Can Chiropractic Help With Pregnancy-Related Back and Pelvic Pain? A Prenatal Chiropractor in Franklin, TN Explains
There's a sentence almost every pregnant woman hears at some point: "That's just part of pregnancy."
Your lower back aches by mid-afternoon. Rolling over in bed takes a three-point turn. There's a sharp catch in your hip, or a deep, bruised feeling right at your pubic bone when you climb stairs. And the advice you get is usually some version of: get a pillow, take some Tylenol, and hang in there — it'll go away once the baby comes.
I want to offer a different frame. Pain during pregnancy is common, and it is explainable — but common and explainable are not the same thing as inevitable or untreatable.
I'm Dr. Shivani Patel, a Webster and Perinatal-certified chiropractor and the founder of Shakti Chiropractic in Franklin, TN. I work with pregnant women throughout Middle Tennessee across entire pregnancies, and I spend my days with hands on the exact structures that cause this pain. Let me walk you through what's actually happening in your body, what I look for, and what usually changes when someone addresses the cause instead of waiting it out.
Hurting and not sure where to start? Book a free 10-minute discovery call with Shakti Chiropractic →
Why Pregnancy Back and Pelvic Pain Happens
Two things are driving almost everything you're feeling.
The first is relaxin. This hormone flows through your body specifically to soften and loosen the ligaments that hold your pelvis together, so your body can open for birth. That's the design, and it's brilliant. The side effect is that joints which used to be stable are now much more mobile — and much more likely to shift out of an efficient position and get stuck there.
The second is a rapidly growing belly. Your center of gravity moves forward and up. Your spinal curves change. Your pelvis tilts. Your ribcage flares. Your gait widens. Muscles that were never designed to be primary stabilizers start doing that job anyway, and they get loud about it.
Put those two together and you get a very specific and very predictable set of findings. Here's what I'm most often seeing on the table with pregnancy back and pelvic pain:
Subluxations and misalignments in the sacrum, the SI joints, and the pubic bone. These three are the core of it. The pubic symphysis in particular gets overlooked, and it's the source of a huge amount of the "sharp pain in the front" and "pain when I roll over or get out of the car" that moms describe.
Sacrotuberous and round ligament tension. Round ligament pain gets thrown around as a catch-all term, but tension in these ligaments is something we can actually assess and address rather than just name.
Piriformis and psoas involvement. Both muscles have an enormous influence on the pelvis, and both take on extra work as your posture changes. The psoas especially — it connects your lumbar spine to your leg and runs right through the middle of everything that's changing.
Balancing the pelvis, the surrounding ligaments, and these specific muscles is the foundation of the Webster Technique, which I'm certified in. It's a pregnancy-specific chiropractic analysis and adjustment designed exactly for this system.
So when a mom asks whether her pain has a real, physical cause — yes. It has several. And they're all things that can be evaluated and worked on.
Why I Don't Stop at the Pelvis
Here's where I'd push back on a narrow view of prenatal chiropractic. The pelvis is where the pain usually shows up. It's not always where the problem starts.
Alongside my Webster certification, I hold a Perinatal Certification and additional training in pregnancy-specific chiropractic care using SOT (Sacro Occipital Technique), Activator, drop table technique, and Applied Kinesiology. That combination lets me evaluate and treat far more than one joint. It means I can address:
Bones and joints throughout the spine and pelvis
Muscles, ligaments, and fascia
The cranium and the dural system that connects it all the way down to your sacrum
Organ health and the nervous system's influence on it
Different bodies need different doors in. A mom who can't tolerate a manual adjustment in her third trimester may respond beautifully to Activator or drop table work. A mom whose pelvic pain is being driven from higher up the chain needs someone who is actually looking higher up the chain. Having multiple techniques isn't about being fancy — it's about not forcing every pregnant body through the same sequence and hoping it fits.
A Real Story: 22 Weeks, and Sure It Was a Disc
A mom came to me at 22 weeks with back pain she hadn't felt in years — not since well before she was pregnant. She had already decided what it was: a disc problem. And she was scared, because she knew that would mean a longer, more involved road and fewer options while pregnant.
