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Throughout your journey to motherhood your physical and emotional body embark on a tremendous transformation. One of the beauties of pregnancy and birth is that a woman’s body is so perfectly designed to grow and open to allow a baby to develop and birth. This is not to say that pregnancy and birth do not come without discomforts. In fact, there are some common pregnancy complaints as the body is constantly trying to adjust to a growing baby and emotionally prepare for childbirth. A skilled prenatal massage therapist is able to recognize and address your physical and energetic imbalances helping to relieve your pregnancy-related aches and pains and help you cope with the discomforts of pregnancy & childbirth.
What to Expect From Your Prenatal Massage Session
We allow extra time before your massage to discuss your health, concerns or fears, birth preparation, and to share community referrals for additional support. Your prenatal massage will be uniquely designed and tailored to meet your specific needs, leaving you to feeling relaxed and rejuvenated.
When to Receive Pregnancy Massage
A healthy woman may receive prenatal massage though out her entire pregnancy; from when she first discovers she is pregnant to moments before she births her baby. We recommend that you receive prenatal massage every 2-4 weeks throughout your first and second trimester and then every 1-2 weeks in the last few months to help your body adjust to your growing baby and to prepare your body for childbirth.
Benefits of Prenatal Massage
• Increases circulation
• Promotes deep relaxation
• Eases anxiety and reduces depression
• Increases the mother baby bond
• Reduces upper and lower back, pelvic, and hip pain
• Improves the oxygenation of soft tissue and muscles
• Regulates Hormones
• Increases Immunity
• Helps keep blood pressure in check
• Assists in maintaining good posture and helps women adjust to the continuous realignment as the baby grows
• Reduces Edema
• Improves Nerve pain, including sciatic pain
• Improves labor outcomes and newborn health
• Improved digestion and relieves acid indigestion
• Improves skin elasticity
• Reduces headaches
• Enhances sleep
• Relieves leg cramps
• Reduces Fatigue
• Alleviates stress on weight-bearing joints
• Offers a natural relief to the discomforts of labor
• Provides emotional support and nurturing touch during pregnancy and childbirth
Mother’s Positioning
We have various cushions and pillows to support both mother and baby during pregnancy and postpartum.
You may find that during each visit we may vary your position to address your specific area of need and to best support your changing body.
• Pregnancy Back and Leg Wedges - Used to allow a woman to lay on her back at a 45-degree angle with her ankles and feet propped up.
• Head and Body Pillow - Used to support a woman in a side-lying position.
• Belly Wedge- This is used to support the growing baby and it wonderful for lower back support.
• Pregnancy Pillow/Prego-pillow - This is a pillow that is placed on top of the massage table that allows women to lay face down. There is a cutout for both the breasts and the belly and is best used in the second trimester. We do not recommend the use of the pillow often as it puts too much pull on the uterine ligaments and is not indicated with anyone with low back pain or in the third trimester.(please call ahead to request)
Uterine Massage
The uterus is an extraordinary muscular organ that undergoes a process of thickening and stretching as your baby grows and then works incredibly hard by contracting and retracting to bring your baby into this world.
Massage can help your body release any tension or restrictions within your pelvis as your baby grows by addressing the uterus, its broad and round ligaments, abdominal muscles, and the stretching skin of your belly. Belly massage using slow soothing massage strokes will help calm you and relax you and your baby.
Overdue Babies: Can Massage Help?
Massage is helpful to mothers who are anxious or feeling pressure from care providers to induce at 41+ weeks. Massage can help a mother relax, release tension from her muscles and help create an overall sense of calm.
By using acupressure, reflexology, crainiosacral therapy, visualizations, and uterine massage a therapist can help an expectant mom prepare her body for birth. The more relaxed and safe a mother feels the more likely for her body to begin the birth process.
Babies Optimal Positioning
Prenatal massage can help encourage babies to assume an optimal position for birth. We are trained to help you release restrictions and restoring balance within your sacrum, pelvis, uterus, and pelvic floor. By encouraging your body to open and relax your baby may have more room to move and adjust within the pelvis and uterus, finding his or her optimal position for birth.
Breech Babies: Can Massage Help Turn Breech Babies?
A Craniosacral therapy session for pregnancy is another natural way to encourage a baby to change positions in utero. By releasing tension and encouraging proper alignment and movement within the mother’s pelvis, uterine ligaments, and uterus a baby may turn head down.
Pelvic Floor Release
When the muscles of a mother’s hips, pelvis, and pelvic floor are relaxed and in proper alignment it is easier for babies to assume a proper position and move smoothly through the birth canal during the birth process. The pelvic floor release is a technique that we incorporate into our session to help open and soften the pelvic floor muscles. It is best preformed in the third trimester or earlier if a women has history with labor dystocia or had a baby who was, occipital posterior, acinclitic, or “stuck” in a previous labor.
Birth trauma/ loss of a baby
We offer a space for women to be able to process trauma or loss in a healthy way by offering physical, verbal, and energetic support throughout your treatment.
Visualizations
The mind is a powerful tool; the process of creating and visualizing a positive mental image can in turn manifest a physical response. Often we will use a visualization to encourage the body to open and prepare for birth or to release and restore balance.
Positive Affirmations
Our words, thoughts and emotions create our reality. That being so, we have found that by encouraging women to create an affirmation or mantra to use during their massage it most often promotes a sense of complete rest and relaxation.
Other Prenatal Massage Modalities:
We also offer The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy®(ATMAT) in a birth preparation massage session. Other prenatal massage offerings include Crainosacral therapy, John Barnes Myofascial Release Approach®, Reiki, and Sound Healing for Pregnancy.
Click HERE to learn about the many benefits of receiving ATMAT throughout your pregnancy.
Craniosacral Therapy for Pregnancy
Craniosacral Therapy during pregnancy gives women time to relax and to connect with her baby. Craniosacral therapy can address the uterus and alignment of the pelvis to provide more room for the baby to assume a proper position for birth. Nausea, fatigue, constipation, backache, hip, ligament pain, and sciatica are some of the other common issues cranial sacral therapy can help bring relief.
John Barnes Myofascial Release® Approach for Pregnancy
Myofascial release therapy is a gentle hands on approach to healing which incorporates a light touch to help release restriction in the connective tissue throughout the body. This technique works directly with the body's fascial system to gently release connective tissue, reduce adhesions, increase blood flow, release scar tissue, and reduce pain throughout the body. MFR is beneficial during pregnancy to reduce acute and chronic pain, improve circulation, reduce fluid retention, and help the bodies systems adjust to the growing baby.
As you provide support and a strong foundation for your growing baby, we hope to give that same nourishing touch as we mother the mother within you.
