Zelda Pretorius

January 2016

Index

1. Background

2. Birth in the ancient days

3. Wrigleys' method

4. Nerve damage

5. APGAR tests

6. The Law

7. Developmental & Intellectual Disability1

8. Conclusion

1http://www.abclawcenters.com/practice-areas/types-of-birth-injuries/intellectual-and-developmental-

disabilities/

Background

I have an inquisitive mind and am always looking for answers to my current problems. I

haven’t always been like that, but the past couple of years my work led me to do lots of

research and that kind of stuck with me in my everyday life.

On Monday, the 28th of December 2015, I had another pinched nerve in my lower back. It

happened before so I knew what to do to stretch the area around that nerve to release the

tension, but this time without results. I was in pain for 3 days before it eventually released. I

prayed for healing and for answers as to why this is happening: is it an attack from the devil

or is it a test of my faith?

One morning when I opened Pinterest the answer was there right in front of me in the form

of a picture of the nervous system and spine. This led me to a website of a chiropractor with

enough information and a "lightbulb" moment where I just knew what was wrong.

The great part is that this website has also given me an answer to a question I had for more

than 20 years! My son had many learning disadvantages when he grew up. He is now 23,

and we have wondered for so long what happened that he couldn’t have a normal school

life. He flunked grade R and grade 2 and then the school psychologist told us to "put him in a

donkey school and forget him". We didn’t.

We took him out of school and started to homeschool him for a couple of years until that

also became to difficult for him (gr10). Those years it was still very unpopular and you were

basically "an outcast", but it helped him. If I knew then what I know now about unschooling

and all the alternative curriculums available, he might have had a different road, but we

hadn’t.

After he "finished" school he started working in our business because he had no place to go

with his academic achievements and behavioural problems. He started using the internet

and taught himself a huge new world… a world of electronics, programming, robotics and

simulators – on his own time and in his own way. Somebody that was supposed to be put

away and forgotten….

We never knew why he had this disability – was it from birth or was it when he got badly

burnt when he was 18 months or was it a lack from our side as parents or what? Until this

morning when I found this website of the chiropractor… and I believe that question has

been answered.

I will try to get the information together because I believe this might have a positive impact

on many other boys and girls.

Birth in the ancient days

There is a big difference between how a child was born in the ancient days than he is now –

and I am talking of the normal birth process.

Ancient day women gave birth in a standing, kneeling or squatting position (probably a

combination of these as the birth progressed).2

Today the delivering mother is lying on her back.

Why is the position of the mom important? Many authorities today suggest that the

position of the mother coupled with the pulling from the delivering physician has a lot to do

with birth defects, even if it is not seen immediately after the birth but only later in a child's

life. When the delivering mother is lying on her back she is not only working partially against

gravity but she has reduced the pelvic opening size. These two factors then require the

attending physician to pull harder on the head of the child. This increased pulling and

twisting during the birth process, coupled with a decrease in the pelvic opening and a non

alignment with gravity often set the stage for birth trauma, subluxation and the resulting

problems. 3

Wrigley's method

There are a couple of ways to give birth: natural/normal, caesarean or forceps delivery are

the 3 that are done the most and all 3 of them have their advantages and disadvantages.

In this booklet I want to focus on the forceps delivery as I didn’t know about this 23 years

ago when I needed to.

Forceps are a surgical instrument that resembles a pair of tongs and can be used in surgery for

grabbing, maneuvering, or removing various things within or from the body. They can be used to

assist the delivery of a baby as an alternative to the ventouse (vacuum extraction) method.4

There are many reasons why a doctor will change from a normal delivery to a forceps delivery.

Advantages to forceps use include avoidance of C-section, reduction of delivery time, generalapplicability with cephalic presentation.

Complications include the possibility of bruising, deformation, rectovaginal fistula, nerve damage,Descemet's membrane rupture (extraordinarily rare), skull fractures, and cervical cord injury.

2http://www.womeninthebible.net/childbirth.htm

3http://amyeaustin.blogspot.co.za/2012/05/chiropractic-care-why-your-health-will.html

4https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forceps_in_childbirth

Maternal factors why forceps are used:1. Maternal exhaustion2. Prolonged second stage3. Maternal illness; such as heart disease, hypertension, glaucoma, aneurysm, or other things

which make pushing difficult or dangerous4. Haemorrhage5. Analgesic drug-related inhibition of maternal effort (especially with epidural/spinal

anaesthesia)

Fetal Factors why forceps are used:1. Non-reassuring fetal heart tracing2. After-coming head in breech delivery1

On most of the websites that I have researched, the care about the mother takes precedence over

the wellbeing of the baby and it is here where I found my answers.

