Stress is everywhere. Whether you are young or old, male or female, rich or poor: we all fall prey to stress. Stress by definition is “a constraining force or influence.”
The pulling, pushing, compressing and twisting effects of stress can bring us to the breaking point. Stress can be big or small, repetitive or singular. Even though stress is often defined in physical terms, stress is way more dynamic.
Stress can be chemical or emotional in nature as well as physical. In Chiropractic, we categorize stress into three groups: traumas, toxins and thoughts. Traumas are physical stresses, toxins are chemical stresses and thoughts are emotional stresses.
Stresses put tension on the connective tissue that holds the upper cervical spine together and can create a weakness. This weakness allows the upper cervical spine to malfunction and get locked in an unusual position. The stresses can be an unlimited combination of the three general types: physical, chemical and emotional.
Any combination of these stresses can weaken the body to the point where they can produce a vertebral subluxation. Children and infants are very susceptible to the stresses of the world because their Nerve Systems and Spines are still developing and are very pliable.
The crowning glory of life, our birth, does not escape stress. The first and most common physical, chemical and emotional stresses that we encounter occur at our own birth. The modern medical birthing process has only increased the quality and quantity of stress that is put on the child as he or she is delivered.
Physical Stress
Even before the child is born in the hospital, they have an uphill climb to overcome. Delivering a baby at a hospital involves placing the mother on her back with her feet propped up. With the mother on her back, the child has no other option but to exert itself up against gravity. No other female mammal on planet Earth gives birth on their back; they all use gravity as an assistant.
The baby not only has to combat gravity in this position but has to contend with a restricted birth canal. The sacral bone that makes up the back portion of the birth passageway, wedges inward and narrows the canal when in this position. This position also decreases blood flow to the uterus, depriving oxygen to the baby in-utero.
To observe all this induced stress, doctors will use either an external or internal fetal heart monitoring device. This procedure causes even more physical restriction to the uterus and birth canal as well as chemical stress to the baby. The external device is strapped around the mother’s waist. To get proper readings, the mother has to lie completely still.
The internal device is even more invasive. An electrical probe is surgically screwed into the skull of the baby. Complications of this include physical brain trauma and increased risk of infection.
If a synthetic hormone such as Pitocin is used to induce contractions, this will also cause restrictions in the uterus. During labor, natural oxytocin levels will gradually increase creating “wave-like” contractions of the uterus. The “waves” help guide the baby through the canal. Because the Pitocin is injected in a high dose, it forces the uterus to contract all at once, pressing in on the baby. The baby can get stalled in the process of labor.
For how “intelligent” we are as humans, we sometimes forget to use common sense. Putting the mother on her back is not in the baby or mom’s best interest, but makes the process more convenient for the doctor. Until common sense is the norm, I have a hard time seeing a medical doctor forfeiting their comfy, eye-level view for a pillow on the ground under a squatting, laboring mother.
With the forces of gravity and a narrow birth canal working against the infant, it is no surprise to see the child struggle as it tries to deliver. Here is where the OB get the “credit” for delivering the baby. As the baby starts to crown, he or she will often get stuck when trying to maneuver through this less than ideal canal.
At this point, the doctor will grab the infant’s head and neck as a lever and fulcrum to quicken the delivery process. Routinely, over 300 Newtons of twisting and pulling forces are applied to the infant’s neck at delivery. For reference, around 400 Newtons of force are needed to dislocate the cervical spine.
C-Section delivers are equally as traumatic to the baby. The medical doctor will use the same process involving the head and neck as a lever and fulcrum. There are reports of the mother’s hips being lifted off the table during a C-Section as the OB pulls from the baby’s neck.
A Cesarean birth also increases the risk for developing craniocervical blockages in infancy. When the child goes through the birth canal, the cranial bones slightly compress over each other to help the baby pass through. Once delivered, there is a “cranial blowout” of the expanding skull bones that creates a neurological jump-start to the Cerebral-Spinal Fluid. A Cesarean hinders this process. There is no question that this “medical miracle of life” event is traumatic to the infant’s spine.
