Every baby needs to have a healthy spinal column. It's the framework that will support your child throughout his or her growing years and adulthood. Studies have shown that newborn infants often enter the world with spinal trauma and stress due to the birth process. Even under the best conditions, birthing can be difficult for the infant who has spent nine months cradled in the dark, warm "waterbed" of the womb. It's very important to have your infant checked by a chiropractor shortly after his or her birth to be certain that there isn't any nerve interference. Periodic checks should continue throughout your child's lifetime.

Robert S. Mendelsohn, M.D., was one of America's leading pediatricians and a vocal proponent of home delivery. In his consciousness-raising book Confessions of a Medical Heretic, he discussed how babies born in the hospital are six times more likely to suffer distress during labor and delivery, eight times more likely to get caught in the birth canal, four times more likely to need resuscitation, four times more likely to become infected and thirty times more likely to be permanently injured.

A study conducted by Lewis B Mehl, M.D. of the University of Wisconsin Infant Development Center reviewed 2,000 births. Nearly half of these had been home deliveries. Fourteen of the home-born babies had to be resuscitated as compared to fifty-two of those born in the hospital. And only one home-delivered baby suffered neurological damage compared to six of the hospital babies.

The figures reveal the benefits of home delivery. This is why many chiropractors and their families select natural childbirth at home.

In 1987, the German medical journal, Manuelle Medizin, published a report of a study which examined 1,250 babies five days after birth. Of this group, 211 suffered from vomiting, hyperactivity and sleeplessness. Upon examination, 95 percent of these children had spinal abnormalities called subluxations. After being adjusted, all the infants became quiet, the crying stopped, their muscles relaxed and they went to sleep.

The same report said that they found over 1,000 infants with nerve interference in the upper neck area which caused a variety of clinical conditions, ranging from central motor impairment to lowered resistance to infections, especially those of the ears, nose and throat.

In one case history, an eighteen-month-old boy suffered from tonsillitis, frequent enteritis, conjunctivitis, colds and earaches. Because of all these ailments he had trouble sleeping. After his first spinal adjustment the little boy began to sleep through the night and it wasn't long before he was in good health.

Scientists are still learning how to accurately assess the damage to infants. They do know that a slight pull on the neck during delivery can cause a subluxation that might cause damage too slight to be noticeable immediately. But eventually it might cause some learning disability.