Mothers should not be forgotten when discussing birth trauma. For the mothers who have experienced extended postpartum blues, please take note of these concepts.
A woman presented with pelvic pain and neck aches. She was on antidepressant medication; could not think, focus, or concentrate; and was always tired.
She experienced a whiplash car accident at 19 and had headaches as a child. I believe that what took her over the edge was enduring the traumas of birthing ten children.
She felt fine before having children, but after the first child created a difficult back labor, she was never the same. Her condition slowly deteriorated after each birth.
When I began the newborn-infant work in 2006, my desire was for the dyad to be treated after birth. Since that concept became impractical for mothers, my focus shifted solely to newborns.
But in a perfect world, both mom and baby need to be checked after birth. Since the mother’s body experiences the same traumas as the fetus, she may have to needlessly live with the health consequences.
There is a good reason why many women have epidurals during the birth. But that pressure and pain may quickly translate into maternal fascial strain.
In this situation, mom had the unique experience of ten births. In my hypothesis, each birth tightened her fascial web a little more. Eventually her brain cycle went to zero seconds causing her depression, fatigue, and cognitive problems.
In an extensive therapy session, her brain cycle opened to 120 seconds just from pelvic work. This confirms the full-body fascial web connection between pelvic strain and head and neck issues.
When I helped to release the upper-body fascia, her brain cycle opened to an astounding 180 seconds. The dramatic change of the craniosacral fascial system was like day and night. I expect her to do well with continued therapy.
If she had therapy after each birth, I believe that this situation could have been prevented. Gillespie Approach Training needs to produce birth providers to be available for all moms and newborns.
