One of the biggest voids I have determined in my practice is that parents do not understand the complex relationship between birth and behavior of baby. We walk out of the hospital after having our babies and for most the process was not filled with unicorns and rainbows but intense work for both baby and parent.
Our knowledge in this area as a society is missing and is actually one of the most needed.
We go through the process of preparation for baby so why do we not include this information in parenting classes?
When referring to birth trauma, the word trauma is complex but not severe. Let’s break this down into the many scenarios that I see clinically with signs and symptoms of birth trauma.
"Normal" delivery - No assists used such as vacuum or forceps.
Cord interference
Face up presentation
Breach delivery
Assisted delivery- Need of a vacuum , forceps, episiotomy
C-Section
Fast Delivery
Premature delivery
Surrogacy
Drug babies
Adoption cases
Difficult pregnancies / medical conditions diagnosed during pregnancy, grief during pregnancy, accident during pregnancy.
Anatomically, babies are built to handle pressure during delivery. A slow, rhythmic delivery is the perfect opportunity for the 13 cranial bones in the baby’s skull to squeeze, overlap, and move over the membrane of the skull. But when force has been added to the cranium to help assist in delivery, trauma can happen, creating tension in the membrane and shifting in bone alignments. If a vacuum is used, it can create a pull from the hard palate, which can create sucking and feeding issues, torticollis, and create restriction within the baby’s nervous system, cranial nerves, musculoskeletal system, and gastrointestinal system. C-section babies are not squeezed like babies who are delivered vaginally. The squeeze is vital to starting the nervous system.
When we introduce stress to their fragile system, understand that infants brains are growing and neuro pathways are forming: it's like uploading a program into the baby's digital file. A file that changes every few months, and when a glitch has been uploaded, just imagine what that does to your baby. Crying, painful feeds, reflux, trouble laying baby down for naps and sleep, gas and trouble with tummy time. All of this and so many other "symptoms" show up when we have birth trauma.
But what about those other births I mentioned: surrogate, adoption, prematurity, babies born under tough pregnancies? Lets start with what "trauma" can look like when its not physical every time. Trauma is also perceived by the body as an emotional "scar", taking many forms as the brain and senses develop, babies perceive pain, emotion, etc from their environment even before birth. A concept that we often forget to discuss but is very important to understand. What happened during the pregnancy? Was there stress on the mom / surrogate? What was the emotional state of the parents during the 9 months? Was there trauma? a death? divorce? accident? situation that was not preventable? was the baby wanted? was there substance abuse? or even if there was not a big event..what was the baby picking up on? what were they exposed to?. Truth and fact is that babies remember MORE than we would EVERY believe, a fabulous resource book to read on this subject is Babies Remember Birth by David Chamberlain Ph.D.
Babies who have NICU stays have their own unique set of circumstances including being handled HUNDREDS of times before they are discharged. They have procedures, wires, tubes, feedings, noises, complications, babies shut down within their nervous system very easily and have more trauma than anyone would ever have in their lifetime.
personal note: I cannot say enough about NICU Nurses, Doctors, Respiratory Therapists and NICU specialist teams. Angels. They are angels, super heroes who help these babies and their families through one of the most traumatic times of their lives. If you are a parent of a premature baby. Please read the blog dedicated to you.
I will say that not every baby who has had an assist into the world will "definitely" exhibit these symptoms as a baby. I have many babies who have been via c-section who are just fine but down the road have issues with sensory, speech and learning. Anxiety, potty training, and fears can show up; tippy toe walking can show up at puberty if they had it as a toddler, bed wetting, night terrors;. Those nervous system programs have inputs and measures. They are established over time and it takes nothing but a small milestone to glitch the nervous system loop, telling that program there is a glitch; and staying that way until it has been fixed.
