By La Petite Crème • ft. Dr. Varisa Perlman NP & Dr. Sandra Doman DC
If you’ve spent the last decade sitting slouched in front of a laptop, your body already knows it. And according to Dr. Sandra Doman, a Webster-certified chiropractor based in Miami, your pregnancy will too. We sat down with Dr. Doman on our podcast Beyond the Diaper to talk about what most pregnant women are never told, and what you can do about it starting today.
The decade before pregnancy matters (a lot)
The first thing Dr. Doman asks a new pregnant patient is about how much of the last ten years they’ve been sitting.
Years of sitting slouched compresses the sacrum and lower back - and more importantly, restricts the nerves and blood flow feeding into the pelvis and uterus. By the time pregnancy adds its own physical demands, a body that has been compressed for years has far less room to adapt.
The result? Sciatica. Pubic bone pain. Back pain that gets written off as just part of being pregnant (when it doesn’t have to be.)
How to sit (that nobody taught you)
Dr. Doman’s advice is simple and immediately actionable. Sit at the tip of your chair, on your sitting bones, with your hips, knees, and toes pointing straight forward. Not crossed. Not splayed. Neutral.
When you sit this way, your back and hip muscles engage naturally throughout the day. When you sit collapsed into a chair with your legs crossed or knees out to the sides, you’re actively stretching and weakening your pelvic floor - and no amount of kegels will undo hours of that every single day.
“There’s no amount of core work and pilates that are going to rebuild and undo 40 hours a week of deconditioning,” Dr. Doman told us. “The muscles need to be working throughout the day, not just in a one-hour class.”
The pelvic floor conversation we should be having
Sneezing and leaking. Incontinence after delivery. Pelvic pain that lingers for months postpartum. These are things women are told are normal. Dr. Doman is clear: they’re common, but they’re not normal, and they’re not inevitable.
As Varisa noted in the episode, French culture has long prioritized pelvic floor health postpartum in a way that the US simply hasn’t caught up with yet. Pelvic floor rehabilitation after birth is standard practice in France, not an optional extra for the particularly motivated.
What chiropractic care in pregnancy actually looks like
For pregnant patients, Dr. Doman uses Webster Technique - a gentle sacropelvic balancing method designed to reduce compression and support optimal baby positioning. The goal isn’t just comfort during pregnancy (though that matters), it’s also supporting the kind of delivery and postpartum recovery the mom is hoping for.
“Someone like me can help make sure mom not only has a totally painless and comfortable 40 weeks, but they also have the delivery that they’re hoping for,” she explained.
The takeaway
You don’t have to wait until something hurts to take care of your body. The way you’ve been sitting, standing, and moving for the last decade is already shaping how your body will carry and deliver your baby. Small, consistent adjustments - to your posture, your chair, your daily habits - add up in a big way.
Start at the tip of your chair, keep your knees forward, and let your muscles do what they were designed to do.
🎧 Listen to the full conversation with Dr. Sandra Doman on Beyond the Diaper, the La Petite Crème podcast — available wherever you get your podcasts.