First off, let me please thank all of you for the warm wishes and emails sent over the last few days since the birth of our second child, Maia, this past Thursday.  My wife once again put on a miraculous display of natural birth, allowing for true expression of innate intelligence and pure beauty.  The benefits to both mother and child with natural birth are so grand, that I personally don’t understand how any doctor could allow another path, unless of course there was a true problem.  A natural birth is one in which the human nervous system is allowed to function naturally, so the mother can listen to her body’s innate intelligence from start to finish, allowing for the perfect timing of hormone regulation, as well as timing from early contractions to late pushing stage.  An obstetrician can intervene if there is a complication causing a problem to the health of the baby or mother, and this is why they have procedures like the caeserian. 

Unfortunately, these procedures and others, like the epidural, are being used to comfort the mother, at the expense of the baby and mother’s health.  For instance, if the birth is natural, the mother does not need anyone to tell her to “PUSH” because she feels WHEN from hormones released, followed by a “RELAXATION” phase, which allows the mother to rest a minute or two before the next surge of pushing comes.  This all allows for a smooth transition of the baby’s head through the vaginal canal.  When the obstetrician does not need to use instruments or hands to pull, twist, and turn the head, the baby’s own delicate spine and nervous system are MUCH safer.  

On the other hand, if an epidural is used, the mother is temporarily paralyzed from the waist down, so she won’t feel pain (at least not during labor).  Once paralyzed, the nerve connection to the brain will not be able to let the mother feel when to push, so the doctor will have to say “PUSH” for her.  Also, there is a considerable loss of strength with the epidural’s temporary paralysis effect, so the muscles won’t be strong enough to push the baby out without the help of about 90 lbs of pulling pressure from the obstetrician,  which increases the risk of upper neck birth trauma leading to a multitude of problems such as difficulty breastfeeding, decreased APGAR score, and lowered immunity to name a few.  Then to make matters worse, the mother is usually hooked up to an I.V. administering a drug called Ptosin, which is a synthetic hormone that speeds up the contractions.   The problem is, the synthetic hormone isn’t as good as the one God made  (we call that organic these days ), so Ptosin doesn’t allow a resting phase between contractions; it just says, keep contracting, even though you can’t feel it because of the epidural, which then fatigues the mother, who already has weak, temporarily paralyzed muscles from the epidural, so then the c-section comes. 

This is not an article to bash c-sections.  About 8 percent of the time, they are absolutely the only known way to get a baby out, in those cases the complications are worth it, but with the national average pushing close to 40% of all births going to c-section, well that means that most of them didn’t need it, and caused the baby and mother harm in the process.  I thought, (I know I did), doctors needed to take an oath, that said, “first, do no harm?”  Maybe the oath should say, “first, make sure mom doesn’t feel pain, and if its harming the function of her body or the baby its ok, just first make sure mom doesn’t feel pain.”  You see, here is where it all comes again.  We (most of our subconscious health ideas) are taught that pain is bad, which is why we make the mistake of giving medicine too early for normal, healthy fevers, take cough medicine for a good, healthy cough, take ibuprofen for normal, healthy swelling, and yes, in this case take paralyzing injections into our spinal cord to not feel normal, healthy contractions in pregnancy. 

No one ever said you had to like PAIN, but if its helping you or YOUR baby, wouldn’t it be a good idea to help facilitate what is normal, instead of working against it? Ok, well, I was going to write more about how wonderful chiropractic care allows for a more natural delivery by balancing the round ligaments that connect to the uterus from the pelvis, but I’ve obviously been pulled away by pure philosophy again, which is always more important.  “Get the BIG IDEA and ALL ELSE WILL FOLLOW”—B.J. Palmer. 

For those of you who are expecting, please let Dr. Arthur and I know as soon as possible, because there are very important, natural techniques we have to help facilitate better nerve function and pelvic stability during these miraculous 9 months of pregnancy.  Please feel free to ask us questions about this important topic.  Pregnancy should be a joy, not a DIAGNOSIS.  

Much Love and GO BEARS!!!!

DR. M