Dr Elliot Berlin - The Wellness Approach to Pregnancy

Written by Sonia Almanza de Gambaro on Tuesday, 23 June 2009 18:44

I was in the middle of training for a marathon when I found out I was pregnant. One day I simply could not run beyond five miles. I was perplexed! Was I not feeding myself properly? Was I not resting enough between long run days? Was it because of this inexplicable bloatedness I was suffering through? There didn't seem to be a logical explanation. My husband jokingly suggested that I get a pregnancy test. I laughed it off but found myself buying one of those clear blue easy tests an hour later. These tests say to wait two minutes for the results but there was no mistaking that I was pregnant after only 10 seconds. We were stunned but that quickly faded away to pure joy. Ever the over-achiever, I began researching the best ways to be healthy during this pregnancy.
Berlin

I knew that the best way for me was to go natural. I have always been a little creeped out by people planning c-sections and I knew that getting induced and formula feeding were not for me either. These things are just my opinion, I realize that there are medical reasons to warrant the need for all three but there are people, like Victoria Beckham, who schedule birth according to soccer schedules - not cool. My quest to be as healthy as possible for my baby and to ensure that I would not need to have a c-section or to be induced brought me to Dr. Elliot Berlin. Dr. Berlin, a holistic pre-natal chiropractor, was casting for mothers who were interested in home birthing and/or going natural for his series of webisodes. I promptly signed up (no, you all will not get to see me deliver on here in all my naked glory!).

Dr. Berlin is a gentle giant with a great sense of humor. I went into his office to get a much needed massage and adjustment and to interview him about his Wellness Approach to Pregnancy. I ended up learning a great deal. Although I am sticking with my choice to deliver with my OB in the hospital, after my session with Dr. Berlin, I felt empowered to discuss with my doctor how much going natural without an epidural means to me. I have no idea why I get timid with doctors- it really helped to learn about my options. I am lucky, my OB fully supports my choice to go natural. I also have made sure that the nurse staff at my hospital know what I want as well. If they weren't on the same page as my husband and I are then maybe I would be delivering at home and online for all to see. Here are the highlights of my interview with Dr. Berlin.

Sonia Almanza: What is the difference between the usual medical approach to pregnancy and the wellness approach to pregnancy that you practice?

Dr. Elliot Berlin: People don't research their options or educate themselves about pregnancy. There is no knowledge of what they can do during their pregnancy. [As a result] the pregnancy is mostly geared towards,"what kind of stroller are we going to buy?" or "what kind of baby-wipe warmer are we going to get?" Then they get to labor and delivery and they don't know what to expect so they are hurdled through one thing after another. "Oh, you have been here four hours, we're going to break your water," or "Now we're going to give you a little pitocin, we're going to give you an epidural oh well now we're going to do have to do a C-section." And its like,"where did all this come from?" All along the way they didn't know that they have all these choices and things that they can do ahead of time to prepare.
With the wellness approach we like to start at the beginning - perhaps even before the pregnancy begins in order to map out the different things that you can do to take care of your baby and to take care of yourself. Just like someone who has a wellness mindframe in general. Maybe they eat well, do exercise, take care of themselves - these are things you can do for yourself and your baby. Pregnancy is a big physical strain and it is a big emotional strain. But you can do things to prepare yourself and also mediate those strains on the physical side and the emotional side. On the physical side we do things like yoga, massage, walking, regular adjustments. Anything that keeps the body in its optimum peak performance so that when the big strain of labor comes it can handle it. Your body is built to handle it - as long as it is functioning properly. And for the mind we do meditation and sometimes hypnosis. These are things that can help not only through labor but also through your pregnancy.

SA: It is so refreshing and interesting to hear you speak of pregnancy in a way that is supposed to be strong and feel well.

