When people find out that half of our patients at Hanson Family Chiropractic are kids and babies, they always want to know why. Specifically with babies, we always point to the birth process. Moms, you were there! Everything that you felt, baby felt too! They just can’t say “Mom, that was crazy, can you take me to go see somebody!”
But the physical stress that was involved in the birth process only gets amplified if there was some sort of intervention, whether it was forceps, vacuum or a really fast birth, or a really slow birth, or baby got stuck or c-sections being the big one. The reason why c-sections are such a note-worthy event is that during a vaginal birth baby is moving downwards and mom is pushing downwards so everyone is moving in the same direction. In a c-section, mom’s abdomen actually acts as a vacuum, so they have to grab baby by the head and neck to
pull him/her out of there. This removal creates a lot of force on the head
and neck, namely anywhere between 60-90 lbs with traction.
More Reasons To Get Your Baby Checked By A Chiropractor After Birth
That alone is why you’d want to get your baby checked by a chiropractor after birth, but there a more reasons as well. There is a nerve that runs through the upper neck called the Vagus Nerve, Latin for “the wanderer”, because it’s the longest nerve in your body. (Google it for extra credit) It starts at the base of your skull at the brain stem, goes down your spine on either side, touches your heart, lungs, goes through your diaphragm, and all of your digestive track, so it’s doing a ton of stuff but it’s also responsible for so much more!
Your nervous system, which runs everything in your body, only has two settings: your fight or flight side (gas pedal) and rest, repair and grow (brake pedal). The Vagus nerve is responsible for the bulk of that rest, repair and grow. That means anytime your child needs to learn, digest food, mount an immune response, sleep, relax, socialize – all of these things are at the heart of the Vagus nerve’s responsibility. Because the Vagus nerve passes within a millimeter of your top vertebrae, which is also the lever they use to pull baby out of mom, when we hear about a child that was born via c-section, our first thought is that that child has lost her brakes. And she lost brakes on the first day of life. This manifests and turns into colic, ear infections, fussiness, can’t sleep, focus issues at school and potential sensory issues. There are so many things that this can turn into because Vagus nerve is responsible for so many things. Please reach out if you’d like to learn more about how the birth can impact health.