As I mentioned yesterday, Gina Crosley-Corcoran, The Feminist Breeder, aggressively demonstrated her astounding willingness to believe nonsense by washing out her vagina with soap in an attempt to prevent her daughter from acquiring Group B strep sepsis.
Unfortunately, as is often the case with homebirth advocates, that willingness to believe nonsense extends to infant care. She has “diagnosed” her daughter’s breastfeeding difficulties as “colic” and is dragging the baby off to a chiropracter for “treatment.” What’s wrong with Jolene?
… She has two modes: asleep, and mad. There’s pretty much no in-between. If she’s ever awake and NOT mad, it’s only a matter of mere minutes before her face screws up and the screaming starts. She pretty much hates side-laying nursing, too…
Here’s what I’m seeing: She starts nursing, soon she chokes and pulls away, and by the end of the session, she’s angry. She often starts crying in pain (obvious pain) with my boob still in her little mouth. My god – can you imagine how sad that sound is? Sometimes she just wakes up crying, and sometimes, she just fusses for hours on end for no apparent reason…
Hmmm. What could it be? I know, her spine is out of alignment! That makes sense … Oh, wait, it makes no sense at all. Why on earth does anyone believe such complete and utter nonsense?
It’s not like hasn’t been investigated. Chiropractic spinal manipulation for infant colic: a systematic review of randomised clinical trials (2009) by Ernst reviewed the world literature:
Collectively these RCTs fail to demonstrate that chiropractic spinal manipulation is an effective therapy for infant colic. The largest and best reported study failed to show effectiveness. Numerous weaknesses of the primary data would prevent firm conclusions, even if the results of all RCTs had been unanimously positive…
This is hardly surprising, since there is no plausible mechanism for spinal manipulation to have any impact on colic. How is it supposed to work? How does it supposedly work? According to Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy Association of North America:
… [A]ll healthy, living tissues subtly “breathe” with the motion of life – a phenomenon that produces rhythmic impulses which can be palpated by sensitive hands. The presence of these subtle rhythms in the body was discovered by osteopath Dr William Sutherland over 100 years ago, after he had a remarkable insight … that cranial sutures were, in fact, designed to express small degrees of motion. He … eventually concluded it is essentially produced by the body’s inherent life force, which he referred to as the “Breath of Life.” Furthermore, … the motion of cranial bones he first discovered is closely connected to subtle movements that involve a network of interrelated tissues and fluids at the core of the body; including cerebrospinal fluid (the ‘sap in the tree’), the central nervous system, the membranes that surround the central nervous system and the sacrum.
That makes sense … NOT!
Okay, it’s nonsensical, but what’s the harm? Plenty, it turns out.
The Dutch Medical Journal reported on a case of infant death at craniosacral therapy.
A brief review of the literature reveals that this is not the first such tragedy. According to Adverse Events Associated With Pediatric Spinal Manipulation: A Systematic Review published in the journal Pediatrics, there have been at least two other infant catastrophic injures, a 3 month old boy who died as a result of a subarachnoid brain hemorrhage, and a 4 month old boy render quadriplegic after treatment for what turned out to be a spinal tumor.
In other words, not only is craniosacral “therapy” absurd; it can kill. So why are lay people like The Feminist Breeder embracing such a ridiculous, ineffective and potentially deadly therapy? It can’t be because “nature” was filled with chiropracters bending people’s spines to solve their medical problems.
The Feminist Breeder is taking her infant daughter off to the chiropracter for the exact same reason she washed her vagina out with soap to prevent Group B strep neonatal sepsis:
It fulfills the MOST important criteria for a natural childbirth “treatment”; it is a form of defiance of authority. And if that isn’t a good enough reason for an NCB advocate to subject her baby to a nonsensical, ineffective and potentially deadly “treatment,” what is?
