Picture your baby before it’s born, it’s floating warm, safe and cushioned. Then gradually there is less room to move and stretch, things start to become cramped and then all of a sudden the walls start squeezing in, the fluid disappears and things get very intense. Finally after much pushing and squeezing your baby makes the shortest and longest journey of its life down the birth canal, and if all goes according to our bodies’ direction with no interventions, baby comes out just fine on its own. This is a naturally traumatic event, even without the influence of possible interventions.
In modern society, pregnancy and the birthing process have become a medical process to be managed. Usually there is a medical person there to help the baby come out, and often stressors of forceps, vacuum, drugs and pain meds, and maternal stress are added into the stress of the birth. So the tiny bones of your baby’s spine, that have no muscle control or ligament strength to be supported, get stuck; they get stuck out of place and the nerve system interference has started.
Birth is traumatic for babies! A baby must naturally contort to move through the birth canal into the glorious wonder of the world. This puts stress on their nervous system, which controls everything, and it is the master system of the body. There is nothing your body does without some sort of message traveling from the brain to the body or vice versa through the nervous system.
Nervous system interference is usually caused by the moveable bones of the spine and sometimes this vertebra out of alignment causing interference in the nervous system is called a “subluxation.” Because they don’t always cause pain, they can be a little like a cavity, sitting there for a while getting worse before we end up in enough pain to do something about it. Your baby doesn’t come out and say “mommy my neck hurts” or “I have a headache.” Maybe that child cries inconsolably for hours a day every day, otherwise known as colic? Maybe that child gets ear infections in its first year of life? Ear infections are not natural they are not our bodies way of being healthy. Maybe the baby has sensory processing developmental delays. Kids I see in my practice, sometimes they come in for pain, but usually it’s to have their spines checked to be healthier and be able to adapt to the stressors of life more easily. Chiropractic is not a cure or substitute for medical care. It is a natural way to support your body and your child’s body to be at its healthiest.
Adjusting newborn babies helps to set them up for a healthy start into the world. An adjustment on a baby is very soft and gentle involving no more pressure than you would apply to a ripe tomato. As a child grows I increase the intensity and direction of the adjustment to best support removing the interference from a child’s spine. Removing the interference from a human being’s body whether they are newborn or 84 allows them to be their healthiest best self as they move through life.
Dr. Nareeta Stephenson has been in chiropractic practice for 11 years and her family oriented healing centre is located in Port Coquitlam. After receiving her Doctor of Chiropractic from Macquarie University in Sydney Australia, she has continued to study prenatal, postnatal and pediatric care with the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association and Intersect 4 Kids. You can read more about baby chiropractic care on her website at www.strawberriesandsunshine.ca
photo credit: Nicolas Hoizey via photopin cc