Blog

by Donna Moritz

I want to ask you something, before you start reading this article. In the last few minutes, as you were settled in front of your computer, going about your work, checking your emails or just surfing around on the net, did you pay attention to what your body was doing? Did you pay any attention to making sure that your heart was beating, that your breathing was regular, your digestive juices were working appropriately, and your brain was accurately sending messages to your organs and systems via your nerves? No? Really? I didn’t think so.

You see, every second of every day we trust our bodies. We trust our bodies to beat our hearts, to fill our lungs, digest our food, grow new cells, replace our skin, clot our blood, and yes, for those of us lucky enough to experience it, we trust our bodies to grow our beautiful babies.

So, why is it that we are led to believe that we should stop trusting our bodies when it comes to birthing our babies? That having a trained, skilled midwife to assist us is not enough and we need to be in arms reach of a surgical team? Why do we hear more about birth going “wrong” than birth being natural, calm and beautiful? My theory is that we have replaced trust with fear.

You see, lately, in our society, when we become sick, or fight illness, or run a temperature, or…yes…birth our babies, we are conditioned to believe that we should stop trusting what is inside and start putting things in from outside – procedures, panadol, anti-inflammatory drugs, antibiotics, antihistamines, and in the case of birth, interventions, inductions, epidurals, caesarean…the list goes on. Why have we forgotten that our body does have an innate intelligence that controls all of those wonderful things I mentioned earlier? Why does a large percentage of our society presume that this same intelligence (the one that controls every cell, tissue, organ and system in our body) will “call it a day”, and “shut up shop” as soon as it comes time for our baby to enter the world?

When it comes to birth, our bodies know. They have known for thousands of years. They know how to grow a baby and they know how to birth a baby (and our baby pretty much knows what to do too!). Yes there are times when intervention is necessary, and I am very grateful that we have those services available in my country, but it is disappointing to think that in many cases the intuition of the birthing mother is overridden, and intervention has unfortunately become more common than necessary.

So what can we do to help our bodies, and to support that amazing innate intelligence that controls us all? What can we do to help our babies come into this world as naturally as possible? We need to trust. To trust our bodies. To trust our babies. And we need to give our bodies every opportunity to do what they do best. To birth. I know that for me personally, there is some specific advice I would give myself if I could go back to before I birthed my two beautiful children, as follows

Trust your baby. Don’t worry about all those tips for encouraging your baby to come into the world. Instead, relax, rest and enjoy your time heading into full-term pregnancy. Your baby is coming when he or she is ready. The only person that knows your baby’s due date is your baby! Oh, and your body is in on the secret too, so just give up and let them do their thing. And besides, you have a big event coming up, so again, get some rest! 

Visualise. Fill your mind with positive birth stories and experiences. Avoid listening to the “war” stories of other mums who focus on the negative aspects of pregnancy, labour and birth. Even if you have a planned Caesar or you require intervention, the birth experience can be a positive one. Use affirmations daily to prepare for the birth that you want.

Trust your body. Trust that your body knows what to do, and also that it knows what not to do. Trust your instincts. If something doesn’t feel right, or something stops or things stall, there may be a reason. Conversely, your body will guide you in the birthing process –I embraced the fact that my transition from active labour to the birthing process was all due to my body taking over. It was down to me to trust my body and let it guide me. Keep your lines of communication open with your midwife. If you can access continuity of care with your midwife, please do. Consider working with a private midwife, because when you really know your midwife it makes the world of difference. If you communicate with, trust and tap into the skills of the wonderful midwife by your side, you will be more comfortable, resulting in a calmer birth.

Breathe. I am a hypnobirther through and through (I highly recommend the Hypnobirthing Program), but even if you remember nothing else…remember to breathe! Your body needs to open , so breathe up with each contraction and work with your muscles in order to open your body for birth. Visualise your abdomen filling up and your body opening. Every contraction and every long breath brings you closer to meeting your baby. Holding your breath and feeling fear can lead to tension which works against your muscles… so use your breathing to achieve a calm, relaxed state.

Be comfortable. I don’t mean comfy in the traditional sense – I mean calm, comfortable and having complete trust in your birthing team and your birthing environment. For me, my team leading up to birth and during the birth included a mix of my midwife, husband, mum and a friend. Midwifery care and chiropractic care were paramount before, during and after birth for me and my baby. They were the people that I wanted to share labour with me and to help me bring my baby into the world. They were the ones I felt completely comfortable with. Comfort and trust go hand in hand. 

Remember the power of touch – no matter what sort of birth you have, remember to have as much skin to skin time as you possibly can with your baby. Keep your environment calm, and lighting low. Skin to skin touch helps your baby to regulate temperature and bodily functions. This is an amazing transitional period for you and your baby. Remember your baby has just been born, so try to transition gently between the environment of the womb and the bright, noisy, stark environment of the world outside. Take all the time you need.

