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Stage 2 is all about descent, rotation and transition. Although it is the shortest stage, lasting usually ten to sixty minutes, Stage 2 occurs in the narrowest part of the maternal pelvis, and can be the most painful stage.

At this stage, the head is forced away from its “head over heart alignment,” which has been in place since the third week of gestation. Turning the head while in high-pressure contact with the bones of the mother’s pelvis will generate rotational or torsional patterning in the cranium and throughout the body.

Because there is so much pain at this stage, delivering mothers frequently ask or get offered anesthesia by their doctors. The intervention of pain killers interferes with the mother and baby’s tactile relationship. The mother can no longer accurately feel the baby’s movements and cannot adjust her body to find the optimal positions to help the baby through. For the baby, drugs can be numbing, disorienting, disempowering and reduce oxygen supply to the muscles and brain. Even without drugs, babies experience a lot of pain, disorientation and desperation during Stage 2. Trying to find their way through the narrow territory of the maternal pelvis, some babies get lost, and some undertake “creative” measures to get through.

Karlton presents how some of these desperate strategies can create deep and painful conjunct pathways, making deep physiological and psychological impressions. He will also present the various obstetrical interventions common during this stage, such as increased pitocin, compression of mother’s belly, high forceps, and C-section, while addressing therapeutic approaches to resolve implicit memories that arise from this stage of birth.