Chemical Stress
The infant does not have to leave the confines of the hospital or even the mother’s womb to be subjected to chemical stress. Women who receive epidurals may increase blood and tissue infections (sepsis) in their newborns. Newborns whose mothers had received an epidural were 4 times as likely to be treated with antibiotics.
With the mother unable to feel the contractions, she can’t perform them on her own. To help induce contractions, the mother is injected with a synthetic version of the oxytocin hormone, Pitocin. The adverse effects of Pitocin on the baby are abnormal heart rate, jaundice, seizures, breathing difficulties and decreased muscle tone.
If the Pitocin causes labor to stall, a C-section is the next likely procedure. When a child is delivered via C-section, they don’t pass through the birth canal. Going through the birth canal provides the newborn their first exposure to the microbiome.
The microbiome is the coexistence of bacteria, fungi, parasites and viruses on and in our body. These microorganisms live in symbiosis with us and help promote many bodily functions. This initial microbiome imprint helps stimulate the digestive and immune systems of the baby.
C-sections bypasses this important step and negatively effects a child’s resistance to infection. When the infant is finally delivered, what is done next? The doctor abruptly cuts the cord and the hospital staff whisks the baby away from the mother to begin medical interventions.
When the doctor cuts the cord before it is done pulsating, the infant is deprived of many important nutrients, immunity and stem cells. Again, there is no common sense at play in cutting the cord directly after delivery. The only thing at play is liability. The OBGYN becomes less liable from a legal standpoint once the cord is cut. If there is an adverse event post-delivery, the responsibility falls more on the hospital than the doctor.
Next, the staff immediately wipes the vernix off of the baby’s skin. The vernix is a waxy, cheese-like layer unique to infant skin. It is important in providing immune protection and development for the newborn child. It can be left on the skin for up to 3 days after birth. Cleaning it off instead of letting it absorb into the skin can make the child susceptible to infection.
Next, antibiotic eye drops are used on the child. The thought process of the eye drops is to prevent the newborn from getting pink eye or other eye infections (which only increases when you wipe off the vernix). The antibiotic eye drops can cause chemical conjunctivitis and visual disturbances among other adverse effects. Recent studies have found that antibiotic eye drops are only 80% effective in preventing some eye infections. The American Academy of Pediatrics is in the process of reevaluating the need for performing the procedure right after birth.
The eye drops are followed by a vitamin K shot. The vitamin K shot is administered to prevent hemorrhagic disease. Administering the Vitamin K shot after birth has been linked to anaphylactic shock, liver impairment and even brain damage. Newborns naturally have less vitamin K in their system because their livers are still developing. They will gradually receive vitamin K through their mother’s breast milk.
Finally, the newborn is given one more shot, the hepatitis B vaccine. Hepatitis B is a self-limiting, acute inflammatory liver disease. It is a sexually-transmitted infection with its main entry route occurring through the sharing of needles among drug addicts. Unless the mother has an active hepatitis B infection, the infant is not in any real danger of being exposed to the virus.
Emotional Stress
Emotional stresses experienced by a newborn in the hospital go hand-in-hand with the physical and chemical stressors. Imagine being tethered to your mom for 9 months in a warm, cozy, safe womb. All of a sudden, your environment is saturated with anesthesia and synthetic hormones that shock your whole system. Your little heart is beating rapidly as you try and escape uphill through an opening that is starting to close off.
Just as you see daylight, you are grabbed by the neck and yanked out of the womb. As your new lungs try and gasps air for the first time, your backup source of nutrients is cut off unexpectedly. Hoping your mother will be there to comfort you in this time of distress, you are torn away from her only to be prodded and probed by unknown hands.