Dr. Berlin: Well you are looking at it from the perspective of being pregnant. Many people come to us at 36 weeks or 37 weeks - sometimes with pain so bad that they can't even walk. After two visits we will fix it. They are always amazed because people will just tell them that,"Oh you are pregnant, you are supposed to have pain, its supposed to be uncomfortable." It is not supposed to be uncomfortable. its supposed to be ok. Its very common for pregnancy to be uncomfortable but it is not normal. The problem with it is when you have this discomfort in your pelvis or pain in your lower back it is your body telling you that things are not working quite right. There are things that we can do to fix it nine out of ten times and you can enjoy your pregnancy. And when it comes time [for labor] your pelvis will do what it is supposed to do and let the baby out

SA: And what is it exactly that your pelvis is supposed to do - ideally?

(Dr. Berlin proceeds to blow up a ballon to the size of a full-term uterus - at this point I am beyond frightened- he then grabs a skeleton model complete with moving bones to demonstrate)

Dr. Berlin: During pregnancy your uterus grows. Your pelvis grows and separates. During delivery your pelvis can open up another 30 degrees. But it can only do that if there is motion of the sacroiliac joint and the pubic joint and also if the soft tissue that surrounds the tendons isn't pulling everything super tightly closed. It is very common that when women start sleeping on one hip during pregnancy that this periformus muscle gets so tight that it pulls everything closed.

SA: I can understand that because I was told to sleep on my left side ao I have been doing that and after a while it hurts me.

Dr. Berlin: Right and I don't know who started that rumor but its been great for my business because everybody comes in here with left side hip and butt pain. We can fix it but also, it not just hurts, it also creates the possibility of trouble during the last stage of pregnancy when the baby is supposed to jump in there head down there.

He points out the muscles underneath the uterus that are tight in dancers (I am a dancer). The strong muscles from dancing They resist anything coming down. So we see floating babys that never drop and so labor doesn't start on time. and many times you end up having to get a cesearean. It doesn't take long to fix maybe 5-6 weeks.

SA: Incredible, I was reading that you turn around about one hundered breeched babies a year.Most doctors try to move the baby manually but many times they end up having a cesearean.

Dr. Berlin: Here's the thing. most babies are 92% of all babies are head down by 32 weeks. Only half of those babies who are not head down are going to turn. So if at 32 weeks your baby is not head down and you want to deliver vaginally you need to start doing something to turn the baby. That's another thing since about 2000 - 2001 they stopped delivering breeched babies vaginally. In the L.A. area I only know of two doctors who still do it. And so at 32 weeks if you know you are breech I think you should start doing something about it. The external manipulation manuever that you are speaking of is not allowed to be done until 37 weeks, because it can cause spontaneous labor and the baby needs to be full-term. But there are a lot of things we can do naturally, some of which have been researched and published in medical journals that help the baby get into the proper position earlier that have no negative side effects. We do some of them here. One of them is called the Webster technique. It is a chiropractic method, we don't touch the baby, what we do is look a the possible cause as to why the baby is not getting into position. Often it is the strain on the uterus from the 8 ligaments around it such as the round ligaments and the utero sacral ligaments. When the sacrum stops moving, when it gets stuck, it pulls straight back and the two ligaments which have strong muscles fiber then will pull on the bottom part of the uterus and will create tension. They can change the shape of the uterus and even make it difficult for the baby to move freely or undesirable - the baby may not want to put its head where there is tension. So with the webster technique we can do things with the bones and muscles to put them in there place and stretch them and the baby gets into place. It is not meant to happen that the baby turns while here in the office but after doing so many I have had 15 to 20 babies who right while I am doing the baby will plop right into place.
So while its doesn't always work, because sometimes this isnt the reason the baby is not getting into place, it works for a lot of people who hope to avoid having a c-section.
Berlin Massage

SA: That is really fantastic to know that there are options for women such as myself who do not want to have a c-section if they can at all help it. You mentioned earlier that you also employ the uses of Chinese Medicine in your practice.

