ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE IN PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH: UNRELIABLE SENSORY AWARENESS
When Alexander tried to find a better way of using himself, he came upon a stumbling block. When he attempted to put his head in a different relationship to his spine, and then checked in the mirror he saw, to his dismay, that he was doing the complete opposite of what he 'felt' he was doing. Because of this he realized that he could not trust his sensory awareness of himself as a means of changing his use. It would be like using a tuning fork that was out of pitch to tune a piano - the whole piano would be out of tune. He called this phenomenon 'unreliable or faulty sensory awareness'.
It is well known that we have five senses through which we receive information about the outside world. Less well known is the fact that we have a sixth sense which gives us information about what is going on inside our bodies. This sensory awareness is properly called the 'kinaesthetic' sense or proprioception. Through this sense we should receive precise and accurate information about our position in space, where the various parts of us are in relation to each other, what the muscles are doing (the degree of tension and stretch in a muscle) and also movement. It is sometimes also referred to as our 'movement sense'. We receive this sensory input from nerve receptors in joints, ligaments, tendons and muscles.
If a person has poor use this kinaesthetic sense becomes dulled or inaccurate, for chronic tension in a muscle blocks and distorts the flow of correct information to the brain, and they are no longer able to feel that they are tense. In time a tense muscle or an incorrect position of a joint may even register as 'normal'. When things have gone this far, the correct use of muscles and joints may feel incorrect, unfamiliar, or even 'wrong'. For example, when someone has developed a habit of holding the head slightly tipped to one side, this will feel right to them. When this misuse is corrected, so that the head is carried more centrally, the person will feel that this is wrong.
In most of us our kinaesthetic sense is poorly developed, perhaps because we are mainly educated to use our visual and auditory senses (and taste). As already seen, when we neglect this sense it eventually becomes unreliable and can no longer be trusted to give us accurate sensory information about our bodies. We pay a high price for undervaluing this sense. We are no longer 'in touch' with our bodies, and therefore do not notice the early warning signals that we are misusing ourselves. We see the result of this in the extremely high incidence of use-related problems such as backaches and repetitive stress injuries in our society.
Try this to test the reliability of your sensory awareness. Stand in your normal way. Keeping your feet still, take a look at their position. They will most probably be slightly turned out. Close your eyes and attempt to put your feet in a position with the outside of the feet parallel. Register what it feels like and then open your eyes and take a look. What did it feel like? Are the feet in the position you felt them to be? Very few people actually manage to put their feet parallel and feel that they have. Usually the feet feel almost as if they are pointing inwards but in fact they are probably pointing outwards only a little less than before.
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Womens health
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ANTE-NATAL TESTS
Cervical smear Most cervical cancer can be prevented, which is why the majority of women will have a cervical smear test at the first ante-natal visit. It entails the insertion of a speculum into the vagina and an almost painless scraping of the surface of the cervix for a sample of cells which will be examined under a microscope in the laboratory. This test, looking for pre-cancerous cells, is widely advocated for all women pregnant or not, particularly if they're over thirty-five , have had more than one (male) sexual partner and if they have three or more children. There is no special reason for testing pregnant women and it is probably not an essential test, but if you are undergoing a vaginal examination anyway, there is virtue in having it done.
Chest x-ray If you have a history of chest illness you may be offered a chest x-ray to check for TB. Avoid it if you possibly can. X-rays are known to damage the foetus, particularly in the early months of pregnancy. A woman's body should be heavily screened during a chest x-ray to prevent the x-rays affecting the foetus, but despite the most careful precautions there is some evidence that some rays may still get through to the foetus.
Ultrasound A few hospital clinics like to perform an ultrasonic scan at this stage in order to confirm dates. Ultrasound - which uses high-frequency sound waves to form on a TV screen a picture of a foetus inside the womb - is now widely used in ante-natal care and is assumed to be safe even though this has never been verified. Since, theoretically at least, any possible effects of ultrasound are more likely to affect the foetus when it is tiny, it is perhaps particularly important that it should not be used unnecessarily at this stage. Women are anyway commonly well aware of the age of their pregnancy. In one survey, sociologist Ann Oakley found that over ninety per cent knew their dates exactly, and the rest knew to within a week.
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Women's Health
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