For years I have been making the case that in-utero compressive forces generally appear to create more fetal craniosacral fascial strain than shorter-term labor and delivery events.
Two difficult cases from mothers with bicornuate uteri support that hypothesis. Before I describe them, picture a uterus as a bowl and embryo A adhering to the wall of that bowl. That embryo has room to grow in that normal-sized uterus. Now picture a smaller bowl inside of that original bowl, and embryo B is forced to grow in that narrow space for months with increasing 24/7 compression.
My third-longest case in 40 years of practice was a woman in her early 20s who needed 89 hours of CFT. We also trained her fiancee to work on her at home for many additional hours. My longest running baby case in 37 years of infant work is at 36 hours and counting; we are now dealing with heavy neck/throat strain. Mom had surgery to correct her uterus to have another baby. In time comparison, the average fussy baby case is two to four hours of CFT. The average torticollis case longer at five to eight hours.
On a clinical note it is a testament to the families to hang in with CFT. They saw early small improvements and felt CFT, even with the expense, was their best option. Most families would have bailed without quick full correction saying that CFT just did not work for them. If you practice CFT, you have had that experience.
We know that the craniosacral fascial system holds the emotional and physical memories of all traumas after conception. The double whammy here is that not only were the fetuses tight early on with many months of compression, but their craniosacral fascial systems grew into distorted positions that needed to normalize over time. I believe that these two factors greatly accounted for the extended healing time.
For the record, just because people come to me, I do not wave a “magical” CFT healing wand. When a patient walks into my office, I never know the size of his/her onion and how long treatment will take.
My two most difficult cases are still on-going. I saw a young man at my Erie, Pa. practice in 1986. He received a childhood football head injury and has suffered ever since. He took my CFT training in 2000 and has taught other therapists in Erie to assist him. He does a lot of self-unwinding at home, and I still see him for an occasional update.
I have also treated a woman for about 450 hours of CFT over 17 years. She suffers every day. I have assisted her for the last five years in trying to work out her in utero craniosacral fascial strains. All that has to be said is when her mother delivered full term in the 50s, she was not showing at all.
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