My role is to create a hypothesis within the space-time continuum of the craniosacral fascial system to discover something unusual at birth that has no medical explanation.
A mother said that a hospital nurse, with decades of experience, was astonished years ago in suctioning so much meconium out of her newborn son’s mouth. The nurse asked, “Where is it all coming from?” I asked the question, “Why?”
This now seven-year-old boy presents with a speech disorder, tight neck, tight jaw, and breathing issues. In my mind he has not “outgrown” the effects of his oropharyngeal fetal trauma. Each Gillespie Approach–Craniosacral Fascial Therapy visit involves a heavy dose of full-body craniosacral fascial strain. On his fifth visit he is still showing strain exclusively in his vocal cord/hyoid/epiglottis area, hopefully the core of his onion.
The back story is that his neck was tight at birth. He had a great latch but was unable to suck and often aspirated fluids. My hypothesis is that fetal birth trauma caused strain in his vocal cord/hyoid/epiglottis area. That physiologic impairment allowed amniotic fluid and/or meconium to fill his respiratory and digestive spaces, resulting in meconium aspiration syndrome.
A key piece of the equation is the epiglottis, a critical organ needed for survival. (See “The Infant Epiglottis.”) If fascial strain is affecting its function, aspiration may be commonplace. For all children to thrive, affected neonates need Gillespie Approach–Craniosacral Fascial Therapy to suck, swallow, and breathe well.
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