When a Birth Story Still Feels Important

Understanding birth trauma, birth interventions + where your baby’s birth history may fit into the bigger picture

Birth trauma doesn't always look the way people expect it to.

Sometimes it follows an obvious medical emergency or a long, complicated labour. Other times, the birth may have been described as “routine”, yet you walked away feeling frightened, overwhelmed, unheard or simply unable to shake the feeling that the experience was harder than you expected.

Perhaps there was an emergency caesarean, vacuum or forceps assistance. Maybe labour progressed incredibly quickly, your baby's heart rate became a concern, or plans changed before you'd had time to process what was happening. And sometimes, even when you leave hospital with a healthy baby, the birth story can still matter.

For some parents, that matters emotionally. For babies, pregnancy and birth also provide useful health and developmental context, particularly when there were complications or injuries that require follow-up.

What we need to be careful about is drawing a straight line from a difficult birth to every symptom or challenge that appears later. So, where does birth history fit, and what can it actually tell us?

Who is this for?

This is for the parent who still thinks about their child's birth and wonders whether the experience matters.

Maybe your baby is unsettled, feeding has been difficult or you're concerned about the way they move their head or body. Perhaps your child is older now and you're navigating developmental, sensory, behavioural or health concerns, and you've started looking back through their early history for clues.

Birth history can be worth discussing. But rather than assuming the birth is the hidden cause of everything that followed, it can be more helpful to understand what birth trauma actually means, how different birth experiences may affect mothers and babies, and when further assessment might be appropriate.

The numbers we don't always talk about

When we hear the words “birth trauma”, it's easy to think only about physical birth injuries. But trauma can also describe the parent's experience of childbirth.

Australian government-supported Pregnancy, Birth and Baby information notes that up to one in three women may find their baby's birth traumatic. A traumatic childbirth experience can involve overwhelming or distressing emotions and can have an ongoing impact on a parent's health and wellbeing. That experience doesn't have to be determined by how dramatic the birth looked to somebody else.

Two women can experience very similar births and feel completely differently afterwards. Feeling frightened, powerless, unsupported or unheard can matter, even when the medical outcome was ultimately positive.

Birth trauma deserves to be taken seriously for the person who experienced it.

1. Birth trauma is bigger than a list of birth injuries

There are a few different conversations that can sit underneath the term birth trauma.

There is physical birth injury, where a baby or mother experiences an identifiable injury during labour or delivery.

Then there is psychological birth trauma, where the experience of childbirth itself causes significant distress for the mother, partner or other parent.

These aren't necessarily the same thing.

A medically uncomplicated birth can still feel traumatic, while a complicated birth doesn't automatically mean a baby has experienced lasting neurological injury.

This distinction becomes particularly important when we're trying to understand symptoms later.

If your baby has feeding difficulties, persistent crying, reflux, constipation or trouble settling, their birth history can form part of the conversation, but those symptoms have many possible explanations and don't prove that the birth caused nervous system damage.

2. The “Perfect Storm” can help us explore the story, not predict it

At Restore, we sometimes use The Perfect Storm as an educational framework for exploring the different experiences that may form part of a family's story.

That might include pregnancy, maternal wellbeing, labour and birth, early feeding, illness, sleep, development, injuries and other physical or emotional stressors. The important word here is context.

A stressful pregnancy doesn't mean a baby will develop nervous system dysfunction. A caesarean or assisted birth doesn't automatically lead to developmental problems. And a difficult labour doesn't mean every concern that appears later can be traced back to the delivery room.

There may still be very good reasons to ask about these experiences.

A detailed history can help healthcare practitioners understand what happened, identify anything requiring further investigation and decide which parts of the story are relevant to the concern in front of them now.

3. What about common birth interventions?

Induction, caesarean birth, forceps and vacuum-assisted delivery can all be medically appropriate and, in some circumstances, essential for the safety of mother and baby.

Like any medical procedure or intervention, each has its own indications, benefits and potential risks. An assisted birth can occasionally be associated with temporary bruising or swelling, and physical birth injuries can occur. If there are concerns about an injury following birth, these should be assessed medically.

What we can't assume is that a particular intervention automatically creates spinal dysfunction or a lasting neurological problem. Similarly, being born by caesarean doesn't mean a baby's nervous system missed an essential developmental process that must later be “corrected”. Birth history gives us useful information. It doesn't give us a diagnosis.

4. What about subluxation, dysautonomia + the vagus nerve?

These terms often appear together online when families begin researching birth trauma. It's helpful to separate them.

