Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Prevention

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS is the largest single cause of death in infants from 2 weeks to 1 year. Approximately 6,000 babies die every year. This affects 2/1,000 births. SIDS usually occurs between 2 and 4 months but it can happen from 1 week to 12 months. 90% of SIDS occurs in the first 6 months. It occurs most frequently in the winter between the hours of midnight and 6am.
There is increasing information that instability at the Occiput and first vertebra level is related to SIDS. Babies who die of SIDS have serious abnormalties in a brain region that controls breathing and heart rate. The researchers found that all 31 SIDS babies had defects in the brain's ability to use serotonin, a neurotransmitter that plays a key role in regulating a baby's breathing and heart rate. The team found abnormalities in neurons that make or use serotonin in the lowest part of the brainstem. Minor mechanical irritation of the cervical region may trigger the first step in the events that lead to SIDS.
Chiropractic treatment is the most successful therapy to help treat this disorder. Subluxations are areas of interference to the nervous system caused by pressure or irritation from spinal bones. Chiropractors correct subluxations. One of the most common causes of a subluxation in an infant is the birth process.
Health consequences to the newborn from subluxations caused from birth trauma range from immediate and severe to hidden problems that may take years to surface. Some of the more immediate and tragic results that have been documented are spinal cord and brain stem injuries, brain bleeding and swelling, neurological deficits, breathing problems and even sudden infant death syndrome.
Most of these problems could be avoided with an increased sensitivity to the birth process.
Many experts are now suggesting that birth be handled as a normal and natural process. One of their suggestions is for the birthing position of choice to be an upright position of either sitting or squatting, using gravity to assist the birth process. This would result in less force being used for delivery and reduce the trauma from birth and the subluxation related effects.
Because of the seriousness of the affects of a misaligned/subluxated spine, it is vital to have chiropractic adjustments from birth and throughout a lifetime!