A pull here rubs you down and makes your whole body shiver. A push here dumps a liquid into your eyes making them burn uncontrollably. Just in time to catch your breath finds it choked off by a suction device jammed up your nostrils.
As you cry out of necessity, you are jabbed in the legs by scorching hot needles that only make you cry more. If you are lucky enough to survive the onslaught, they finally hand you back to your mother. But not for too long. Soon you are carted away, down a bright long corridor where they wrap you up tightly under a blue light for further observation. Are you stressed yet?
Studies have shown that an infant’s cortisol stress levels increase even in the womb when exposed to loud noises and unknown environmental changes. More than just food is delivered to the baby through the umbilical cord. Nutrients, hormones and drugs are all fed to the baby via the umbilical cord.
The infant not only eats what the mother eats but feels what she feels emotionally as well.
If the infant is exposed to prolonged stress, usually experienced with a hospital birth, Sympathetic Nerve stimulation increases. Sympathetic Nerves stimulation increases adrenaline and decreases blood supply to internal organs. This, in turn, increases fetal heart rate and decreases fetal oxygen supply.
Routinely, a child born in a hospital will have a bluish color to their skin. When you combined cutting the umbilical cord too soon with all the other physical and chemical stressors, oxygen supply decreases because of sympathetic nerve stimulation overload. A healthy, newborn should have a reddish-pinkish hue to their skin. Long term effects of Prolonged Sympathetic stimulation can negatively effect brain development, life long stress-response patterns and stress-related illnesses in adulthood.
Again, try and picture yourself as a newborn. You’ve just left the safe, internal environment of your mother’s womb. This will surely increase your Sympathetic nerve stimulation momentarily as you start to breathe for the first time.
As you start to engage your body in new, slightly frightening ways, you search for comfort and reassurance. The natural thing would be to connect back with your mother in an embrace. That skin-to-skin contact relaxes the baby’s stress directly on all three levels: physical, chemical and emotional.
As the mother nestles her child, the infant listens to the mother’s voice and heartbeat; two things well-known to the baby. The infant can then better regulate their heartbeat and oxygen levels. This stimulates the polyvagal innervation of the Nerve System.
The polyvagal aspect of the Nerve System is the direct connection between the brain and heart through the vagus nerve. When the input between the brain and heart is ideal, the vagus nerve stimulates oxytocin. Oxytocin is the hormone associated with love. With love literally coursing through the veins of both mother and child, nerves in their brains form new ties that will create an imprint on each that will last a lifetime.
Both mother and child are robbed of this through unnecessary medical interventions that are done immediately after birth. What is often not explained to a mother at the hospital is that all the medical interventions can wait for up to an hour after birth except for the APGAR test. Even the 1 minute APGAR test and its score has the least amount of outcome predictions regarding complications. Common sense tells me that the least amount of medical intervention and the greatest amount of mom-baby connection needs to occur during those precious first minutes. Any non-life threatening medical interventions should be put on hold until the umbilical cord pulsations have diminished.
Stress will be waiting around every corner once the child finally leaves the hospital. While we can’t avoid the “3 T’s of stress”, we can react to them to the best of our ability. The capacity to react is called adaptation. Adaptability is up to our Nerve System and Spine, specifically the brainstem and upper cervical spine area.
Pediatric Chiropractic strives to promote the greatest potential of adaptability at this crucial area. How well we adapt to stress is a key factor in health and well-being. The sooner we can react to stress in a positive way, the better we can adapt to stress in a constructive manner.
- Jarek Esarco, DC, CACCP
Jarek Esarco, DC, CACCP is a pediatric, family wellness and upper cervical specific Chiropractor. He is an active member of the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA). Dr. Jarek has postgraduate certification in Pediatric Chiropractic through the ICPA. Dr. Jarek also has postgraduate certification in the HIO Specific Brain Stem technique through The TIC Institute. Dr. Jarek is happily married to his wife Regina. They live in Youngstown, Ohio with their daughter Ruby.
