Birth can be a Trauma
NATIONAL JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY 2002 Nov / Dec VOL 4 NO 6.
Extracted by
T K Kasiviswanathan
from the website www.peterchappell.net
'Acon / Ign / Stram / Stram / Nux-v / Anac
Case 1: Birth trauma
A case to illustrate simple birth trauma. A young woman 28 y - I say
young since she was in essence child like. She has torticolis, i e neck is
twisted with limited movement since a forceps birth and the back is rigid and
she can’t bend beyond touching her knees.
She looks like a young teenager with a cramped torso, breasts yet to mature. In
my mind she is not yet 12 years old. Actually part of her is frozen at Day 1,
Year 1, birth.
Stands up for people’s rights, is passionate, very vocal and capable in this
area.
She tends to be dominating and life revolves around her; she is, in essence, a
bit of a princess. and, in her own words, a ‘high maintenance’ person.
Intuitive and prophetic And Psychic. Very talkative, verbose to some, articulate
to others.
Her mother describes her as a ‘what if?’ kid, incessantly
asking questions.
A very independent dependant, her partner is her support system; he cooks and
loves doing it.
A tomboy as a kid. A dark, introspective kid -and still is. Jealous and
Possessive.
Lots of hate and repulsive feeling about others.
Gets lumps in the breast. Recently has a lot of ear problems. (Ear complaints
are children’s symptoms and reinforce the idea of the child like state she is
in).
Allergies to many outdoor things. Chocolate cysts in ovaries.
Dreams: her partner is leaving, the toilet bowl is overflowing, she
is lost, being yelled at and told she is horrible, of flying, family is dying,
about angels and going to the light.
Panic attacks when relaxed. In the middle of the night- palpitations, throat
chokes, cold sweat, nausea, shaking hands, feels faint.
Recently wanted to kill herself by sitting on a high mountain where it’s very
cold, in a bathing suit so can freeze to death.
Lot of self hatred. Can cry all day. Very chilly person
She says she attracts many good things in her life, good partner, deep profound
thoughts, talks to her angels etc. Two extra terrestrial experiences that she
describes in detail: 1. of Spaceships; and 2. She is from another planet and
that she is here to aid the survival of another race, so that they access her
eggs for procreating their race.
Is on three psychotropic drugs that together make her feel normal.
Abdominal cramps.
Fear dying (any minute), pain, insanity, diseases, that there is something wrong
with me.
Biggest fear by far - PREGNANCY - it terrifies her.
Dreams of being pregnant ++++ and that she doesn’t know and that the baby is
born dead.
Hates sports.
Analysis
She was delivered by forceps extraction that put enormous pressure on
her neck and spine and has resulted in life long torticolis and back stiffness.
She is in effect in birth trauma all her life. The fear of pregnancy is one
removed fear of birth and the feeling of death when she was born.
The panic attacks, the fear of dying this minute, the suicide by freezing to
death, the clairvoyance, the torticolis, chilliness, etc all point to Aconite,
for the current picture and the birth trauma.
In my judgment I expect that a lot of the current symptoms
not clearly in the Aconite picture, are just the consequences of the
initial birth trauma; they will also disappear as this heals.
My understanding is that the psychotropic drugs are compensating for her birth
trauma shock, and once this is dealt with, the process of recovery will be a lot
easier and the drugs will not be needed. Sacral/cranial work would be beneficial
after successful homoeopathy.
After Aconite she reported being calmer, more aware,
getting to sleep a lot better. Her fear of pregnancy had dropped significantly;
old fracture pain in her arm returned, as did her Epstein Barr virus symptoms,
her old back and appendix pain, an old yeast infection, her breast lump surgery,
as did a prior chronic eating problem , all within the first two weeks, i.e. she
felt better and her old symptoms returned briefly, sure signs of a cure in
action.
Resolving her birth trauma is then happening with Aconite, something her
eight years of therapy, psychiatrist, chiropractic and God knows what else, had
not touched upon.
This replay of old symptoms, remarkable as it may seem, is
because every one of these events built upon the foundations of the birth
trauma.
Research through regression has shown that there are four stages to the birth
process:
1. In utero, initially a state of relative cosmic bliss. We are contained
in a warm harmonious liquid, protected from the outside world yet aware of it.
Initially we sense and later feel our surroundings. So a person stuck in a very
sensing way of relating, might have a very early in-utero trauma. In later
pregnancy we become increasingly aware of outside influences, knowing what is
going on emotionally, in our mother, as well as being influenced by the effects
of tobacco, alcohol etc. We begin to feel the effects of the imperfect reality
outside.
2. When the uterine contractions start, we are violently compressed, under
unbearable pressure and strain, and may experience suffocation and a sense of
hopelessness.
3. The expulsion stage of the birth process seems cataclysmic, as if the world
is being destroyed, or there is a fierce battle, a fight to the death, a death
threat, often an experience of dying, of catastrophe.
4. In the final expulsion there is the feeling of liberation, freeing and
rebirth, not birth.
In the early moments of life, the separation from the parent
can be an overwhelmingly lonely experience. Studies have shown that babies
separated even for a few minutes from their mothers directly after birth, are
less likely to breastfeed successfully and prolonged separation can be the basis
for many deep feelings of rejection later in life.
A colleague of mine is a practitioner of rebirthing. He tells me that it was
originally a Yoga practice for releasing traumas in the body. When this
technique was used in western societies it was found that it kept bringing up a
wide variety of birth traumas, so it became known as ‘rebirthing’. Hundreds
of people now practice it and it could be a good way to discover your own birth
trauma if your parents will not tell you.
Case 2: A Boy Near To Death
A boy about nine years old was seriously ill with severe kidney
problems. His case had been investigated by the best doctors, with no expense
spared. Near to death, the boy was seen in hospital by a Homoeopath. It became
clear that the parents were in the middle of a protracted and bitter separation
and the only reason they were still talking was because their child was
seriously ill.
It was perceived that the child was deeply upset over this
separation.
Ignatia, a homeopathic remedy for disappointment/grief/ loss, was given and
four days later, to the total amazement of everyone, the child walked into the
consulting room, weak but definitely on the mend. The separation was an
overwhelming trauma that had been overlooked by the doctors because they are
trained to look at physical signs and symptoms of disease, especially when the
condition is bad and even more so when death is at hand.
