Written by Melissa Gorry | Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapist.
Peter Levine defines trauma as an experience that overwhelms the resources. Greenfield (et al.) define a traumatic birth as the “emergence of the baby from its mother that causes deep distress, may or may not create physical injuries but resulting in psychological distress of an enduring nature”. The mother may experience terror, helplessness, loss of control, powerlessness, or horror. Trauma can be psychological or physical, as described by Cheryl Tatano Beck (2015), a leading researcher in traumatic births.
Research suggests that 45.5% of Australian women report experiencing a traumatic birth. The birthing system that traditionally plays out in hospitals does not empower women to trust that their bodies can do what they have been designed to do – birth, with increased numbers of medical interventions and c-sections being performed. Instead, many women are unheard, unseen and unsupported in this life-changing experience.
Birth trauma not only affects the birth mother but also affects the newborn baby and the birth partner who is witnessing it. The ripple effect also extends to the midwives, who can be left deeply traumatised by what they witness. This is what I noticed with birth trauma: the ripple effects throughout the family unit and in the community. This research paper is focused on the impact of using Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy in treating and healing the Mother’s birth trauma.
Medical obstetric interventions such as forceps, vacuum cups, episiotomy, stitches and c-sections can occur in the birth and are on the rise in the birthing room. In 2002, it was reported that 51% of women had an instrumental birth.
This intervention can result in a birth injury to both the mother and baby, but note, that not every birthing woman who had a medical intervention will feel like they had a traumatic birth. This is something to be mindful of. Obstetric interventions can save the lives of mothers and babies, we do need this important skill in the birthing world. The most important element to these situations is the question the birthing mother’s body is asking, Am I safe? In 45% of women, they felt their safety and/or the safety of their baby wasn’t available to them and this is what contributes to birth trauma.
A traumatic birth experience can leave the mother with symptoms such as flashbacks, nightmares, feelings of anger, anxiety, grief and isolation. The postpartum period is the highest time when a mother can have increased risks of developing psychological difficulties such as post natal depression. There can also be relationship break downs with the partner, difficulties bonding and attachments with their baby, breastfeeding complications, parenting stress and feeling that their is a loss of their identity.
When soft tissue damage is created such as an episiotomy, c-section and/or having stitches put in, the body need to heal from the physical trauma. This can result in nerve pain and discomfort that can last months after the birth. Mother’s can have increased risks of bladder or rectum prolapses and at times, the body doesn’t return to the same state it was before the birth. This can be very distressing to process and heal from.
When a woman is re-telling her birth story, it can create visceral sensations and reactions in the body, such as welling up tears, a fast, racing heartbeat and deep constriction sensations in the tummy. This is trauma stored in the body, in the memory and emotional centres of the brain, such as the hippocampus and amygdala and is activated when a situation reminds the body-mind of the traumatic event. It is important that the practitioner hold a very slow session and grounds the mother.
Traditionally, when a new mother feels she needs additional support in adjusting after the birth and the few months of motherhood, she is referred to the GP, who is highly likely to recommend anti-depressant medication and refer on for traditional talk therapy.
Psychologists are the first option in treating birth trauma, the mother seeking assistance in a safe and supported environment. To talk through the experience and the treatments can be combined with other processes such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and attachment theory.
Somatic Experiencing is a body-oriented and integrative form of therapy that focuses on the nervous system’s response to perceived traumatic events (Levine, 2010). It is designed to provide the right conditions for the body to restore itself to proper functioning through developing awareness of the physical body and allowing for the physical and emotional release of built-up tensions resulting from trauma.
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy is a body-orientated touch modality that works holistically in a trauma-trained approach, orientating to the movement towards health. A highly intuitive and delicate touch is used as a way of communicating and listening to the body, exploring sensations of stillness, expansiveness, contractions through the tissues, structures and fluids. Cherionna Menzam-Sills explains that biodynamic craniosacral therapy allows the clients’ activated nervous system to settle with the practitioners grounded and emobodied presence. The system begins to feel more fluid and whole and the client can access a felt sense of their resource and wellness.
