“Trauma is much more to do with a baby’s perception and what the relational field was like at the time rather than purely the mechanics of what happens. One baby’s trauma is another’s enriching experience.”

- Matthew Appleton

 

The recognition of birth trauma has been historically allocated to the mother, and any woman that has given birth would attest to feeling pain and discomfort physically and emotionally, during the birthing process. While it holds true, each woman will have a different birth story, and varying levels of trauma from the experience.

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It has more recently been acknowledged that the infant also has their own birth story to tell, and unresolved trauma from the experience. 

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Matthew Appleton is a Psychotherapist and Craniosacral Therapist, he has contributed to the research, teaching and bringing Craniosacral therapy and it’s benefits for infants and children to light. He feels that he is an advocate for the infant in this process. Now others like myself, have learned the skills to also be supporters of the infant while they tell us their birth story.

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It is difficult for adults to really look at the pain that babies may go through to get here. Unless we look at it, then babies will continue to carry it on their own for many years.

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There are consequences for unresolved birth trauma. 

 

For babies it may look like: 

Colic, digestive issues, nursing difficulties, jerky arm and leg movements, crossed or divergent eyes, disturbed sleep, torticolis (neck in twisted or turned position) reflux, plageocephaly (flat head syndrome, on one side), eczema.

 

For children it may look like:

Anxiety, aggression, behavioural disorders, disturbed sleep, headaches, hyperactivity, hypersensitivity, learning difficulties.