The retention of early reflexes appears to be due to some sort of stress or trauma – physical, chemical or hormonal – in utero, during birth and in the first year of life. An at-risk pregnancy, birth trauma, infant illness, and stress or illness in the mother (which would pump adrenaline and other hormones into the system, among other things) are some of the suspected causes. Certain reflexes not only aid the birth process but are reinforced by it, helping them to integrate and inhibit (fall away). Thus, babies delivered by Caesarean section, for example, which bypasses the activation of these vital reflexes, are at high risk of RRS. 

There also seems to be a hereditary factor – scientists are just beginning to understand that we are not just the product of our parents’ environment but also of our grandparents and great-grandparents. Famine a few generations back, for example, would impact not just your great-grandmother, but the eggs she was carrying, influencing the way her descendants developed. So our ancestors’ environmental influences could impact on us.

Similarly, if your mother had a still-active Moro reflex while you were in utero, making her anxious and fearful, routinely sending adrenaline round her body, this could impact on the growing foetus, predisposing you to retaining the Moro.

As a child with RRS, your mode of acting and responding may also be reinforced by your current environment. A child brought up by hyperactive parents who eat on the run, for example, could find it difficult to sit still at the table. A family's story

Lack of stimulation and physical movement in the first year could also play an important part in RRS. In order for their systems to mature – integrating the early reflexes so that the adult ones can take over, creating neural connections and integrating both sides of the brain – babies must go through nature’s intended physical developmental phases. They need to squirm on their tummies, creep along like commandos and crawl on their hands and knees, before learning to stand and walk. A new study from Queen’s University in Belfast notes that children from deprived backgrounds, where they may not have been given the space and time to move around, nor the one-on-one stimulation that naturally encourages full reflex integration, have a higher incidence of retained ATNR (they only tested for this reflex, but there may well have been other retained reflexes), coupled with reading and other learning difficulties.

And so there are myriad possibilities for at least some of the early reflexes getting stuck. The good news is that you can successfully eliminate them with the Mulhall Integration Programme, bringing both the emotional and physical self into balance so that, for the first time in your life, you feel centred, focused, and comfortable in your skin.

Checklist – Possible causes of RRS

(See also Quick Questionnaire for more indicators)

Pregnancy

* Taking alcohol or drugs
* Smoking
* Insufficient placenta
* Radiation
* Accident or infection
* Toxoplasmosis
* Severe or persistent stress
* Threatened miscarriage
* Severe viral infection during the first 12  weeks, or between 26-30 weeks
* High blood pressure
* Uncontrolled diabetes

Birth

* Caesarean
* Foetal distress
* Forceps or ventouse delivery
* Premature or late birth (more than 2 weeks before/after due date)
* Prolonged or precipitive labour
* Cord around the neck
* Low-lying placenta
* Breech birth

Newborn

* Distorted skull
* Heavy bruising
* Prolonged jaundice
* Problems with feeding during the first 6 months
* Low birth weight (under 5 lbs)
* Requiring resuscitation
* Incubation
* Blue baby