Her plan was physical therapy. She tried chiropractic first.
This is where specific training changes the outcome. When you're pregnant, you can't simply go get traditional imaging to rule things in or out. But my pregnancy-specific SOT training gave me the assessment tools to evaluate her for disc involvement without imaging — and to determine that a disc was not what was driving her pain. That let me adjust for exactly what she was actually experiencing, rather than building a conservative care plan around a disc problem she didn't have.
She got full relief within just a few visits.
I want to be clear about why I'm telling this story. It isn't "chiropractic beat PT." It's that a mom who was on the verge of a longer, more cautious care plan for the wrong problem got better faster because the person assessing her had the training to be specific. If she had had a disc issue, that specificity would have mattered just as much — in the other direction.
We kept going after she felt better, because her job was physically demanding and her body was going to keep changing. She never had that pain return in her second or third trimester.
The Advice I Disagree With Most
"Just wait it out." The worst thing you can do with a body concern during pregnancy is have no bodywork done at all. Your body is undergoing one of the most significant physical transformations it will ever go through, and the plan is to have nobody put hands on it? That doesn't sit right with me.
Reaching for medication first. I'm not anti-medication. In more severe circumstances it's genuinely useful, and there are situations where it's the right call. But medications can come with side effects, and — this is the part that matters — they do not fix the root cause. To put it plainly: medication will not realign your bones. If your pain is coming from a pelvis that's stuck, masking the signal doesn't change the mechanics. There are better options worth trying first.
One profession telling you which other professions you're allowed to see. This one genuinely bothers me. Massage therapists, pelvic floor therapists, and physical therapists all work directly on the pregnant body and all influence it positively. As a chiropractor, I understand my own profession and my own care better than anyone else does — and by that exact logic, it is not my place to tell a patient she shouldn't see a PT. That's unfair to that profession and it's unfair to her. When a provider tries to be the only door, pay attention to that.
You deserve a team. Not a gatekeeper.
What I Send You Home With
Care doesn't stop when you get off the table, but I also don't believe in handing a pregnant woman a twelve-page exercise program she'll never realistically do. What actually works is small, digestible, and specific to where she is right now.
Depending on your symptoms and your trimester, that includes:
Daily ergonomic changes — how you sit at work, how you stand, how you sleep, how you get in and out of a car, how you pick up a toddler
Breathing exercises — more useful than most moms expect, both for the diaphragm-psoas relationship and for the nervous system
Targeted stretches and movement — a short list, chosen for you, not a generic pregnancy routine
Labor prep work — including tools and positioning guidance to support optimal baby positioning and healthy pelvic and belly mechanics
We go over easy changes and short, simple tasks. I would much rather you actually do three things every day than feel guilty about an ambitious plan you abandoned in week two.
What the Timeline Realistically Looks Like
Every mom is different, and I'm always honest with people about that rather than promising a number.
That said, here's the pattern I see: most moms feel some relief or improved motion after a single adjustment. And essentially everyone feels significant change within the first six visits.
After that, we continue with consistent care based on what your body needs. This isn't about locking you into a plan — it's that your body is still changing every single week, and the load on it keeps increasing. The goal of ongoing care is to keep you moving forward instead of letting things quietly regress back to where you started.
When It Isn't Just Back Pain
Part of my job is knowing when something isn't mine to treat. I screen for this at every visit, and you should know the signs too.
Stop and get evaluated immediately — by me, your OB, your midwife, or an emergency provider as appropriate — if you experience:
A significant, sudden increase in pain
Any bleeding
A rapid increase or decrease in blood pressure
Fainting or loss of consciousness
These are reasons to refer out immediately, and I will. A good prenatal chiropractor is not someone who thinks chiropractic is the answer to everything. It's someone who knows exactly where the line is and doesn't hesitate at it.
Why Shakti Chiropractic in Franklin, TN?
There are excellent chiropractors throughout Franklin and Middle Tennessee. What I offer is something specific: a provider whose training and practice are built around the pregnant body, not adapted to it as an afterthought.