The beauty of my work is that I see the MAGICAL benefits and simplicity of having the body engage with this gentle, hands on practice. CST allows the body to relax deeply and find those pathways to unwind through the body diaphragms, and cranial bones. Releasing the tissues from excess takes minutes not hours. This is where CST, bodywork, OT, PT, Chiro are so effective for babies, toddlers, kids of all ages into adolescence and puberty. Bodywork and movement act as a reset to the system. Resetting the body's adaptability patterns, releasing the fascial restrictions, removing the "thing" that is causing the body to glitch. Adding in movement therapies to trigger the brain - limb motor function, reflexes and stimulus to function at a higher level. All important to the success of maintenance and helping little ones function their absolute best.
What do we still carry?? How does this impact our lives as an adult?? My Birth Story.
Several years ago I was away at a CST course- SomotoEmotional Release 1, where we dove into our own birth stories while on the table with multiple people facilitating the session. It started by setting the intention to go back and explore this time. I was interested and scared because my parents told me this story about how I was a colicky, "bad" baby. A health nurse was brought in so my mom could sleep; I was delivered a few weeks early and was bottle fed because of feeding issues. I was told the story of my birth from their perspective. Textbook.
I suffered from fear, anxiety, and had some sensory fidget habits as a child; as an adult I have done CST for two decades, so I was curious about what I would learn.
It wasn't something I had practiced in my own time and I was focused on providing evidence based treatments, sticking to protocols and body work. NOT SER work., I remember reading Dr. Upledger's work with SER and felt very compelled that I wasn't a "hippy" or an energy worker; I was a clinician and would stick with that path. So when I was in class and we were diving into it, I admit I was terribly wrong and this is probably one of the most influential moments of my life that changed my practice forever.
30 Minutes into the session I could feel this warmth in a nice cozy dark space, I heard my sister laughing and talking to me in through the tummy; I remember feeling loved and loved her voice; a few minutes later, I remembered suffocating - (my dad was a smoker, and and he was smoking in the room with my mom, I can feel the fear of suffocating as I write this blog. I was having a hard time breathing in utero. Growing up, I drove my parents crazy with my putrid hatred and obsession with making my dad stop smoking. To this day I detest cigarette, pipe and any smoke around me). After this experience I understood why.
As I got past the smoke, my delivery came through and I was stuck. I had my leg in a figure 4 position, and the cord was wrapped around it; I told my team that I felt stuck, to which they asked me if I could find a way through it and out? I ended up "delivering" myself off the table and on to the floor, weeping and having this out of body sense of righting something that had been wrong with my "first" delivery. Surreal.
I shot a video in the parking garage after the session so I could go back and remember the euphoria and lightness of that experience, and it took me several months to feel okay. If you were to ask me if I would like to do it again, I would be hesitant because I felt like for months I was uploading a new program into my body. I had to implement and adapt to it.
I share this experience with you to acknowledge that this is NOT common in practices, it is something I never thought possible or would make an impact on my own life but knowing and working with SER in little ones we catch these sometimes. I dialogue with babies and ask about their own delivery Sometimes they want to do it again or differently. Some will share memories, some will just sob- the sound of sorrow and work through their story; I will work through their body like speaking to their inner self so I don't scare their parents and say "Oh, he's just going through his delivery again or going through something traumatic". I don't often think that would be met with jubilation when parents carry enough guilt around these events. Babies have their own story, their own emotion and have been carried for 9 months, not being asked if they are okay or if they need something different. Just imagine what that question could and would do for you.
So, as above with the list of traumas and symptoms that I see in my clinical practice; here is my own "list" of symptoms I've had since childhood including:
Raised hard palate- right side only.
I was bottle fed
I suffered from colic
Super fussy eater when I was young
Low Immune system function - caught everything
Asthma
Trichotillomania developed when I was in grade 5.
Anxiety into my adulthood
I have had decades of bodywork, worked with a psychologist, became a yogi, and worked on self reflection and discovery. I have worked through so many chapters of my life and will still have things pop up from various points in my childhood. These obstacles do not define you but they do challenge you, and I wonder if I would have had this work as a child, how that framework of my life would have evolved? This is a huge facet of my passion for this work and I hope that this gives you some food for thought.
For more information, connect with your local pediatric teams of specialists!
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