“I was horrified to learn that as a human race, we only started giving babies anaesthetic in the late 1980s. We thought that babies didn’t experience pain, because they cried less and bleeding was reduced during surgery. What was realised later is that these babies weren’t calm. They were in shock.
It goes without saying that babies can feel pain, as any parent or paediatrician can tell you. Yet it wasn’t until 1987 that the American Academy of Paediatrics’ officially declared surgery on infants without anaesthesia unethical. For decades before that, even as life-saving surgeries became more invasive and intense, most infants were given nothing more than a muscle relaxant to keep them still. It was considered best practice at the time.
But it went horribly wrong.
Pain, emotional, mental, physical is fundamental to the human experience. Babies may not have screamed as expected, but it wasn’t because they weren’t feeling anything. It’s because they were in a deep state of shock from the trauma of surgery without any pain relief. And just as they feel pain, babies also hold the impact of birth, physically and emotionally, in their tiny bodies.” This piece from my Conscious Birth book.
That’s where craniosacral therapy can offer something deeply nurturing and healing.
The Birth Experience is a Whole-Body Experience
Whether a baby is born vaginally or by Caesarean section, birth is a major event. It imprints itself on the body, especially the nervous system. During a physiological birth, the baby’s skull moulds and compresses to make its way through the birth canal. This process stimulates the nervous system and helps signal the baby’s transition into life outside the womb.
In a Caesarean birth, however, that gradual process doesn’t happen. Birth is more abrupt. One moment the baby is in the womb, and the next, they are outside. They often need more support, not less, because their body and nervous system haven’t received the stimulation and gradual unfolding that happens during a physiological birth.
Add to that any use of forceps, vacuum extraction, or time spent away from mum in NICU or ICU, and we begin to understand how much babies may be carrying in their systems.
What Is Craniosacral Therapy for Babies?
Craniosacral therapy is a gentle, hands-on practice that focuses on releasing pressure and tension in the central nervous system. The central nervous system is made up of the brain, spinal cord, and the nerves that run throughout the body.
Through light touch, sometimes just holding a baby’s feet, back, or head, we listen. Just like a doctor feels for a pulse, craniosacral practitioners are trained to “listen” with their hands. We tune into the subtle rhythms, movements, and patterns of tension in the body’s tissues, membranes, and fluids.
This approach creates spaciousness in the baby’s body, allowing them to process what has happened and come more fully into the world. It supports the natural unwinding of tension, and helps the baby’s system return to balance.
How It Can Help
Babies often show signs of birth stress in their feeding, sleeping, or general comfort levels. For instance:
- A baby who struggles to latch may have tightness or compression in the bones of the skull or in the mouth and jaw area.
- Babies who seem unsettled or overstimulated may have an overactive sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight).
- Constipation, reflux, or colic can also be linked to tension patterns in the body, especially if the vagus nerve or digestive system is under stress.
- Babies who’ve had interventions, like a Caesarean, time in the NICU, or separation from their mother, may need help integrating these experiences.