Congratulations, you’re going to have a baby. Our office wants you to have the healthiest baby and both of you deserve the very best. Sheppard Chiropractic wants to help new mothers learn what is best for their babies.        What you do now has an impact on your baby’s health.  Current research shows that your consumption of drugs, caffeine, and alcohol influences your baby’s well being.

     Smoking during pregnancy can cause ADD in children.  Children whose mothers smoked while pregnant were 3x more likely to suffer ADD, than kids whose moms didn’t smoke.

     The use of alcohol is another known health risk. There is no safe amount of alcohol for pregnant women. Physicians generally advise women to abstain from alcohol while they are pregnant.

     One study found that women who consume more than 300 milligrams of caffeine a day (3 cups of coffee or 8 sodas) reduce their monthly chance of conception by 26%.

     Also, any drug taken during pregnancy multiplies itself by 10 to 20x in your baby.

     Now is the time to consider your birth plan because it too may affect the health of your newborn.  Are you thinking about an epidural? Epidurals cause longer labors, fevers, increased use of antibiotics in your baby (as much as 4x), increased use of forceps by 4 ½x, and also causes neonatal jaundice due to altered red blood cells.   

     Researchers recently found another reason for parents to choose natural childbirth over C-section.  The study found that the cord blood from babies delivered via C-section contained one-third the number of antibodies compared with natural deliveries. This means fewer allergies for your child.

     Once your child is born there are things to consider that will also affect your baby’s health.   Breastfeeding is a very special, natural way to nourish and protect your baby.  Baby’s exclusively fed breast milk for the first four to six months have less diarrhea and fewer infections of the intestines and lower respiratory tract.  Breast-fed babies often display better thinking abilities and do slightly better academically from grade school through high school. There is also evidence that breast-fed babies have less ear infections than those who were not breast-fed. 

     Also, parents should be alerted to the potential risk of cow’s milk, and that breast-feeding is the preferred method of infant feeding.  Cow’s milk often contains growth hormones, fat, steroids, cholesterol, allergenic proteins, blood, pus, antibiotics, bacteria, viruses and more.

     Since the birth process is a trauma and the primary cause of a subluxation. Parents should consider having their newborn adjusted by a chiropractor. Dr. Guntman found that about 80 percent of all children are subluxated during birth. 

         Chiropractic is the number one source for properly functioning nervous and immune systems.  Chiropractic is a natural and holistic way of improving your child’s quality of health.  Chiropractors look for subluxations in your child’s spine.  A subluxation is a misalignment of a bone that is putting pressure on a nerve creating interference or dysfunction in your baby.  There are three ways that a person or child can get a subluxation: trauma, stress, chemicals and drugs.  For a baby, some of these ways could be the birth process, slips and falls, exposure to second-hand smoke as well as other factors. Chiropractors are the only health-care professionals who can detect and correct problems with you and your child’s spine.  They look for the cause of an unhealthy nervous system in the body.  Chiropractors adjust to reduce the pressure on the subluxations in the body to create an optimum state of health.  Only 10 percent of the nervous system registers pain, the other 90 percent controls thinking, smelling, hearing, seeing, breathing, digesting, eliminating, and movement.   Dr. Sharpless states that it only takes the pressure of a dime to lose 60 percent of nerve function in the body.

      Why have your child checked? There are many benefits of chiropractic. Having chiropractic care helps kids to be sick less often and less severely, have fewer emotional and learning disabilities and other neurological problems associated with childhood. 

    What are your choices for better health?  We at Sheppard Chiropractic believe in chiropractic first, medicine second, and surgery last. Mothers should consider the following to give their baby the best chance for a healthy body.   First exercise and eat properly both before, during, and after your child is born.  Have yourself checked for subluxations because this can affect your labor and delivery and ultimately affect your child as well.  Next, prepare a birth plan so that you and your doctors are aware of your choices and decisions.  After your baby is born, breastfeeding for a minimum of six months provides many benefits for your newborn both now and into their future.  Also, have your child checked for subluxation after birth.  These are a few of the many choices that you can make to provide the best start possible for your child.

Moms speak out

“I chose to nurse my daughter instead of giving her formula because of all the benefits. I wanted her to have a better chance of being healthy in all aspects.”    B.C.

Breast-feeding is the perfect food for the baby. For 1000’s of years breast-feeding has always been done except for the last 50 years in today’s society. There is nothing better for your child’s health and well being than your own milk.  

                                    J.S.

For more information call

Dr. Sheppard at 753-KIDS.