Guardians of the Birth Experience: Honoring the Webster Legacy
Larry Webster founded the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA) with a vision of a better future—one where chiropractic care plays a vital role in advancing family well-being from the very start, beginning with pregnancy and birth. His hope and dream helped form an approach to birth where families actively engage with the birth process, not as passive observers but as conscious, informed participants. My parents, Tom and Jeanne Ohm, helped carry his vision forward, advancing the ICPA to where it stands today, at the forefront of perinatal, infant, and family chiropractic care.
My mom’s stories of birth are legendary in our community— fun tales of siblings present at home, bewildered relatives, loving midwives, and self-directed or “unassisted free births,” all at a time when such birth stories were rarely heard of. In each of her retellings, a constant thread was always woven: the unwavering support of my father, Tom. He wasn’t just a husband by her side; he was her chiropractor, her partner, and her rock. Today, it’s clear to me why Jeanne held such deep appreciation for Tom’s presence during birth. He was a companion that too few women have—a guardian of the birth experience.
Tom Ohm’s role was more than a chiropractor, acting as a loving husband who understands the sacred dance of birth. His presence at Jeanne’s side was a form of mental, emotional and physical protection, a safeguarding of her experience, helping her to navigate the birth process with confidence and grace. His conscious support, so valuable in Jeanne’s life, mirrors the major contribution of Larry Webster, who, through the creation of the Webster Technique, elevated so many fathers and partners to the role of guardians of the birth experience, supporting the beginning stages of countless families. Webster didn’t just design a chiropractic technique; he founded a movement that would forever change the landscape of pregnancy and childbirth care.
How did Larry Webster guard and protect the birth experience? It wasn’t through ensuring a particular outcome, but by empowering families to engage in the activity of birth in a more elevated and conscious way. The Webster Technique allows families to navigate the birth activity with an enhanced sense of control, understanding, and meaningful connection. It helps families comprehend and manage the intricacies of their dynamic birth, to derive positive meaning and empowerment from the experience, regardless of the circumstances.
This principle of self-empowerment extends beyond birth and into chiropractic care for infants and children, where the aim is to elevate the child’s inborn potential to find harmony, adaptability and connection amid the challenges of growth and development. The key of this lives in the recognition that this inborn potential must come from within the individual.
This approach to both birth and family well-being represents an important shift—a new model where families are invited to engage actively in the processes of life, not just with the knowledge of modern science and physiology, but with a connection to the guiding wisdom of Nature or what chiropractors call “innate” intelligence. This is the intelligence that speaks through our bodies, guiding the birth process and our journey through life with everpresent wisdom.
As I look back on my father’s role in my mom’s births, and Larry Webster’s achievements in chiropractic care, I see the common thread of honoring this inner, guiding wisdom. My mother Jeanne would often put it like this: “The greatest evidence-based science from which to deduce our actions and choices is that of normal physiology.” Their contributions to the realm of birth remind us that the real guardians of the birth experience are not those who just ensure physical safety, but those who help families align with the natural intelligence of life. It is through this alignment that birth becomes more than an event that just happens— it becomes a deeply meaningful, connected experience of empowerment that elevates the family.
The Webster Technique, now practiced by thousands of chiropractors worldwide, offers families a way to tap into and align with the innate intelligence of birth. This then helps families, above all, navigate the journey of birth with greater ease, courage, and resolve. Webster chiropractors today ensure that the birth process unfolds with as little difficulty or outside intervention as possible, by focusing on pelvic balance and alignment. This focus allows mothers to engage with the physiological activity of birth more skillfully. And fathers, or partners, aware of this approach, are encouraged to offer pragmatic support which can be invaluable for the experience of both mother and baby.
Just as the Webster Technique elevates the physical preparation for birth, so too do partners elevate the emotional and spiritual dimensions; they help safeguard the activity, allowing mothers to surrender to the experience while feeling deeply supported.
The Webster Technique is part of a movement gaining worldwide momentum; it is about reshaping how we view birth. At its heart is the idea that birth is a conscious, physiological activity—a dance that benefits from skillful awareness and preparation. The Webster Model of Birth ensures that families can participate in this activity with confidence and connection, elevating the birth experience to what it is designed to be—a transformation for each individual to come together as a hearty, healthy, and empowered family.
With great love for who you are and what you do,
John Ohm