When women trust their bodies to birth, it makes for calmer, more natural birthing and less need for intervention. We need to flip our thinking around…if we think about health in terms of trusting what is “inside” first, we can achieve much greater potential. Did you know that you have a “Dr inside” that knows your body better than anyone on the outside possibly could? It is called your nervous system. Trust it. And let’s collectively starting turning birth inside-out!

Donna Moritz, Mother, Passionate Advocate for Chiropractic, Practice Manager.

Just Start Walking launches National Chiropractic Care Week (23-29 May)

Sunshine Coast residents are being encouraged to put their best foot forward and start walking for their wellbeing during National Chiropractic Care Week, 23-29 May. Launching the Just Start Walking initiative in Mountain Creek, local Chiropractor, Dr Gray Moritz said while we are living in more mobile times thanks to portable technology, physically we are less active. “The human body is designed for movement, so to keep your spine at its best we need to stay active – it’s time to lace up the sneakers and quite simply, just start walking,” he said. 

Coinciding with the launch is National Chiropractic Care Week, which Dr Moritz and his team will be using to highlight the importance of posture and mobility on our overall health and wellbeing. Dr Moritz said that an active spine is a healthy spine and a healthy spine leads to a healthier life. “What better way to encourage people to stay active than through walking – it’s simple, inexpensive, achievable and easy,” he said. “Your overall health can be affected by the health of your spine so National Chiropractic Care Week is a prompt to make an appointment with your local CAA chiropractor to assess your spinal health and incorporate some more regular activity into your lifestyle,” he said. “Regular, moderate activity – such as walking – has been shown to improve posture and overall health, as well as reduce the risk of a wide range of common health complaints.  Chiropractors are experts at analysing posture and spinal problems; with five year university training they can provide expert care, exercises and lifestyle advice.

The Just Start Walking initiative is designed to raise awareness about the importance of keeping active, the benefits this can offer to your overall wellbeing and spinal health, as well as providing an easy-to-use program to encourage physical activity – a free Mobile Phone App has also been produced to help people to get walking!

For further information on National Chiropractic Care Week 2011 or the Just Start Walking program, please talk to one of our chiropractors or friendly staff! 

About the Chiropactors’ Association of Australia The Chiropractors’ Association of Australia (National) Limited (CAA) is the peak body representing chiropractors. An underlying principle of chiropractic is “healthy spine, healthier life”. By offering expert, drug-free spinal health care and lifestyle advice, chiropractors help Australians lead and maintain healthy lives. With over 2,700 members, the CAA is the largest chiropractic health body in Australia, and coordinates its efforts with its 8 autonomous CAA state and territory organisations.

Yes. It is an emotional State at the moment, with the flood disaster continuing to unfold in Queensland and us all rallying to the cause while still in a state of shock at what has occurred here. This is a disaster of huge proportions and, in Queensland, largely without precedent given the scope of the impact upon our fellow Queenslanders across 75% of the state, and a flow on effect no doubt impacting on every resident of this state.

It is a time for helping our fellow neighbour and lending an ear and a hand. It is the “lending an ear” part that we want to mention today. In our practice daily, we use a technique called NET (or Neuro-Emotional Technique) which identifies and clears emotions that arise in the body. You see, emotions are a natural, healthy response…in fact we have emotional reactions to just about every situation we encounter. However, sometimes we have certain emotional events in our lives that our bodies don’t cope with particularly well. This can create blocks dealing with those emotions in the future, which can contribute not only to emotional difficulties but also physical complaints in the body. NET can help to identify current, old or unresolved events (either conscious or subconscious) and help your body to release the effects of those emotions.

In the many years that I have been accessing the amazing technique of NET in our practice with Dr Gray and Dr Monique (or via chiro colleagues and friends around the country) I have been blown away by how accurate, non-invasive and beneficial this technique really is. In seeing the benefits for my friends, family and our practice clients, I am constantly amazed at the impact that it can have, even in situations of major trauma. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is undergoing stress or has chronic conditions that just won’t go away. You see, the body reacts to chemical, physical and emotional stressors….if we were only to focus on the physical, then we would be missing two very important causes of physical problems in the body…chemicals/toxins, and emotions/stress.

Think about how your body reacts to your thoughts or feelings…we can be worried sick, we can salivate merely by thinking about our dinner, we can get goosebumps when we think about something that scares us, we can literally get a pain in the neck from something that is stressing us out…the body reacts in a physical sense to our thoughts and emotions everyday! NET is an effective way to identify negatively-charged emotional responses that are stored in your body and help you to release them. It is fast, it is easy and it can have a dramatic impact on health.

