my old self!

I am planning a home water birth. The consultant has been really great about this, because she agrees it is probably best for my joints, so she got all my medication properly checked out to make sure I was still low risk (I have been on some quite strong stuff since January) and liaised with my midwife and so on to make sure all the bases were covered. I was relieved and impressed at the level of care I got.

I have also taken the precaution of arranging a postnatal doula as physical and emotional backup. I do have an au pair but obviously she is not clued up about pg people, not to mention SPD.

My ap is going home tomorrow. That was always the plan, since I got pregnant. TBH she's not been all that helpful, so I don't think it'll make all that much difference. A weekly cleaner will be a greater help for me, so that's what I'm getting.
I'm planning a home waterbirth too.

I am finding it a bit difficult having mine in the house, even though most of the time she has been trying hard to be really, helpful since I threatened to sack her (there's a whole back story there). But I am so disabled now I am really reliant on her for help. I can barely make a cup of tea sometimes.