Healing Birth Trauma with Cranio-Sacral Therapy
Healing Birth Trauma with Cranio-Sacral Therapy
Birth is a formative event in a person’s life, profoundly influencing their perceptions, development, personality, behavior and relationship with the world thereafter. Whether we are welcomed into the world with love, patience and gentle touch, or painful implements, bright lights and a tense atmosphere, leaves an imprint. We don’t often remember or think of it but our subconscious minds and bodies remember this first the experience of ‘life outside the womb’.
A fluent, smooth and easy birth contributes to a child who is healthy, happy and at ease in themselves, who consequently develops the skills and confidence needed for a happy and successful life. Conversely, a challenging birth involving medical intervention or a stressful environment can be painful, shocking and traumatic for a baby, resulting in chronic tension, physical disabilities and/or psychological trauma, and strongly influencing the psycho-emotional development of the child.
The wonders of nature and medicine:
A mother contains within her a deep inner wisdom about ‘how’ to give birth, if she learns to listen and deeply trust in her body and the natural birthing process. However, these days with hospital births becoming prevalent and women encouraged to rely on a medicalised system, many of us have lost touch with our natural birthing instincts. If the lead up to the birth causes the mother stress (such as a panicked trip to the hospital), then the release of stress hormones can slow down or even stop the natural process of labour. This often leads to medical interventions, to which both mother and baby must adapt. Medical interventions and strong pain relief medication can also interrupt the natural birthing process. In the case of genuine complications though, most of us are very glad of the wonders of modern medicine to assist and save lives!
Birth Trauma in babies:
Birth trauma comes in many forms, including forceful interventions (forceps or ventous), inductions or excessive pain relief medication, which disrupt the natural birth process and the connection between mother and baby. Cutting the umbilical cord or separating mother and baby too soon can also result in shock in a baby’s system, as can a caesarian birth with the rapid change of pressure, a cord wrapped around the neck or incubation/medical treatments post-birth. Babies don’t yet have any sense of time or space, therefore even just a few minutes of separation from their mother can feel like abandonment (certain death). Often deep healing is needed to repair these early traumas so that the person doesn’t carry them throughout life.
The delicate structures of a newborn baby’s skull are extremely soft and malleable – designed to compress at the time of delivery and then return to their pre-birth alignment within a short space of time, when the baby is relaxed in the arms of their mother. The sutures (spaces in between the bones) fully close during the following year or so and the bones become set in place. An over-zealous use of forceps or ventous can result in misalignments and distortions – leading to varying degrees of health, development or behavioral problems.
On an emotional level, birth trauma can also result in chronic tension, ‘holding patterns’ and an over-stimulated nervous system, resulting in an ingrained ‘fight’, ‘flight’ or ‘freeze’ response. Physical and emotional trauma can manifest in a myriad of symptoms such as: excessive crying, digestive issues (excessive wind, colic, vomiting or allergies), difficulty latching onto the breast, insecurity and excessive clinginess, restlessness, agitation, asthma, allergies, ear-nose-throat issues, headaches, spinal curvature, and behavioral or learning difficulties. A ‘fight’ response could include outbursts of anger or aggression as the child grows older, ‘flight’ could show up as shyness, hiding or restlessness/agitation/ADHD, and ‘freeze’ as excessive sleeping, tendency to cold or low energy. Babies who are very quiet and ‘good’ can sometimes be stuck in a parasympathetic ‘freeze’ state – to trained hands, the quality of their system will feel different to a naturally quiet/introverted but content baby.
More serious manifestations of physical birth trauma could include brain damage, cerebral palsy, autism or epilepsy.
Birth Trauma in Mothers:
The effects of a difficult birth can also affect the mother profoundly. Not enough attention is given to this important subject, with women usually being expected just to ‘get on with it’ and focus exclusively on their newborn baby.
Painful and invasive medical procedures, tearing and the consequent surgery, excessive medication or an abrupt separation from her newborn baby can all take their toll. Chronic tension or pain, pelvic/spinal misalignment, fatigue, overwhelm, post-natal depression or PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) can all be signs of a traumatic birth experience that needs attention, care, healing and resolution.
How can Craniosacral Therapy help with birth trauma?
Craniosacral Therapy is one of the most effective modalities available to resolve birth trauma in babies, children and mothers.
Craniosacral Therapy involves the use of extremely gentle touch (visualized, if working from a distance) firstly to help the adult or baby to relax and reconnect with a sense of safety and peace, and secondly to support the release of old ‘holding patterns’, tension and nervous system activation.
Craniosacral Therapists are trained to feel and sense rhythms expressed by the body on extremely subtle levels. These rhythmic motions are an expression of our life-force energy, and areas of unresolved injury, tension or stress are reflected as disruptions, restrictions or lack of potency in the movements of energy. Conversely, the ‘life force’ is the driver of healing and wellbeing, and the therapist consciously connecting with this essential, healing force helps to initiate a natural process of healing and rebalancing.
Babies still-developing systems are sensitive, adaptable and usually respond quickly to treatments of just a short duration. Often only two or three sessions are needed to witness a profound difference. Adults have a longer history and usually benefit from more extended sessions. As well as helping to release the residual effects of birth trauma, treatments can also provide mothers with valuable space and time to focus exclusively on self-care, rest, relaxation and regeneration. This profoundly benefits both herself and her children.
Cranio-Sacral Therapy treatments can be carried out equally effectively from a distance as with hands-on, often with remarkable effects. The first treatment starts with a video consultation to discuss you or your child’s individual situation and needs. For the treatment, there is the option stay connected via video/audio or to do the session purely energetically.
For more information about Craniosacral Therapy, see In-Person Craniosacral Therapy and Distance Craniosacral Therapy. For bookings or enquiries, please get in touch.