Dr. Berlin: [The Webster Technique] is just one thing we do here. We also do massage work and we also do Chinese medicine. Chinese medicine has a several thousand year protocall for breech babies. a combination of accupressure and moxabustion which is an herb. He proceeds to show me a moxa stick. It burns at a very steady pace. You can stimulate accupressure points in many different ways. There are some very specific points on the feet for breech babies. When we do this protocall and you hold it there almost always the baby starts jumping around. In fact if you see a pregnant lady in a bar - well first of all she shouldn't be there, (he's so funny), but if you held this moxa stick under her feet you would see her baby begin to jump around.
This has been published in the journal of the American medical Association, not just some wierd holistic journal.
berlin chinese

SA: How long have you been working as a chiropractor who specailizes in pre-natal work?

Dr. Berlin: Five Years

SA: what have you noticed as far as trends go in pregnancy. There seems to be an increase in women planning their c-sections. what changes have you seen.

Dr. Berlin: Well I am interesting because we are chiropractors who do holistic work. But by being involved with pregnancy we have our foot in both doors. About half of our patients who come in are pretty holistic-y themselves. They are intersted in natural childbirth or even home birth. They are just earthy and take care of themselves and this is just the wellness care that they do for themselves as they always do for themselves. The other half either have some sort of headaches, nausea, vomiting or aches that suring pregnancy regular medicines a little handtied over it because they can't give drugs so the person has the choice to be miserable or try this crazy stuff. And a lot of them come in and say "I don't believe in what you do but if you can get rid of my headache I would love it," and slowly over time they see that wow thats pretty amazing. I have a patient whose entire family are pharmacists and she always turns to drugs for everything. With her first pregnancy she was in incredible discomfort a lot of nausea and vomiting and when her second pregnancy came around she was again in such pain that she came in and we helped her nausea with the Chinese medicine and after 4-5 visits her back pain was gone. She had such a comfortable pregnancy that she didn't want the epidural when she got to the hospital. Her husband made her get the epidural. I see people going in both directions.

In regards to my concerns about c-sections and the increase of them happening nowadays Dr. Berlin says "I see a very tiny percent of people who want to have a c-section. Most people are told that they have to have a c-section. I have helped at least two dozen people to switch their doctor to avoid c-section.
We have a patient whose doctor said her pelvis was too small for her baby. She changed her doctor on the day she went into labor." A lot of the time women who have already had a c-section are told that they have to have another one. What the hospital doesn't tell them is that there are rules which make it difficult for a doctor to support their patient for a V-back. "The hospital says that the doctor has to be present for an entire V-back. Most doctors are only there for the last 20 minutes of your labor. Try telling a doctor that they have to be there for the entire labor."

My day with Dr. Berlin proceeded with his telling me about a great documentary called The Business of Being Born by Ricki Lake (yes, THAT Ricki Lake). It is an incredible documentary which highlights the downside of being born in the hospital and the upside of having a baby at home. In the end Dr. Berlin stresses that as an expecting woman, "You have to do your research ahead of time." There are options for almost all circumstances "If you have herpes and you want a vaginal birth you need to study what your options are and what the risks are. If you are a dancer, who would have known that a dancer has an increased chance of your pelvis not working right? If you are suffering from constant nausea - accupressure for nausea is extremely effective. Bottom line is if you have pain in your pelvis you need to find out more." There is a good reason that patients come from as far away as San Diego, Palm Springs, Orange County and even NYC to enjoy Dr. Berlin's treatments; He makes you feel good and strong again - at a most uncomfortable time.

In true over-curious pregnant lady fashion I still had one more question for Dr. Berlin

SA: It says that you want to maintain normal muscolo skeletal for optimal fetal development

Dr. Berlin: It all comes down to secondary benefit. You are the baby's host everything that you do affects the baby. If you do take measures to keep yourself healthy then you are going to be the best possible incubator for your baby. so stress - not good for baby. If you are doing things to release your stress its good for the baby. If you are not getting adequate nutrition your baby is going to take all of your nutrition and you are going to feel crummy. We want to make sure that you are the best host for that baby in that hotel that they are checked into for nine months. Its a long stay.

http://doctorberlin.com/

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