I know that the conventional wisdom of the obstetricians is that the fetus is like a gumby and they just bounce back. This is a convenient way to absolve themselves of any blame after a difficult delivery. First let me say it depends on many factors-in cranial sacral therapy anything beyond 6 hours of HARD labor is the beginning threshhold for experiencing trauma, In addition if depends on where the fetus is in the process-i.e. approaching the birth canal or already in the canal. The first stress that registers is anxiety and as adults we know that anxiety registers in the intestines —- colic is not “Normal” and if the birth has has had no further delays or complications, that may be the extent of the trauma and it is easily and quickly resolved right after birth(some obstetric` nurses have been trained in CST) and by simply placing the hands on the stomach and the back. The trauma that had lodged in the tissues of the intestines responds to the support and safety by releasing the emotion which the body has walled off hoping to never experience it again. Once the energy cyst has released the intestines can grow and develop normally.
The development of further obstacles creates ever more complicated restrictions in the body if not resolved. On what authority do i make these statements? I as an adult of nearly 50 I discovered that I had experienced a particularly intense and traumatic birth-my mother did not know what to expect since I was her first born, and the nurse walked in to check on her and when she found that I was already crowning(the fetus’ head already emerging from the canal) she held my mother’s legs together until the doctor could get from his office to officially record the hour of birth. The exact time for him to reach the hospital from his office had to have taken at least 30 to 45 minutes.
Now when the fetus has managed to get to this point programming takes over and the fetus “knows” if it is to birth, it has to lift its head up, turning the head to the left at the same time it brings the right shoulder forward in the same left spiral. So in my case I was attempting these maneuvers but unable to get anywhere because I was locked in with my mother’s legs held together. During this time I continued to accomplish the birthing spiral and locked-in the increasing anxiety into the muscles and tissues being employed in the lifting, turning, and bringing through the right shoulder. Now if allowed to finish the birthing spiral, that would have been the extent of the damage. But I was not that lucky and the process of not being able to accomplish this most crucial series of maneuvers , the panic and existential fear that I wouldn’t be born continued to intensify locking in more trauma into tissues and my resorting to attempt to push myself out by pushing with my feet(mostly the left) against my mother’s back-she had back pain after the birth. The resulting tissue damage caused me structural impairment which fed into a genetic scoliosis pattern inherited from my father.
Unfortunately the trauma wasn’t over because upon arrival of the doctor they knocked my mother out with “twilight anaesthetic which also knocked me out and the doctor pulled me out by my right arm causing further damage to the muscles of my shoulder and down to my mid- back.
Now the problem has left reminders in the soft tissue which we call energy cysts`which prevent the muscles from doing their designed purpose and the body began doing work-a-rounds of the cysts getting other muscles to do the job but with consequences.
In my case since the discovery of the trauma was not know to me, my body found ways to work around the trauma cysts( we think of them as fenced off areas that are so guarded that the body doesn’t even try to use the muscles which were intended to accomplish a particular action- and the backup muscles are not as efficient, but they do prevent the trauma from being re-experienced).
There is a Law of Healing called Herring’s law which states that in true healing the body heals from the inside to the outside, from the head to the feet, and (most importantly in my case) from the most recent to the most past. So I and all my doctors are in uncharted territory because we didn’t expect anything after the first 4-5 years post my extensive spine fusions. Normally we would expect that the major misalignments happened from my 20’s on as my body grew into adulthood and I should have been able to resume all normal activities. In my case, since we fused more than half of my spine, there were misalignments which started on day one as I began to grow. That process has been very difficult because every time my leg muscles changed to try to accommodate a normal gait my hips also changed and everyday it had a new center of balance-this led to my losing my balance and falling multiple times because my legs were weak and recovery was too slow to prevent falling.
I suppose the biggest surprise has been that the body in its wisdom knows what it has to do in order to achieve a balance in my being. I tried to do some strengthening exercises in areas that I could feel were being stressed and it went against my body’s wisdom and caused excessive weakness in my legs especially. So I have opted to let my body do what it needs to doin its own time as disappointing as the delay was to my impatience to get back to “normal activity”.
The fact that the body would try and was able to correct the earliest patterns in my my development was an unexpected development and initially demoralizing since i had only just gotten my leg strength and sufficient balance to taste the stairs two at a time as was my usual way of climbing stairs since being a young man.
My structure is still shifting and each morning I have to reassess where my center of balance is when i get up in the middle of the night because it is working while i sleep to shift my structure into greater balance.
Because the last 6 years have left me weak in the legs, my balance constantly changing(though the balance is so much improved), i am having to change my goal from skiing again to finally being able to hike again and even maybe being able to run a little.
- John-Allan Macunovich. © 2024. All rights Reserved.