The Key to Your Mystery Pain and Coordination Challenges
You’ve often read here how injuries, surgeries, or accidents disrupt muscle coordination. These disruptions often show up as the source of your pain, balance issues, or even anxiety.
But there’s another source of disruption I mention less often — early life.
Yes, movement begins long before birth, from the first multiplying cells to the complex coordination of a growing fetus.
You might be asking, “What can go wrong so early?”
So much, and often in the most nuanced ways!
And early movement development often holds the secret for solving movement and pain mysteries — for both you and your child.
When are Early Movement Disruptors Relevant for You (or Your Child)?
If the following describe you, an early life disruption is often the hidden cause:
For Adults
- Stretching never helps the pain
- You’ve never felt “athletic” or coordinated
- Recovery from injury is oddly slow or incomplete
- Anxiety persists despite mindfulness and self-care
For Children
- Development lags with no obvious explanation
- Speech, motor, and emotional delays coexist
- A difficult pregnancy or NICU stay with no clear complications — but something still feels developmentally “off”
A great example of how an early life disruption was at the root of a current issue is Sue’s story. It is shared below.
What Can Disrupt These Early Movements?
There are many events or factors which can result in early movement disruptions. Here are some of the more common:
- Unusual positions in utero: breech, twin pregnancies, or cord wrap
- Maternal health: bedrest, fibroids, surgery, antibiotics
- Genetic conditions
- Placental or fluid issues
- Substance exposure: including drugs or alcohol
These disruptions can create movement asymmetries or coordination glitches that are not always obvious at birth—but surface later. In older children and adults they can present as coordination problems, anxiety, or chronic pain.
Understanding Early Developmental Movement
As a fetus grows, its structure changes. And with every structural shift, there’s a change in movement. These shifts happen in predictable, layered transitions.
So how do we know what those fetal movements are?
A remarkable book — Fetal Behaviour by Christa Einspieler, PhD — documents the movement in exquisite detail by synthesizing published ultrasound studies. I first read the book 10 years ago, and I’ve revisited it many times since. It inspired a portion of the Bridging micro-movement framework.
The phases of fetal movements are so consistent that they resemble “chapters” or building blocks of development, much like the well-known infant milestones we track after birth.
How Bridging Uses These Fetal Movements to Reset Your System
Bridging uses elements of the movement patterns observed in fetal development for both assessment and intervention. They help us answer:
- Was there a known event that impacted movement development?
- Are we seeing a specific pattern — like breach position related restrictions?
- Did a later medical procedure or trauma interrupt a previously healthy pattern?
With gentle support and structured resets, the Bridging® Technique guides your system to return it to its original movement blueprint. When the layered movement relationships realign, coordination improves, tension drops, and symptoms resolve.
Really???
I realize at this point you are thinking, ‘Seriously, Cara, can it really be THAT basic?”
When I first began replicating these super early movements I was totally blown away by what changed. Mind you, this was after I’d been doing general muscle resets for 5+ years. The difference was palpable and profound.
Why These Resets Last
When early movement patterns are restored, they become self-sustaining — just as they were designed to be in real life. That’s why Bridging resets aren’t just helpful — they’re long-lasting.
More on the fetal movement/Bridging® framework next time …
Sue’s Back Pain: The Root Cause is From WAY Back When
In this interview, hear how Sue came for help with her movement and back pain and discovered there was more to it.
Over time we deduced that the source of her back pain likely was part of how her muscles originally learned how to work.
These days, Sue’s back is much more resilient and she is able to do more with her gardening and Pilates.
Bridging surfaced and addressed the fundamental reason her back kept acting up.