Pregnant & Looking for an Osteopath in Mernda or Doreen?
The team at Bodywell Healthcare is dedicated to helping support pregnant and post-natal women.
Changes During Pregnancy
Throughout pregnancy, your body undergoes significant changes to accommodate a growing baby. Expansion of the abdominal region and the associated alterations in posture, alongside release of hormones that soften the ligaments can all put additional stress on the body. Osteopathic treatment aims to maximise your body’s ability to cope with pregnancy-related changes and may assist with a range of musculoskeletal complaints during and after pregnancy. Our osteopaths can also offer advice about managing various symptoms and demonstrate self-help techniques that you and your partner can use during pregnancy and labour.
Birthing & Beyond
Osteopathic care aims to maximise the body’s alignment and pelvic and lower back mobility to help prepare for the birthing process. After the birth, osteopathic treatment may be helpful for restoring overall physical wellbeing and to assist with preventing or managing a range of musculoskeletal problems. This might include referral to your doctor or other health professionals as appropriate.
How can we help?
Contact the Clinic
FAQs about our Services
Below you can find some of the most common and frequently asked questions we get.
Call our friendly reception team to make an appointment on (03) 9717 1200 or you can Book Online
We do understand sometimes things come up and we are more than happy to reschedule your appointment. We do require a minimum of 12 hours notice for rescheduling of an appointment. Due to the high demand for our service, this allows the clinic sufficient time to offer the appointment to another waiting patient. Therefore, please be aware that a late cancellation may incur a fee.
You will receive a confirmation email the day prior to your initial consultation, in this email there is a link that we ask you to please fill in prior to your appointment.
Allow up to 45 minutes for your first consultation and please bring any x-rays, scans or other relevant medical reports to the appointment. For new patient babies please bring along their Maternal and Child Health ‘green’ book to the appointment as well as a bottle if not breastfeeding.
Your practitioner will ask questions about your problem and symptoms and take a detailed medical history. Then they will conduct a thorough examination of the body which includes the area where you have pain/discomfort and related areas, to help determine how best to manage your condition. Once the osteopath has finished their examination they will formulate a diagnosis and discuss a treatment plan with you.
Your treatment will be tailored to your condition and may include soft tissue massage, manipulation, articulation, stretching, and gentle balancing techniques. Treatment may also include advice on stretching and strengthening exercises, posture, diet, ergonomics and stress management techniques.
As osteopathy is a ‘hands on’ manual therapy, often the practitioner will ask you to remove some clothing, e.g trousers or top, depending on the area of your body requiring treatment. It’s important that you feel comfortable, so you may want to wear loose pants or bring a pair of shorts to change into.
Your initial consultation will take up to 45 minutes. This will enable your osteopath to take a thorough history, examine and treat you. Follow-up treatments are shorter and take up to 30 minutes. If you are a current client of the clinic and feel like you would like an extended consultation we do offer long return consultations that are up to 45 minutes long.
As a private paying patient you don’t need a referral to see an osteopath. Osteopaths are registered with the Australian Health Regulatory Agency and are primary healthcare practitioners. The only times you will require a referral from your General Practitioner (GP) is if you want to claim through Medicare on a Chronic Disease management (CDM) Plan or if you are a Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) client.