Our experience with Dr. Phillips has really changed our lives for the better, especially for our son Rowan. Not only has she been able to help relieve his pain as well as my own, but she also exposed us to other aspects of holistic healing that we have begun incorporating into our lives as well. She’s given us hope that pregnancy and labor may not necessarily be so difficult the next time, and more importantly, that there are things we can do to make sure our next child never has to experience the pain and discomfort that our son has suffered through.

   My son Rowan was born on July 11, 2006, after quite a long and difficult labor.  From the earliest days, it was obvious that he wasn’t the “average” baby in terms of temperament, but we never imagined at first that it could be partially due to physical pain as
a result of an injury suffered during my pregnancy and labor.  

    Three hours later (18 hours since my water broke and the first contraction), very little had changed – the contractions were still constant and very strong, but I’d only dilated from 8 to barely 8.5 cm.  My labor felt as if it were in full swing, but nothing seemed to be progressing. I had stalled…I was completely exhausted and barely coherent, and unfortunately neither the nurses nor the doctor on call had anything helpful to offer except pain medications.  Finally, I gave up my hope for a “natural” birth and accepted an epidural, as well as pitocin, I was left to “rest” for nearly 6 hours, during which my son finally turned around and my cervix fully dilated. I then pushed (numb and on my back) for 3 full hours before my son was finally born at 10:30pm – 27 hours after my labor had begun. Despite the length and difficulty of the labor, Rowan seemed fine when he finally arrived in our arms. p> Rowan was a sleepy newborn for the first couple of days (typical, as far as we knew), but very soon he started to become much more fussy.  The most noticeable thing at first was that he was a very, very light sleeper and was ultra-sensitive to position changes of any kind, especially the transition from arms to bed.  We were basically never able to put him down to sleep – no matter how long we waited or how deeply he appeared to be sleeping, he would always wake as soon as he touched the mattress, or even when we changed his position in arms in anticipation of putting him down.  He would wake frequently at night, often crying out as if in pain.  We were not surprised that he loved being in arms and disliked seats and swings, but he also seemed to hate being held while we were sitting down, as in a rocking or bouncing chair, and screamed whenever he was held in the “typical” cradling position that others tended to use when holding him.  He was most often only satisfied when being held in an upright position by a standingmoving person. 

    One of the biggest challenges we faced, and the one that ultimately brought us to Dr. Phillips’s care, was Rowan’s very strong negative reaction to riding in the car.  Within the first few weeks of life, it became clear that he was very uncomfortable in his carseat.  He never went to sleep in the car (except if he was exhausted from a long bout of crying first), and he seemed to fuss a lot.  I remember vividly the first time he began crying inconsolably in the car -- we had been on a short walk at the park and were coming home -- and he screamed the whole way home.  Thankfully it was only a 15 minute drive.  From that point on, he cried inconsolably almost every time we got in the car.  Usually he was calm or just mildly fussy for the first few minutes, occasionally fine for up to 20 minutes, but anything longer than that and he would inevitably begin screaming.  There was nothing I could do to comfort him (singing, music, toys for distraction).  It didn’t matter if we were moving or still.  I even tried pacifiers (which I had avoided giving at home), but he wanted nothing to do with it, although during the early months he was sometimes slightly consoled by sucking on a pinky finger.  After a while, we simply avoided going anywhere with him that wasn’t absolutely necessary, and always tried to keep the trips 15 minutes or less.

     We really had no idea what was causing his crying.  At first we thought it was just a newborn thing, but when the behavior lasted until he was 6, 7, 8 months old, we thought it must be something else.  His Grandmother thought he was just “cranky” and would ask if he was “a good baby” on the car rides home from her house.  People told us he just didn’t like being restrained in the carseat and that he would eventually “get used to it” or outgrow it -- and not to let him control us with it!  But we could clearly see that it wasn’t just bad behavior -- he really seemed to be uncomfortable and in pain.  We could see it in his face, especially the sour or pained expression in the minutes before the strong crying began.  We checked for anything that might be sticking or scratching him in the seat or in his clothing.  We hypothesized that he might be feeling carsick, as his father experiences nausea when riding in the backseat as well.  We tried taking him only on a full, empty, or half-full stomach, but this didn’t help.  We tried only when he was well-rested, and only when he was sleepy.  Nothing seemed to make a difference. 