The body’s intelligence knows what it needs to do and the practitioner waits patiently for it to unfold under soft, intuitive hands. This is Biodynamic Healing, coined by Sutherland as “the breathe of life”, allows a holistic shifts and potency to occur and to naturally orient to where it is needed in the body, following the inherent treatment plan.
Primary forces in the body start to move and show patterns in the tissue, leading to reorganisation that can occcur at a neural and cellular level. The brain and body can reprogram themselves after a traumatic event, always orienting back to wellness and health.
Working with trauma requires a delicate approach. It is not about big cathartic expressions and releases as that can overwhelm and re-traumatise the body. Lasting change is a little and often approach to ensure the body feels safe and this is done in a manner that is paced and well-contained. Levine calls this approach titration, which is a gradual process that helps people explore their trauma in small pieces and release the tension felt and stored in their bodies.
Resources can be defined as anything that supports health and healing occurs in relationship to how resourced the body is. Resources are very personal, a mixture of external experiences, objects, animals or people. They tend to create warming, easy, spacious and stillness sensations in the body. There is a sense of safety and of being ok when we are in a relationship. The client who is processing birth trauma may need the practitioner’s touch and presence to be their resource. It is important to develop resources in client sessions with a delicate approach with questions to help to draw out and deepen their connections to their present-time sensations. This supports the client to shift from distressing symptoms into a relationship with their body and health.
Adriaan Louw is a physical therapist and clinical neuroscience researcher stated that “most tissues in the body heal within 3-6 months. It is well established that ongoing pain is more due to a sensitive nervous system”. Unsafe things hurt and there is a direct correlation that if the brain feels it is safe the pain decreases. In a traumatic birth, the mother may disconnect from her body to manage the pain as a trauma response. To shift from disconnection is to ground to promote safety, embodiment, orienting and presence.
Chronic pain can present and it tells the practitioner that the body’s intelligence feels unsafe and this activates the nervous system. Breaking fixed patterns of pain by retaining the nervous system and feeling the body in the present time. Interoception and developing body maps feed the brain good information and allow it to form accurate body maps. New pathways and connections are created to unlearn the pain habits that is essential to health. In Biodyamic Craniosacral sessions, guided body scans such as mapping size, shape, weight of their body on the table can faciliate the body map connections and reduce pain over multiple treatments.
On the table, working with the traumatised body from birth requires a holistic whole-body approach. The clothed client lies on the table and receives a delicate touch that is spacious and light. Establishing resources, and waiting for the system to settle allows the client experience to be held, safe and seen. The craniopelvic resonance showcases whole body patterns and an indicator of health is for smooth communication along the midline and motility in the bones. In the session the practitioner can specifically work with and receive valuable information in area’s storing birth trauma such as the sacroiliac joint, orienting to the psoas muscles, connecting to the deep pelvic floor muscles, bilateral contact across the pelvis and working from the feet. A change in the pelvis due to birth experience can cause a ripple effect in the whole system as the body is very efficient at distributing stresses throughout the body. Sills, founder of osteopathy, noted that optimum alignment of the pelvis is essential to the function and health of the whole body. Dysfunction in the pelvis can feed into the spine and cranial base which is why the inherent treatment plan can lead the practitioner to these area’s of the body.
Patterns of experience can emerge and present in the bony membranes such as the facial complex and the practitioner would incorporate Beckers or Sutherland’s hold. The therapist is orienting to primary respiration, stillness, spaciousness and deeply listening to Becker’s three-step healing process.
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy meets the traumatised system in a truly holistic way and allows for a body-up approach for intergrating and processing birth trauma at the body’s pace. When the body communicates and moves as a whole there is greater access to health and wellness. The body has an incredible intelligence of adaptability to always strive towards health. Patterns of experience, such as giving birth, are deeply embodied in the tissue as a way of the body processing and responding to the conditional forces that the body couldn’t deal with at the time as it was too overwhelming. Biodynamic craniosacral therapy is a powerful way to help a client who is processing birth trauma as it faciliates a deeper connection to their own health. The client is supported in a safe and contained manner so that the body can safely process the traumatic experience. It is truely a beautiful hands-on experience for the client and practitioner.
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