5

Nerve damage

In the previous passage we saw that forceps delivery grabs, maneuvers or "removes" something, in

this case a baby from mom's body, but one of the complications can be nerve damage. Have a look

at the following picture – the one that opened my eyes:

5https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3a/Smellie_forceps.jpg

Common Symptoms of Subluxation6

6http://amyeaustin.blogspot.co.za/2012/05/chiropractic-care-why-your-health-will.html

Subluxation occurs when one or more of the bones of your spine (vertebrae) move out of

position and create pressure on or irritate spinal nerves. Pressure or irritation on these

nerves then causes malfunction and interfere with the signals travelling to and from these

nerves. This directly affects your nervous system and the part of the body that these

nerves control causing this part of your body to be unable to function at 100%.

Now think back again – what does a forceps delivery do? When the doctor "grabs,

manoeuvres or remove" the baby from mom, one of the causes can be nerve damages.

Infants are born with several subluxations usually in the upper spine and lower spine caused

by the flexation of the spine during vaginal birth. Caesarean birth is also a significant cause

of subluxation especially in the upper spine and neck area.7

To understand the different symptoms you first need to know how the spine is divided:3

If we look at the upper spine you will see in the next picture it is C1-7 and the lower spine

will be L1-5. Do you perhaps see something in the chart below that puts up the red flags of

something your child have problems with? I certainly got quite a couple of red flags

indicating what we missed during his youth – doctors included.

Don’t exclude the cranial part of the vertebrae as shown in the nerve picture on the

previous page. Many of that information were written on your child's yellow birth card, but

you never really know the wealth of information behind those numbers.

7http://amyeaustin.blogspot.co.za/2012/05/chiropractic-care-why-your-health-will.html

The following chart shows which vertebrae is responsible for which organs/body parts.8

8http://amyeaustin.blogspot.co.za/2012/05/chiropractic-care-why-your-health-will.html

APGAR tests

When your baby is born the nurses perform some tests on him/her, called the APGAR test.

The APGAR was developed in 1952 by obstetric anesthesiologist, Virginia Apgar, and

has become a standard tool in assessing newborn babies.

It is a quick, overall assessment of newborn well-being.

The APGAR is used immediately following the delivery of a baby. Test scores are

recorded at one minute and five minutes from the time of birth.

APGAR measures the baby’s color, heart rate, reflexes, muscle tone and respiratory

effort.9

APGAR is an acronym for: Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, and Respiration10

APGAR scoring

Apgar Sign 2 1 0

Appearance

(skin color)

Normal color all over

(hands and feet are

pink)

Normal color (but

hands and feet are

bluish)

Bluish-gray or pale

all over

Pulse

(heart rate)

Normal (above 100

beats per minute)

Below 100 beats per

minute

Absent

(no pulse)

Grimace

("reflex irritability")

Pulls away, sneezes,

coughs, or cries with

stimulation

Facial movement only

(grimace) with

stimulation

Absent (no

response to

stimulation)

Activity

(muscle tone)

Active, spontaneous

movement

Arms and legs flexed

with little movement

No movement,

"floppy" tone

Respiration

(breathing rate and effort)

Normal rate and

effort, good cry

Slow or irregular

breathing, weak cry

Absent (no

breathing)

Scores 7 and above are generally normal, 4 to 6 fairly low, and 3 and below are generally

regarded as critically low.11

Although the medical professionals do not believe that this test is an indication of the future

development of the baby I tend to differ a little bit. This is the reason why I put together a

survey to see if what I have experienced happened with other moms and kids as well.

9http://americanpregnancy.org/labor-and-birth/apgar-test/

10http://kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_center/q_a/apgar.html#

11https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apgar_score

My firstborn was a Wrigley's delivery with an APGAR of 5/10 and 8/10. He was slow from

birth and in some instances is still slow in his responses today. Could there be nerve

damages because of the forceps delivery? He is walking with a slight limp as one leg is

longer than the other, or so we thought, but just maybe it is because of a birth defect from

the pull of the forceps where the spine was stretched/misaligned during delivery, which also

caused the nerve damage? Is a forceps delivery really safe for children?

My aunt was a primary school head mistress in the 80's and she told me, unofficially, that

children born from forceps delivery had more learning difficulties to overcome than the rest

(according to all the yellow birth cards she had in the office and the kids' school reports).

Have I discovered some important information that was hidden for so many years?

The Law

There are now law firms specializing on these observations of mine…12.

I have also found out about a year ago from a gynecologist that we, in South Africa, can take

a doctor to court because of negligence in the birthing room, up to 21 years after the birth.

As the (mentioned) websites said on numerous occasions that the long-term effects can not

be determined with the APGAR test, you can with the correct knowledge, open a lawsuit for

damages and expenses if it can be proven that the medical staff was negligent when your

baby was born and it resulted in developmental and behavioral issues.

Can it perhaps be that he used too much force when he did the Wrigleys?

Did he put strain on the child's spine resulting in nerve damages or alignment

problems?

Did he tell you to consult a chiropractor to align the baby's body after a forceps

delivery?

Or did he just leave you and baby in the care of your GP, who is also just sending you

from one therapist to another, without correcting the source of all evil – the spine?