     We talked to others about our situation, but no one close to us had experienced anything like it.  Most of them thought we were crazy, as the car was always the “magic bullet” to calm their fussy babies.  Eventually I met some other mothers whose babies also fussed in the car, but  none seemed as extreme as Rowan.  Finally, I happened to mention it to a local La Leche League leader and she told me that one of her children had been very similar -- and that cranio-sacral therapy had helped.  I had never heard of it, but she gave me a name of the clinic where she had gone.  Eventually, just before Rowan turned 9 months old, I worked up the resolve to call that clinic, and they in turn led me to Dr. Phillips.   I knew Dr Phillips would be helpful the first time I spoke with her - she happily took my call on a Sunday afternoon, with a screaming baby in the background!  She also seemed to assess our situation quite accurately just from a short description in an email, which was quite impressive.  At the first visit, I must confess that my husband  and I were a bit apprehensive.  We’re both skeptics by nature and didn’t know what to expect -- but as we didn’t feel we had any other options to help our son with his pain, we wanted to make the best of it and give it a try. 

     She started the session by talking with us and reiterating the discussions we had had over email, to make sure we clearly understood each other.  Then, she sat down with Rowan, myself and my husband and made use of a very interesting  tool -- a singing Care Bear!  It was the sort of toy that requires you to complete a circuit to start the singing, by putting the bear’s hands together or by holding each hand with your own to complete the circuit through your own body.  Dr. Phillips demonstrated that we could complete the circuit even by holding hands among herself, me and my husband, and that this should be possible for any reasonably healthy person or chain of healthy people.  Then we tried it with Rowan in the circuit -- and nothing happened!  The bear didn’t sing.  Rowan’s body wasn’t conducting the electricity, completing the circuit.  Dr Phillips tried by touching him on various parts of his body.  Big chunks of his body, like his leg, caused no result at all.  Others, like his forehead, seemed to cause a choppy staccato effect on the musical bear, like the circuit was being turned off and on at random.  Dr. Phillips described this as a blockage in his energy flow.  My husband and I, being skeptics, kept watching her hands to see if somehow she was manipulating the situation to fool us, but she definitely wasn’t.  It was for real!     After this, she started her manipulations.  Rowan, who was normally pretty apprehensive of strangers and even people he‘d met several times, seemed immediately comfortable with Dr Phillips.  He had no problem with her massaging him and manipulating his body.  During the unwinding process, his limbs moved in all kinds of unusual ways -- most strangely, he pulled his leg up next to his body, so that his knee was behind his arm and his foot was next to his ear!  I knew babies were flexible, but this contortion was a little extreme!  But I didn’t really feel concerned, because Rowan seemed to be completely comfortable and at ease in this bizarre position.  I’d never seen him do that on his own, but it was also obvious that Dr. Phillips hadn’t forced him there in any way.  She explained that he must have been in this position in utero, and that was why it seemed so comfortable to him -- even 9 months after his birth.  In unwinding from that position, he let out a little cry, but it seemed more like from a memory than from any immediate discomfort.  Dr. Phillips said it was a major release.  Before we left, we tried the Care Bear test again -- and amazingly, there was no problem completing the circuit with Rowan anymore!  Whatever energy blockage there was seemed to be cleared.

     After our session, we drove home and he cried as he always did, but Dr Phillips said it might be 1-2 weeks before the adjustments really finished taking effect. That night Rowan and I took a long warm bath with some Epsom salts, to relax our muscles (Dr Phillips had helped me unwind the twists in my own body as well, which had caused all the problems in the first place).  And within 2 weeks, we were amazed at the improvements we saw!  The crying was greatly diminished, and he was able to last much longer in the car without even fussing.  He would still fuss from boredom or dislike of being strapped in, but it was nothing like the constant pained screaming he experienced for the previous 9 months.  He even fell asleep in the car without any crying a couple of times!  By the time he was 12 months old, we were able to take a long drive to visit family and he went several hours with hardly a peep!  

      It is difficult to tell how much is just a result of getting older and more mature, but after we saw Dr Phillips, Rowan just seemed to be a much happier baby in general. Even his Grandmother commented on how much less fussy and more comfortable he seemed, and how much more adaptable he was to new situations, especially interacting with her and other “new” people  Now he is a happy cheerful toddler most of the time -- even in the car I’m not sure where we would be without Dr. Phillips’ help. We are so fortunate that we were led to her, that she lives and works so close to our home, and that she was able to take us on as patients. She really was a Godsend and we can‘t thank her enough!