How CranioSacral Therapy Can Prepare Your Body for Labor and Help Ease Your Baby’s Transition From the Womb
By Sally Thomas
From a holistic approach, integrated with my training and experience in hospital newborn and maternity nursing, I offer you and your newborn highly qualified, professional support—personally tailored to your unique needs.
My work blends gentle CranioSacral Therapy with practical, evidence-informed newborn care. I stay current on breastfeeding trends and effective problem-solving techniques, and I support families in establishing healthy sleep patterns from the very beginning. My CranioSacral services are available prenatally and postpartum, supporting both mother and baby throughout pregnancy and into the “4th Trimester” and beyond.
Pregnancy and birth place profound demands on a mother’s body and on a baby’s developing nervous system. CranioSacral Therapy can help prepare the mother’s body for labor by supporting balance in the pelvis, spine, and soft tissues—creating what many practitioners refer to as an “ease of passage” for the baby during birth. Following delivery, this gentle work can assist in restoring alignment, relieving tension, and supporting recovery for both mom and baby.
"Your baby's journey through the birthing process can be your newborn's first chiropractic or CranioSacral therapeutic process, when the baby is slowly pushed, not pulled through mom's womb and passageway....The birth canal is designed so that a passage through it may well mobilize each joint in the pelvis, each joint between two vertebrae, each joint between a rib and a vertebrae, and all the joints (sutures) of the skull. The mobilization takes time to release the collagen/ connective fiber tissues. If the journey is too fast, some joints may not have time to adjust. If the journey is too slow, forces may be placed upon joints for an inordinate period of time, inducing a strain... Abnormal locking of the baby’s head in the mother's pelvis, use of suction and forceps, breech or face upwards, cesarean birth are all indicators for a 10 or 15 minute evaluation and therapy, immediately, and in the first few days following the birth. The dura mater membrane system reflects the imbalance, placing excess tension on spinal cord nerve roots, which in turn, cause an imbalance in tonus of the muscles that influence the position of the vertabrae and the ribs. This imbalance of tone, is often the cause of scoliosis as the newborn begins to develop an erect posture.”
— Dr. John E. Upledger, D.O., O.M.M., A Brain Is Born: Exploring the Birth and Development of the Central Nervous System
CranioSacral Therapy assists a mother in preparing her body for labor, supports the baby’s experience during birth, and helps re-align the skeletal structure and soft tissues afterward. For newborns, early evaluation and gentle therapy may be especially beneficial following long or rapid labors, vacuum and forcep assisted deliveries, cesarean births, or presentations that place additional strain on the baby’s head, neck, or nervous system.
Shortly after birth, the bonding and breastfeeding experience between mother and baby plays a powerful role in establishing patterns that can last a lifetime. Supporting nervous system regulation during this early window may help with feeding, digestion, sleep, and overall comfort—laying a foundation for healthy development.
As one of the first of many transformative moments in your family’s life together, it would be an honor, privilege, and joy to support you and your baby during this sacred time.