12http://www.abclawcenters.com/frequently-asked-questions/can-forceps-cause-permanent-brain-damage/

Developmental & IntellectualDisability13

13http://www.abclawcenters.com/practice-areas/types-of-birth-injuries/intellectual-and-developmental-

disabilities/

When an infant sustains a birth injury that results in intellectual anddevelopmental disabilities (sometimes referred to as mental retardation), thefamily may face a life-long challenge to provide constant care for that child. Insome cases, the condition is noticeable almost immediately after birth, butother times, it may not be realized for years.

Intellectual and developmental disabilities occur when an individual lackscognitive abilities as a result of a brain injury, disease, or genetics. An individualdiagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities may have a low IQ, aswell as limited communication and social skills, and be unable to take care ofhim or herself.

As the child develops, he or she may learn at a slower rate than other childrenand have a limited ability to learn new things. Some indications of intellectualand developmental disabilities include learning to walk or crawl later than mostchildren, speech problems, difficulty remembering things, and difficulty withlogic or problem solving.

Those with intellectual and developmental disabilities are typically born withthis condition or develop it in infancy, but the results may not be noticeableuntil years later. The individuals who develop this disorder usually do so as theresult of a traumatic head injury or lack of oxygen at birth (hypoxic ischemicencephalopathy). Such errors are often the result of a negligent physician ormedical staff.

Intellectual and developmental disabilities can result from several factors,including genetics, complications during pregnancy, or a birth injury. Geneticconditions such as the inheritance of abnormal genes or errors when genescombine can result in Down syndrome, fragile X syndrome, or phenylketonuria(PKU). Similarly, if the mother has a serious infection or disease during herpregnancy, this may cause birth defects in the developing fetus. While geneticconditions and disease may be unavoidable, intellectual and developmentaldisabilities resulting from a birth injury can often be prevented.

Conclusion

The moment that a child shows slower responses or struggles at school, he gets medicine to

calm him down or to cope or to help him concentrate. He is also sent to various therapists

to help him in these difficult times. I don’t have a problem with this as there are many

wonderful people out there helping the kids. They couldn’t help my son though, but I have

seen results in many of the kids in my classes and I believe everyone can be helped – if the

correct prognosis is done and all that I ask is that you are aware of what is happening at

your child's birth. Many of your future questions can be answered when you go back to the

beginning...

Things to take note of:

1. Normal birth: Your position when you give birth – are you working against gravity?

2. Caesarian or forceps delivery: the complications and birth defects that might only be

seen later in life

3. You can claim for expenses for your child if he had birth trauma and it can be proven

4. Learning difficulties might have a longer track record in your child's life than the

doctors would have credited for.

Some of the answers from medical people that I talked with:

Baby clinic sister: There is now a new process for new moms to follow. Their babies have to

see a pediatrician 6 weeks after birth for a follow up on any potential birth defects.

Chiropractor: There is now a new division called pediatric manipulation to correct the

defects that happened during birth. Be aware of this and align your babies' spine to correct

subluxation.

I can make the following conclusion after the survey that I sent out:

More than 75% of babies born from a forceps or a caesarian delivery have encountered

problems like reflux, colic or slower development. Most of them have seen hearing- or eye

specialists; have sent their children to occupational therapists, pediatricians etc.

What I have also encountered is that people don’t always ask questions. They just follow the

doctors blindly, that is, if they do visit the doctors on the proper follow-up appointments.

Maybe we should go back to the ancient ways of having babies:

1. Sitting/standing in a squat position during delivery

2. Bringing up babies alongside you for the first 3 years. Babies did not wear diapers or

nappies; they ‘went’ into small clay pots that the mother carried with her. Mothers quickly learnt to

read the signals a baby sent when it was about to excrete, and since it virtually never left its mother’s

side, this was easier than it would be now.14

This brings me to one final comment. If a baby grows up by the side of his mom for his 1st

three years, she would know when something is wrong, really quickly. The baby will also be

healthier as he would only be weaned from her by that age, but most importantly, he would

have learnt manners. I know I am sticking my head far out right now, but think back when

we were kids (before the time of TV, computers and cell phones) … we all ate the table

together as a family and you may not leave as long as dad is there. We all went to church

together and you learnt to sit still and be silent. You learnt to behave… even in class there

was respect for the teachers. That is why – my opinion – there was no mention in the first 3

versions of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders15) up to the middle

90's, of things like ADD, ADHD and similar problems. Children were disciplined. If they did

have developmental problems then, I am sure it was because of the birth defects described

above as knowledge was limited then.

Today, we are already working with the 5th version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of

Mental Disorders (DSM-5) 16 and things that are included as mental disorders; could it

actually be because of a birth defect that was not corrected in time or a discipline problem?

Know your rights and know your body.

Be the Christian parent as God planned you to be;

it could change your child's life.

14http://www.womeninthebible.net/childbirth.htm

15http://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm

16http://www.dsm5.org/Pages/Default.aspx