Webster certification. Perinatal certification. Pregnancy-specific SOT, Activator, drop table, and Applied Kinesiology training. That range means I can meet your body where it is in any trimester, and it means I'm assessing the whole system — spine, pelvis, ligaments, fascia, cranium, and nervous system — rather than one painful joint.
At Shakti Chiropractic, you will never feel rushed, and no question will go unanswered. The 10-minute discovery call exists precisely so you can ask everything before committing to anything.
Book your free 10-minute discovery call at Shakti Chiropractic in Franklin, TN →Serving Franklin, Brentwood, Spring Hill, Nolensville, and the greater Middle Tennessee area.
The Bottom Line
Pregnancy-related back and pelvic pain has real, identifiable causes: relaxin loosening your ligaments, a rapidly changing body, and the resulting misalignments in your sacrum, SI joints, and pubic bone, along with tension through the sacrotuberous and round ligaments and the piriformis and psoas. Chiropractic care addresses those causes directly — and with pregnancy-specific training, it can be far more precise than most people realize.
You don't have to be in pain to book. You don't have to have it all figured out. And you don't have to wait until it's bad enough to justify.
If you're pregnant and hurting, reach out by phone or email to schedule a 10-minute discovery call or a new patient visit.
If you're a birth professional or another provider — a midwife, OB, doula, PT, pelvic floor therapist, massage therapist — I'd genuinely love to connect. Email me. The moms I see with the best outcomes are the ones whose providers actually talk to each other.
Frequently Asked Questions About Chiropractic for Pregnancy Back and Pelvic Pain
Is back pain during pregnancy normal, or is something wrong? It's extremely common, and it has clear physical causes — relaxin loosening your pelvic ligaments and a rapidly changing center of gravity. But common doesn't mean you have to live with it. Misalignments in the sacrum, SI joints, and pubic bone, along with ligament and muscle tension, are all things a prenatal-trained chiropractor can assess and address.
Can a chiropractor help with pubic symphysis (front pelvic) pain during pregnancy? Yes. Pubic bone misalignment is one of the most frequently overlooked sources of pregnancy pelvic pain, and it's a specific focus of Webster Technique work. It often shows up as sharp pain when rolling over in bed, climbing stairs, or getting out of a car.
How many chiropractic visits before I feel better? Most moms feel some relief or improved motion after a single adjustment, and essentially everyone experiences significant change within the first six visits. Your exact timeline depends on your symptoms, how long they've been present, and the physical demands of your daily life.
When should I start prenatal chiropractic care for back pain? As soon as symptoms appear — and ideally before. The earlier your body is supported, the less compensation builds up as your pregnancy progresses. You do not need to wait until the pain is severe.
Should I see a chiropractor or a physical therapist for pregnancy back pain? Both professions work directly on the pregnant body and both help. They're not in competition. Chiropractic focuses on joint alignment, ligament balance, and nervous system function; PT and pelvic floor therapy bring their own essential strengths. Many moms benefit from both, and I'm always happy to co-manage.
Is chiropractic safe during pregnancy? Prenatal chiropractic care performed by a Webster and Perinatal-certified chiropractor uses pregnancy-specific positioning, techniques, and force levels. Gentler options like Activator and drop table technique are available for moms who prefer or require them.
When is pregnancy back pain an emergency? Seek immediate evaluation for a significant sudden increase in pain, any bleeding, a rapid rise or drop in blood pressure, or fainting or loss of consciousness. These are reasons to stop and refer out, not to continue with routine care.
Do I need a referral from my OB or midwife? No referral is required at Shakti Chiropractic. I'm always glad to communicate with your existing care team to keep everyone coordinated.
Dr. Shivani Patel is the founder of Shakti Chiropractic in Franklin, TN, and a Webster and Perinatal-certified chiropractor with additional training in pregnancy-specific SOT, Activator, drop table technique, and Applied Kinesiology. She specializes in prenatal, postpartum, and family chiropractic care and serves Franklin, Brentwood, Spring Hill, Nolensville, and the greater Middle Tennessee area.