In Australia, chiropractors have been caught sneaking into maternity wards and performing adjustments on newborns. Other practitioners are angry and saying that these few people are tarnishing their profession.
Dr. Grant Bond posted a video to his Facebook page of him performing an adjustment on a newborn who was being held by his mother. Here is what he had to say about it:
“It was an awesome experience checking [the baby’s] spine for the first time. As I gently laid my hands on his spine, without even waking, he did his first poo!”
For those of you that are unfamiliar with what chiropractors do, here is a definition from Spine-Health.com:
“A chiropractor is a health care professional focused on the diagnosis and treatment of neuromuscular disorders, with an emphasis on treatment through manual adjustment and/or manipulation of the spine. Most chiropractors seek to reduce pain and improve the functionality of patients as well as to educate them on how they can account for their own health via exercise, ergonomics and other therapies to treat back pain.”
The chief executive at the hospital, David Crowe, said that Bond had entered the ward without permission from the hospital or the treating doctor.
In Australia, chiropractors are banned from treating patients in any healthcare institution without permission from the institution.
Another Australian mother who gave birth in 2008, recounted a chiropractor sneaking onto the ward at the hospital. She said:
“The chiro ‘adjusted’ the baby, which the baby did not seem to enjoy, and she told the mum that vaginal birth was incredibly traumatic for the baby and every newborn should be adjusted within 24 hours of birth to make sure they’re aligned.”
Here in the United States, many hospitals don’t allow chiropractors either. Many doctors don’t treat chiropractors like real medical professionals. However, a hospital in California has given 29 chiropractors permission to treat patients there (with permission from the treating physician).
Here is a chiropractor doing an adjustment on a newborn:
Featured image by Neil Gardner via Flickr, available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.