Dysautonomia is an umbrella term for recognised medical disorders involving dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. An unsettled baby, reflux, constipation, sensory sensitivity or difficulty sleeping doesn't by itself mean a child has dysautonomia.

The vagus nerve is an important part of the parasympathetic nervous system and is involved in functions including heart rate and digestion. But everyday infant symptoms can't be used to diagnose “vagus nerve dysfunction”.

And at Restore, when we use the term subluxation, we're referring to altered joint movement or function relevant to a chiropractic neuro-musculoskeletal assessment. We don't use it to mean that a difficult birth has damaged the nervous system or caused a child's medical, behavioural or developmental condition.

The nervous system is extraordinarily complex, and children's symptoms deserve to be considered with that complexity in mind.

5. So, what should we look at?

If something doesn't feel right after birth, the most useful starting point is the concern you're actually seeing.

Is feeding difficult? Is your baby struggling to gain weight? Do they consistently turn their head in one direction? Are you concerned about their movement or development? Are they crying for long periods and difficult to console? Those observations are useful.

Depending on the concern, your support team might include your GP, child and family health nurse, paediatrician, lactation consultant, physiotherapist or another appropriately qualified practitioner.

Developmental milestones are also useful guides, although children develop at different rates. If you're concerned about your child's development, it's worth discussing rather than waiting for a particular explanation to reveal itself.

And if you are still struggling with the birth experience, your wellbeing matters too. Birth trauma can have an ongoing emotional impact, and speaking with your GP, midwife or a mental health professional can be an important part of your own recovery.

Where might chiropractic fit?

For babies and children, our chiropractors may assess a specific musculoskeletal concern where chiropractic assessment is clinically appropriate.

That can include looking at relevant joint movement, muscle function and physical movement patterns as part of a neuro-musculoskeletal examination.

We don't use chiropractic care to treat birth trauma, reflux, colic, constipation, dysautonomia, developmental delays or behavioural concerns, and we don't assume that every baby needs chiropractic care simply because of how they were born.

This distinction is particularly important in paediatric care. Current Australian regulatory guidance requires chiropractic care for children to be evidence-based, clinically indicated and provided with appropriate informed consent.

What about INSiGHT Scans?

INSiGHT technology may be used as one part of a chiropractic assessment at Restore where clinically appropriate.

Depending on the scan, it can collect information relating to muscle activity, skin temperature patterns and heart rate variability (HRV).

These measurements don't show whether a baby experienced birth trauma, diagnose dysautonomia or vagus nerve dysfunction, identify developmental conditions, or tell us that a child's nervous system is “stuck in stress mode”.

Instead, any information gathered is considered alongside the child's history and physical examination when assessing what's relevant to chiropractic care.

You don't have to dismiss your birth story

If you've always felt that your child's birth was significant, you don't need to pretend it wasn't. Birth experiences can be physically and emotionally intense, and Australian guidance recognises that traumatic childbirth can have an ongoing effect on a parent's health and wellbeing.

The goal isn't to blame the birth, an intervention, yourself or the people who cared for you. It's also not to search backwards for one event that explains everything about your child today. Instead, your birth story can be one part of a much bigger history.

If there are concerns about your baby's feeding, movement, growth, development or health, those concerns deserve appropriate assessment. If there is a musculoskeletal concern relevant to chiropractic care, our chiropractors can assess that within the appropriate scope and work alongside your child's broader healthcare team where needed.

Sometimes understanding the story helps. We just don't need to make the story responsible for everything that came afterwards.

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Important information: This article provides general educational information only and isn't intended to diagnose or treat birth trauma, dysautonomia, developmental conditions or other health concerns. A difficult or assisted birth doesn't mean a baby requires chiropractic treatment. Chiropractic care for babies and children should be based on an individual clinical indication and doesn't replace appropriate medical, developmental or allied health assessment. If you're concerned about your baby's health, feeding, growth or development, speak with your GP, child and family health nurse or another appropriately qualified healthcare professional.

• Sources & Further Reading

  • Pregnancy, Birth and Baby. Traumatic childbirth experience.

  • Pregnancy, Birth and Baby. Information on labour, birth and postnatal health.

  • Raising Children Network. Information on newborn health, development and developmental milestones.

  • Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) & Chiropractic Board of Australia. Statement on paediatric care.

  • AHPRA & Chiropractic Board of Australia. Check your advertising: Chiropractic examples.

  Original Article

  Adapted from The Birth Trauma Behind Your Child's Symptoms, originally published by PX Docs.