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September 2013 Moms
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Support for newborns facing trauma

A37liciaA37licia member
edited September 2013 in September 2013 Moms
The post about Luca's update with the trauma she went through in her rough birth reminded me about helping my DD with the trauma she had two years ago. The birth was fast, she slammed into my pelvis, had a hematoma, was tongue and tip tied and had a lot of frustration nursing. She wouldn't lay down to sleep, which frustrated me and I know I didn't always handle her as gently as I should have.  She was a very fussy, tense baby from day one. I knew something was off.

There might be babies born here who had trauma like my DD or Luca, so I wanted to start a thread to talk about it if anyone is interested. There are ways to help babies through it, including massage, comfort crying-in-arms (I talked about this in the ENT update and can paste here if needed), cranial sacral therapy, and lots of other things.  We witnessed a remarkable change in our DD through the various means we used to help her release tension emotionally and in her body.

If your baby had trauma at birth, have you noticed anything in their behavior that might indicate they're still dealing with it, or not as calm as a newborn could be?  I think things like this can induce a different kind of fussiness than what would be described as colic or feelings of upset in their tummies or from gas.  It's a sense that your baby is just not happy, is agitated, not easily calmed, etc. My daughter, for example, when awake as a newborn, was only happy being swaddled. She cried if she wasn't swaddled when awake. If anyone else held her, she cried. I could *not* sit her on my lap and burp her like I could any other newborn I'd ever held before that. She was rigid and straight.

Anyway, if any of this describes your baby, take comfort that it's not just how newborns are and there are ways you can possibly help them.
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Re: Support for newborns facing trauma

  • AlejandraN2AlejandraN2 member
    My daughter definitely had a traumatic start with heart surgery at two days old. We brought her home this week and she's 3 weeks old and hyper sensitive to surroundings. She cries non stop if we don't feed her within 5 mins of waking up and takes a while to calm down and accept the bottle (i haven't been able to breastfeed but been pumping). She's very irritable and also needs to be swaddled. She's a premie too so that has something to do with it, but any tips you have on calming her down would be really helpful. 
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  • cbbfishcbbfish member
    Have you guys read Happiest Baby on the Block? I think many of the techniques Dr. Karl suggest would help these babies.
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  • A37liciaA37licia member
    For a baby that is frustrated, the shushing part of his ideas can be counter productive. A mother should take the time to discern whether her baby needs to get some frustration out or needs comforted. It's not always easy to tell. I'll repost what I posted in the ENT thread @AlejandraN2. I'm sorry your daughter had so many things happen to her (though necessary, not without emotional side effects). Keep swaddling her if that comforts her. Have you done any skin to skin at home for comfort?
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  • beatingIFbeatingIF member
    Thank you for posting this... I didn't realize that a 'traumatic delivery' was an actual medical diagnosis until we had one.

    I wonder how similar the treatment you described is to osteopathic manipulative therapy. When we were still inpatient there were several separate people who recommended I check into that for Luca. We have to have a referral to a spine specialist from the pediatrician then the spine specialist can refer to OMT in order for Priority Health to cover. We have an appt Tuesday & I'm going to ask for the spine referral so we can get started towards OMT.
    BabyFetus Ticker
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  • A37liciaA37licia member
    beatingIF said:
    Thank you for posting this... I didn't realize that a 'traumatic delivery' was an actual medical diagnosis until we had one. I wonder how similar the treatment you described is to osteopathic manipulative therapy. When we were still inpatient there were several separate people who recommended I check into that for Luca. We have to have a referral to a spine specialist from the pediatrician then the spine specialist can refer to OMT in order for Priority Health to cover. We have an appt Tuesday & I'm going to ask for the spine referral so we can get started towards OMT.
    Very similar! Go for it!!  It probably won't take very many visits to provide a lot of help. I was told 2 years ago with my DD that I could find an DO or go the manual therapy route. A DO would be more pricey and we had a high deductible at the time. A DO (doctor of osteopathy) is an MD but they also get training in manipulative medicine, similar to what a manual therapist does.

    Silas had a session today with a LMP/Acupuncturist who does body work on infants. A lot was off in his head (right turning, right nostril congestion, and tightness in his mouth from tongue tie). We go back next week and I don't expect many visits.
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