A funny thing happened once while I was nursing my son. Not funny as in, “Ha-ha, that’s really funny!” but more like a peculiar funny. I was nursing him and turned my neck to say something to my husband and then all of a sudden, wham! Horrible pain went from my neck all the way down my back. The pain passed but for a long time my neck felt stiff.

Fast forward to a couple of years down the road. I’d been plagued by back pain since my first pregnancy, but even after the kids stopped insisting on getting carted around in my arms my back still hadn’t recovered. I got massages, I took pills, and a couple of osteopathic physicians had tried to adjust my back with little success.

I gave in and called a chiropractor that was recommended to me by a friend at church. I was reluctant to go to a chiropractor because I remember as a child my mother’s friend telling me horrific stories about how a chiropractor turned her head 180 degrees, and although in retrospect I was pretty sure she was exaggerating I was still scared.

I went to the chiropractor and had the initial consultation. He asked me about my medical history and did a simple exam. He showed me how my posture was off-kilter and then did some adjusting. His hypothesis was that that neck pain way back when I was nursing my son was an injury that never got treated and evolved into back pain. He said that he would work backwards, realigning my back and then eventually getting my neck back where it should be.

I was willing to do anything at this point because I was tired of popping pills and not being able to carry my son in my arms without wincing. Guess what? I’ve been seeing the chiropractor for about four months now and my back feels fantastic. As a bonus, he’s never made my head turn 180 degrees.

If you’re thinking about trying a chiropractor I fully advise it. I leave his office feeling two feet taller and much, much stronger.

During both of my pregnancies I had back pain. My first baby liked to rest right on my sciatic nerve, and my second baby was huge so my back hurt from hauling my belly around all day long (along with my toddler in my arms, of course). With my first baby, my back pain went away once I gave birth, but with my second baby my back pain never really went away.

Nowadays I see a massage therapist, a chiropractor, and once in a while I have to take a muscle relaxer for the spasms in my lower back. I think it’s a combination of things that keep my back in pain, but my guess is that the biggest contributor to the back pain I still have is the fact that both my kids – although 35 pounds each – both liked to be carried around…especially my son, who has the tendency to wiggle a lot, forcing my back muscles to pick up the slack.

Watch your back while you’re pregnant, and while you have kiddos who still want to be carried around. Your kids will eventually grow up and move away, but back injuries and pain is the gift that keeps on giving. My back is slowly starting to recover, but my doctor says I’ll probably never get back to how my back was before I started having babies. Maybe if I had taken better care of my back I would have bounced back by now.