“My son came out of the womb with his left arm wrapped behind his head.”
A seven-week-old boy presented with a variety of issues. He had difficulty latching on with a lot of letdown. He often choked, had trouble burping, had the hiccups frequently, and had some foot twisting.
He was born at home with a midwife and doula at 42-plus weeks. He came into the world with his left arm wrapped around the back of his head.
He had a zero-second brain cycle with foot, digestive, and diaphragmatic strain. He was also tight in his neck and shoulders, especially his left upper quadrant.
I often discuss unseen compressive fetal strain patterns, but this type of birth strain was completely overt. Since he literally came out with his arm still wrapped, I assumed the fascia was very tight in that part of his body. Otherwise, his arm would have released.
The unique action of the tensegrity model is that, at the point of traumatic contact, the web inherently distributes the strain throughout the body. Thus, any physical trauma, like drilling a tooth or stubbing a toe, immediately becomes a full-body event.
In therapy, his web released nicely, especially his neck. But when I held his left shoulder, his body would not respond because it was not ready to release.
I would have expected that the body would have released this most recent trauma first. But I always respect its wisdom for authentic healing and will revisit this area at the next session.
For infant providers, please add this type of trauma to the red flag birth list. Gillespie Approach Training is a must for all neonatal providers. I believe that this work is crucial to prevent many health issues later in life.
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