Relationship of Mechanical and Movement Factors to Prenatal Musculoskeletal Development

Abstract

Physical and occupational therapists analyze mechanical forces and movements to understand human musculoskeletal dysfunction. Based on this analysis, therapists impose maechanical forces and movements on patients during intervention in order to normalize musculoskeletal tisses. The direct imposition of these forces on the fetus is limited, but the identification and analysis of them is an exiciting area of exploration and reserach that may ultimately enhance interventiaon. The effects of these external and internal forces on the fetus are reveiwed, and the areas of ongoing reserach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are discussed.