Please contact our staff at the practice for more information, if you or a loved one needs a helping hand with their health or emotional stress – we would hate to think that there are people out there suffering when we could be helping.

What about you – what helps you cope with stress? Share your tips with us – we could all use some ideas for helping live a calmer life, and what you think might be a simple strategy may be something the rest of us have overlooked!

Donna Moritz (Practice Manager)

It’s that time of year when we have all enjoyed the festive season…maybe a little too much for some of us! And now, traditionally, is the time to make a resolution for the New Year. More often than not, this resolution is to improve our health, diet, fitness or general well-being…we figure it is time to give our bodies a rest, maybe some pampering, and some time to replenish!  We have included our top health tips for the new year below, but first, consider this:  

What if we prioritised our health throughout the year, rather than just on December 31st? What if there was a way to check on your progress regularly and keep your body working to it’s maximum potential without waiting until the end of the year? Well there is – with Chiropractic care and by following our NY tips below! Chiropractic is a health science dedicated to removing interference to the nervous system. This allows the body to achieve optimal function, rather than just being free of pain, through minimizing nerve interference to each individual cell in the body.  Maybe this year’s resolution should be to make a resolution every month, to put your health first with regular chiropractic care and to follow some of our other NY tips below.  Why wait until the last day of the year?  

Here are our New Year's Eve Bag of Tricks to help you start the year with fabulous health (after you have a few drinks tonight of course!):  

1  Drink plenty of water, especially in summer weather.

2  Move, move, move...we are not all marathon runners, but find an activity you like that involves movement (preferably something that gets your heart rate up) and do it regularly...walk on the beach, swim, dance with the kids in the lounge room..whatever works!  

3  Eat fresh, preferably organic or chemical free fruit and veggies....and as many raw foods as possible (fresh fruit, salads etc)....your body will thrive on it!   

4  Don't shy away from the sun just because it is summer...yes, be responsible and wear natural, zinc based sunscreen, hats and protective clothing BUT ensure that you get some real, vitamin-D producing sun rays direct on your body (without barrier) for at least a few minutes a day.  Go outside and sit for 5 minutes, with the sun on your face and breathe the rays in deeply.  Although the sun can cause skin damage if you get too much, not getting enough can be just as bad.  Also be careful about the type of sunscreen you use...remember skin is porous...so avoid lots of chemicals.  Choose a natural sunscreen like "UV Natural".  

 5  ZZzzzzzzzzzzz. Get enough sleep. Period.  

 6.   Think well...do a positive affirmation every day...make it a habit when you get out of the shower....start the day well!  Revise your vision board and look at it every day....ie affirmations and resolutions are not just for tonight after a few rum and coke's...they work best when revised daily!  

 7  Play well....get out and do the things that make you happy on a regular basis...sometimes it is the simple things that can give you the biggest break from the rough and tumble of daily life.  Think about what you loved as a kid...sometimes it is something as simple as sitting on a swing in a park or kicking a ball around, or even a good belly laugh that will put a smile on your face and reduce stress.  And remember, if you work hard, you MUST play hard! 

And last of all, have a fabulous New Year and we wish you the most amazing, prosperous year in 2011, full of health and vitality!  

Our team would like to wish you all a wonderful festive season, and a happy, prosperous New Year filled with Wellness and Vitality!

Our clients (big and small) are the reason for the happy smiles on our faces every day, and we love to have you all visit us throughout the year.  And most of all, we are truly grateful to you, for entrusting us to look after your health.  We hope you all have a wonderful time with family and friends over coming weeks. 

Remember to indulge and pamper yourself (yes, you deserve it) …but try to keep a balance!

Here are some tips for enjoying the festive season AND keeping well and full of vitality!

Drink plenty of water – especially in the heat!

Exercise and move your body as much as possible (yes, there is a reason for the post- christmas lunch game of cricket!).

Keep up your adjustments, stretch and get a massage

Eat plenty of fresh, organic, fruit and veggies (take advantage of our wonderful summer fruits!). And don’t forget to visit your local farmers market. We especially like the Noosa Organic Market on a Sunday morning – at the AFL grounds. All the growers are chemical free or organic and the food is fabulous. We get almost everything there now.

Get some responsible sun exposure every day – it is the best way to keep healthy, happy, and vitamin D rich.

Don’t just make a resolution for “New Year”. Make a resolution to “Think Well”. Give yourself a pat on the back for the year past, write down your goals and say a positive affirmation every day.

It’s been a great year – we look forward to seeing you all around Christmas, or if you are heading away, we will see you in the New Year!