The act of birth is both a joyous and traumatic event. Few people realize how traumatic birthing can be on an infant's spinal cord. Even under the best of circumstances with highly trained and competent physicians, a baby's nervous system can incur damage while traveling through the birth canal. Often, this damage manifests itself in the form of mild "subluxations," or misalignments of the tiny vertebrae.

An infant's spine is a delicate, yet sophisticated system of muscles, bones, joints, ligaments, discs, a spinal cord, and nerves. When pressure is applied on a nerve in your spine, the nerve energy is interrupted, and sometimes this can profoundly affect the function of other systems or organs in your body.

Subluxations create pressure or irritation on the various nerves in the spine, and can cause a wide variety of problems in a newborn. Possible injuries including breathing problems, brain bleeding and swelling, spinal cord and brain stem injuries, and neurological deficits.

Some experts believe subluxations are encouraged during the birthing process by the position the mother is in when giving birth, as well as the manner in which the child is sometimes "pulled" by the head and neck from the birth canal.

Subluxations are generally not life-threatening, and many of us go through life with a mild subluxation. Left untreated, subluxations in later adolescent and adult life can cause a variety of problems, including pain, soreness, irregularity, and weakness. Subluxations also can contribute to a whole host of maladies such as immune system disorders, learning disabilities, headaches, and visual and hearing problems.

Infant subluxations also have been linked to immune system problems, learning disabilities, headaches, and visual and hearing problems.