Can osteopathic manipulative treatment help with the aches and pains of pregnancy?
By Sajid Surve, DO Osteopathic physicians are trained to understand the interaction between the structure and the function of the human body. An important part of their training is osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT), techniques during which osteopathic physicians use their hands to move a patient’s muscles and joints through stretching, gentle pressure and resistance to assist healing or prevent illness. OMT is often used to treat muscle and joint pain. If a nerve, muscle or joint is subject to abnormal pressure or strain, it will eventually cause a pain response. Many medications can be prescribed to alleviate the pain or discomfort, but OMT can often decrease or eliminate pain by adjusting the surrounding musculoskeletal structures to restore normal pressure to the affected nerve, muscle or joint. This can be particularly important for pregnant women because very few medications are considered safe for the unborn baby during pregnancy. With OMT, osteopathic physicians may relie
