Adjusting to Life Starts Early in Snider Plaza
A walk around Snider Plaza can sometimes require some investigative window-shopping. What may seem like a retailer might turn out to be an ice cream shop. What looks like an armory is also a book store.
Serving Life Chiropractic is no stranger to confused passersby, with its trendy waiting room filled with infants and toddlers.
“This location offered an opportunity for us to expand what we were,” Dr. Denisa Weber said of the six-year-old practice, which is celebrating its one-year anniversary in Snider Plaza. “I love being storefront. We get to meet people who just walk off the street who are just curious because they see a whole bunch of kiddos through the window. They peer up at our sign and think, ‘Oh, this is a chiropractic office?’”
Weber started the practice when she was pregnant with her child. She wanted to provide a service that would improve quality of life for a wide range of patients. Serving Life’s patient base is 63 percent prenatal and pediatric care — a fact Weber admits people are skeptical about.
“A common misconception about chiropractic care is that you have to have a hurt back to be seen,” Weber said. “We’re getting referrals from pediatricians and OB’s in our area because they’re seeing how their patients are getting better [with chiropractic work].”
The chiropractic process is less about hurt backs and more about how the nervous system is functioning, Weber said.
Because the spine is a direct pathway from the brain to the rest of our bodies, it greatly impacts what goes on with the nervous system. Birth can be strenuous on a baby’s body, so working with infants’ nervous systems from the get-go can help put them on a healthy track.
According to Weber, another misconception is that prenatal and pediatric chiropractors adjust a child’s vertebrae the way adults’ are adjusted.
“That’s not the case. It’s very gentle, safe, and effective,” Weber said. “With babies, it’s about as much pressure as you would use to test the ripeness of a tomato. We’re connecting with these children, giving them the best start possible to life, and making sure their bodies are functioning optimally from the beginning.”
Dr. Amanda Zimmerman joined the practice in February, specializing in cranial adjustments. She said infant adjustments are frequently done while the child is asleep. The child rests in a specialized pillow or lies on its mother during the short visit.
“We also host birth talks to expectant mothers to educate women that they do have options with their birth,” Zimmerman said. “Most women don’t really want to have C-sections because down the line, children could end up with more issues. So they come to us because we try to optimize their pelvis so they can get the birth they desire.”
Obstetricians who refer women to Serving Life have noticed shorter labor times with women who choose to participate in the optimization they offer, Weber said. And according to Zimmerman, the preparation for labor can start as early as the first day of pregnancy.
“It’s a marathon, so you’ve got to start preparing,” Zimmerman said. “The body is always changing.”
While they do specialize in infant care, Serving Life sees patients in every stage of life.
“Chiropractic is physiology,” Weber said. “It’s how the body was designed to work. If we have interference with how it was designed, then we remove it and we’re giving the body the chance to do what it was meant to do — which is express health.”
