The birth of the Core Complex Program
I’ve had a lot of questions over the years about how the Core Complex came to be what it is today. This story is too long for any IG or FB post so I’ve decided to make a blog post about this journey.
My oldest child is 9 and he was born while I was in chiropractic school. My labor with him was traumatic and and an experience I would never want another woman to experience as their first childbirth.
We were living in St. Louis at the time and I thought we were at the best hospital in the city. During my labor, I pushed for almost 4 hrs. to birth this little human and very little progress was made. I went into maternal exhaustion and had oxygen on during this process but would frequently take my mask off so that I could vomit (medications + physical + emotional stress). During this process I was repeatedly asking if we were making progress and I was answered with very generic “you’re doing great” responses. Eventually I became frustrated and asked what was happening and why aren’t we progressing. A nurse in the room told me, as she stood against the wall, that “this would go faster if I would just suck it up and push.”
I honestly don’t remember what I said to her. I was scared. I was exhausted. I wanted to hold my baby. I remember crying A LOT because “this isn’t how they said it would be.” Whoever “they” are.
A little while later I asked the doctor directly what was happening. She responded with “I just need you to shut up so I can think.”
……..
The doctor told me to shut up. A nurse told me to suck it up. And now, I’m filled with massive amounts of fear. I looked at Dan and he also looked terrified.
Eventually baby Easton was born and I held that human to my chest and wept for a long time. I finally met my baby and he was okay. Afterwards, as the doctor is cleaning up I asked her directly if I tore of if she did an episiotomy. She said to me, “it’s going to be okay.”
Well that’s definitely not what I asked. Now my fear is returning. I repeated the question and she responded with, “baby was stuck and things happen.”
……
At this point I was full of emotions and I asked one more time. She said, “you tore. I’ll stitch you up and you’ll be fine.”
Later that evening, my mom got to the hospital (she’s an ER nurse of 25+ years) and the on-call nurse wanted to check my stitches. I rolled to my side and I heard my mom GASP and say “what the F*** happened to my daughter?!”
<Well, hello fear. You’ve returned again.>
The nurse was silent and then whispered, “this doesn’t usually happen.”
“THIS. DOESN’T. USUALLY. HAPPEN?!?” What the hell does that mean???!?!?!
(During this process I had tore badly. Dozens and dozens of stitches were used, as I was later told.)
So we went home with this tiny human and I couldn’t sit in the chair to nurse him without sitting on a pillow. LOTS of ice packs were used. At four weeks postpartum, I still couldn’t sit without a pillow. I was still using 10-15 ice packs per day. I couldn’t walk to the back of Walmart to get a gallon of milk (and that would be my only item at the store) without crying before I got back to my car. Bowel movements were AWFUL and took 45-60 min. to occur. I was taking multiple stool softeners daily to ease this process and nothing was changing. After any bowel movement, I had to use an ice pack while laying down.
So my 6 week check up comes and as I’m speaking with my OB (different OB that delivered my baby), she does an exam and tells me that “everything is anatomically normal.” There is “no reason to have this kind of pain” and perhaps “I could just start exercising my way through the pain.”
I was FLOORED. I scheduled two more opinions with two different doctors at two different hospitals in StL. Same thing: “you’re anatomically normal.” One of the mentioned trying pelvic floor therapy. I didn’t know what this was and I called the referral clinic to ask questions. I was already doing kegels and STILL having pain, still having to rest after taking a bowel movement, so I was open to ideas to help this process. The individual on the phone told me that they use kegel balls and that is what I would be doing. I didn’t know what these were and she explained them by saying “you’ll put these balls in your vagina and then walk around until the fall out.” CLICK. I hung up the phone.
So…this pain process continued until Easton was 8 mo. old. For 8 months I cried after having bowel movements, used ice packs multiple times per day, and avoided walking or physically stressful situations because of the pain. One particular time after a bowel movement with my ice packs, I decided to google “pelvic floor pain” and came upon a journal article about breathing. I immediately started to practice the diaphragmatic breathing and noticed my pain improved. WOW! So then I did it again. And again. And then I started finding more articles about the connection with the breath and the pelvic floor! Some of these articles were from the 80’s…how was this information not being recommended for therapy and postpartum care?
At the time I didn’t know or have any idea that I would create a program for women that deals with this specifically. I just started writing things down. Diaphragmatic breathing with this stretch. With this movement, etc. About two weeks into focusing on my breath, I had a bowel movement without any pain. I didn’t need an ice pack. CUE: bursting into tears. This was it! I fixed this! It is a memory that pivoted my thought process for many things: 1. How we treat people with pain that was can’t physically see. 2. How many postpartum women felt this alone too? 3. WHY AREN’T WE TALKING ABOUT THIS?!?!
When we moved to Mitchell and decided to have the conversation about growing our family again. I interviewed an OB/GYN. I wanted to know what he would do differently. I wanted to be guaranteed this would’t happen again. There is a deliberate reason there are 4+ years between our 1st and 2nd children: FEAR.
He assured me that given the stress this area has undergone, my future babies would be born via C-section and scheduled slightly ahead of schedule so I wouldn't even go into labor again. He is an incredible doctor and 3/4 of our tiny humans have been delivered by him.