I often hear, “I hold all of my tension in my neck and shoulders.” Another favorite is, “I hold all of my tension in my lower back.” If this is you, you may be living with unresolved fascial birth trauma.
An out-of-town mom set up a three-day intensive for her child. While she was going to be here, she scheduled therapy for herself—a smart decision.
She has had neck and shoulder tightness for as long as she can remember with her right shoulder being especially affected. There was no history of trauma to that area.
At the start of her pelvic release, she could immediately feel her brain opening from her four-second brain cycle. Some neck arching and twisting also let go later in the session. Her right arm, comfortably crossing her upper chest in therapy, returned to this position many times over the three days, indicating sustained fetal compression.
For most traumas the fascial web will release that layer nicely and move on to the next past injury. With the more intractable fetal strain, the body keeps remembering it, and many sessions may be needed to fully clear all of its layers.
Fascial release can be tricky. You cannot fix fascia; you need to let the body release it in its own space and time. Most importantly, stretching and exercising the fascia will not release the strain. The most effective way is to listen to the body, follow it into its strain pattern, and wait for the web to release.
I believe that soft tissue birth trauma created a lifetime of tightness in her upper body. She felt a new sense of body freedom upon completion of therapy, as her brain cycle opened to an exceptional 400 seconds.
My wish is that all newborns are checked as a preventative measure. Every infant’s fascial web holds the memory of its fetal, labor, and delivery physical and emotional traumas. Since s(he) knows innately how to heal herself/himself, the provider just needs to listen to the body and facilitate the corrective process.
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