CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY FOR BABIES AND INFANTS
Eastern philosophy talks of life having four sufferings: birth, old age, sickness
and death. Of these our passage into this world is the first of many complex
experiences. It is certainly a challenge for the mother, but this pales in
comparison to the shock and long-term effects in store for the child. Everything
that happens to us is potentially a trauma and these traumata can store themselves
in the tissues. These traumas, if unresolved, can accumulate leading to ‘overload’,
breakdown and disease; these diseases occurring in the short or long-term.
The cerebrospinal fluid system, plus the extraordinary flexibility of the
baby's body and its emotional resilience when allowed to make natural contact
with its mother, together are capable of correcting the vast majority of birth-induced
cranial bone misalignments. By the time the baby is about 2 weeks old, the
steam has run out of this self-repair mechanism, and any remaining problems
may be present in one form or another for the rest of the child’s life,
unless corrected using craniosacral or cranial osteopathic methods.
When to treat
Put simply, the younger the better, it is never too early to treat. Ideally,
the best results can be found with treatment before the age of 5. After this
learned adaptations and compensations can establish themselves.
Effective for the treatment of:
Colic is a typical example of a birth-caused problem. Experience of craniosacral practitioners suggests that the factors which may cause colic include:
There is no doubt that the mother and the doctors and midwives present (and
the baby!) all do their best to ensure a safe birth. However, one penalty
of modern safe birthing practices (and modern culture) is that, instead of
a high rate of deaths for mother and child, the birth is more likely to leave
some sort of shock in the baby's system. Bright lights, taking the baby away
for weighing, and many other apparently trivial things can decrease the feeling
of security of the baby, and this reduces its ability to shrug off the physical
impacts of its birth. Medical Research supporting this has been well documented
by Michael Odent (a French Obstetrician and Gynaecologist) in his book "The
Scientification of Love".
CST is one method of helping the baby to clear its system of birth traumas,
and a check-up treatment after the first 2 weeks of birth is always useful,
even if there is no apparent problem.
CST and issues around birth - a summary
Craniosacral Therapy is particularly useful in many ways for the whole process
of birthing and childbearing - both for the baby and the mother. A brief summary
of the areas it is commonly used in is provided below....
1. a) general fertility work (pre-conception):
2. b) pregnancy term/antenatal:
3. c) postnatal: Mother
4. d) postnatal: baby
