Fresh Air feedback part II

This entire document comes directly from a nice man named Murray who seeks responses:

A Childbirth Experience

During the birth of my son David (a breech presentation) it was noted that the birth was not progressing well in that he was not moving down the birth passage. An inspection of the passage with my hand revealed that his legs were up thereby requiring a larger than normal opening for delivery. During the inspection, I discovered that touching and ultimately massaging a certain location in the passage produced strong muscular contractions which further dilated the passage. By periodically massaging the respective tissue in that location so as to simulate the normal expansion process characteristic of the first stage of childbirth, the passage was opened sufficiently to allow me to pull his legs down one at a time, after which he slipped out without further effort on my wife's part.

The area where I massaged, as far as I am aware, has not been medically identified with the sensing and control properties that I have described. Neither my son, now an award winning M.D. in general practice (I have bragging rights), or other doctors or midwives that I have provided this information to have related experience or knowledge.

It would seem that in a head down birth, the baby’s head contacts the sensitive area of the passage that I had discovered and performs the same function as my hand had to produce the periodic contractions characteristic of the first stage of childbirth. Since the head would normally be in contact with and covering that area, its effect on the contractions would be difficult to detect thereby explaining why the "Feller” nerve had not been previously detected. Leave it to an Electrical Engineer to discover. It is of course recognized that the “Feller” nerve may already be known but that its functioning as I have described it, had not been previously observed. It is also possible that my wife is unique or that some other explanation is valid. Since this birth experience relates to only a single event, it is evident that considerable research is needed to ascertain precisely the functioning of the related mechanisms. For the moment however, the “Feller” nerve explanation seems most plausible.

As a further consideration, it may also be that the “Feller” nerve, when pressured by the head of a fetus which has reached its limits of growth in a confined area, is the direct initiator and/or the regulator of the of the birth process, an item which I understand, had not previously been well understood.

Since my son was born in 1964, my experience although mentioned to several doctors and midwives, has not sparked any interest that I am aware of in the medical community. My experience however, suggests that the massage technique could be useful for managing births and in particular, breech births, and that it could be helpful in reducing the need for cesarean procedures. Of note is that with the massaging, the dilation of the birth passage was so effective that expulsive efforts on the part of my wife were not required. The risk of tearing was eliminated and the total time between the manual rupture of the amniotic sac and my wife taking a shower and dressing after the birth was only about 4 hours.

David was my second child. My first, Lisa, was born 2 years earlier on the same Saturday within 1/2 hour. Conception had been planned for a birth during the late winter so that the child's digestive system would be mature enough to handle the fresh fruits and vegetables of the following warmer seasons as they became available. My wife and I had explored various childbirth methods and not having discovered medical practitioners practicing those arts to our satisfaction, elected to have our births at home by ourselves. My wife was very diligent in mastering birthing techniques and was well rewarded for her efforts. Our daughter was born head down in about 3 1/2 hours with relative ease, after which my wife took her shower and dressed.

Of further note is that for a year prior to the conception of our first child and thereafter, we consumed mostly minimally processed organically grown foods. We used the placentas from both our children’s births for fertilizing melons-worked great.

My health maintenance efforts rely on the "minimum risk approach". I make an honest attempt to be knowledgeable of and select the best practically available food, water, air, environment and life style while minimizing exposure to high risk factors. That "honest attempt" does not make it easy because it requires constant surveillance, evaluation and decision making which would be largely absent if one merely went along with local custom. The hope is that these efforts will be rewarded with a significantly longer and healthier life and that my mental processes will be based upon reason, personal responsibility and the quest for knowledge and improvement.