Prenatal & postpartum

Pregnancy and postpartum recovery are two of the most underserved windows in healthcare. Most patients we see in this space are carrying years of unnecessary pain — back issues, incontinence, pelvic instability — because no one helped them rebuild after their bodies changed.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re pregnant now or your kids are in middle school. Postpartum doesn’t have an expiration date.

This work is led by Dr. Whitney, whose clinical focus includes prenatal and postpartum care.

Prenatal

Pregnancy reshapes how the body braces, breathes, and hinges. Weight distribution shifts forward; the abdominal wall stretches; the diaphragm has less room to descend; the pelvic floor takes on new load. The hormone relaxin loosens pelvic ligaments to prepare for birth, and the surrounding muscles tighten to compensate.

When the trunk’s bracing system — the diaphragm, deep abdominals, and pelvic floor working together — stays coordinated through these changes, most pregnancies stay comfortable. When it doesn’t, the spine takes the load and the back, hips, and pelvis pay for it.

We use prenatal-specific adjusting techniques, manual therapy safe for mother and baby, and movement work focused on breathing, bracing, and hip hinging through every trimester.

Postpartum

Postpartum recovery often happens with no professional support beyond the six-week clearance visit. By that point the abdominal wall, pelvic floor, and bracing system have been remodeled by pregnancy and birth — and the new mother is being asked to lift, carry, feed, and rock a baby with a system that hasn’t been retrained.

We work with patients in the first months after birth, and patients whose youngest is in college. Both arrive with recoverable patterns. The difference is how long the body has been compensating around them.

How we evaluate prenatal and postpartum patients

Every patient at Move Better starts with a Movement Paradigm Evaluation. In prenatal and postpartum patients, we watch how the breath, brace, and hinge are coordinating — three patterns that pregnancy and birth specifically disrupt and that recovery specifically depends on.

What we typically find:

• Breath that’s moved high in the chest as the diaphragm has lost room (prenatal) or hasn’t relearned its full descent (postpartum).
• A brace pattern where the diaphragm, deep abdominals, and pelvic floor aren’t co-contracting the way they did before pregnancy.
• A hinge pattern that recruits the spine instead of the hips, because the deep system isn’t supporting trunk load.

Read more about the Movement Paradigm →

How we treat prenatal and postpartum patients

Treatment typically combines:

• Movement retraining — particularly around breath mechanics and the deep bracing system that pregnancy disrupts.
• Pregnancy-safe and postpartum-appropriate adjusting — gentle techniques that work with what the body is doing, not against it.
• Manual therapy — for the tissues that have been holding the compensation, especially around the pelvis, hips, and low back.
• Targeted strengthening — rebuilding the deep system in a sequence that respects what the body has been through.
• Coordinated care — we work with midwives, OBs, pelvic floor PTs, lactation consultants, and others when the patient needs more than chiropractic and movement work.

Why it’s not too late

Pregnancy and birth are remodeling events. The patterns they leave behind are recoverable at any point — but they don’t rebuild on their own.

We see plenty of patients whose youngest child is in their teens or twenties, finally working on the back that’s hurt since the first pregnancy. The work is the same. The body remembers how to coordinate, and given the right inputs, it does.