Welcome to the Winter 2025 issue.
The Birth of Health: Reclaiming the Sacred Dance
When families discover their innate power, birth becomes the genesis of lifelong health.
This issue of Pathways—Salutogenic Birth—invites us into a profound remembering. At a time when the world is rediscovering what it means to trust the intelligence of the body, we turn our attention to the most primal of human experiences: birth. Here, in this sacred threshold, families have the opportunity not only to bring new life into the world, but to generate health itself—salutogenesis—from within.
The salutogenic birth paradigm shifts our focus from outcome to process, from fear to coherence, from external authority to internal resourcefulness. As Dr. Michele Odent reminds us, women living in a modern world must take increasing responsibility for the skills they bring into birth. This is not about rejecting medical support or choosing one birth setting over another—it is about recognizing that birth happens first and foremost within the family’s sense of coherence, which can be internally generated regardless of setting or circumstance.
Since 1987, when Dr. Larry Webster developed the Webster Technique, families have increasingly sought out chiropractic care during pregnancy to prepare the body and mind for the activity of birth. Today, this collaboration has deepened. Webster-certified chiropractors are being invited into the birth itself, offering adjustments before and during labor, and providing newborns with their first gentle assessments in the precious hours after birth. This integration of chiropractic care into the birth journey represents a return to the original blueprint—trust in the woman’s body, trust in the process, and skillful support that empowers rather than directs.
Across these pages, you will encounter voices calling families home to the wisdom of their bodies, to the power of informed choice, and home to the sacred dance between mother, baby, and partner. You will read of integrative pediatricians guiding prenatal health practices, birth advocates championing the safety and empowerment of home birth, and practitioners illuminating how light, movement, and fascial alignment support recovery and resilience.
The stories shared here affirm a single, resonant truth: when we honor birth as a conscious, coherent experience—when we approach it with skills, resources, and self-trust rather than fear and dependence—we do more than bring a child into the world. We establish the foundation for family wellbeing that will serve generations to come. The birth process becomes the physical, emotional, and spiritual nucleus of the new family, a place where salutogenesis—the birth of health—takes root.
Welcome to Issue 88. A celebration of salutogenic birth—the intelligence of life honored, the body’s wisdom trusted, and the promise of coherent family beginnings made visible through the sacred work of practitioners and families alike.
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