Prenatal massage; baby mamas…is it worth the hype?

I was talking to a pregnant friend a few years back and she told me someone in work had gifted her a ‘prenatal massage’, this was the first time I had heard of such a style and we both laughed at the idea. Me and my friend agreed that the last thing you would want when you’re heavily pregnant is to laying on a massage table, semi naked, getting oil on your back. Fast forward three years and here I am; pregnant, aching and with shooting pains that go all the way from my hips to the top of my neck. One night while I was tossing (as much as you can at 7 months pregnant, with a belly the size a space hopper) I thought about prenatal massage again. Opening my laptop I scoured the net to find out more and frankly, I learnt a lot. 

I was under the impression that prenatal massage had been created in the same melting pot of ideas that all middle class hippy dippy comes from. The same people that brought you Kale, vegan cookies, baby multi-sensory music classes and keep fit bingo. I thought it was a fad. In actuality, the history of prenatal massage is a lot more legit than any of that and has a rich and interesting history. 

The art of massage has been around since the dawn of time, the evidence of the practice is available across history, from the Egyptians to the Romans; rubbing joints to relieve tensions and pains is not a new form of therapy. But even looking specifically at prenatal massage, there is long history of massage to aid the toils of pregnancy. Different cultures have their own versions of prenatal massage;  Malaysian pregnant women traditionally massage their navels with coconut oil to encourage the decent of the newborn, Jamaican midwives have complex traditional massage styles for each stage of labour, massaging the body with oil and toona leaves to support the mothers through contractions and stages of pain, Japanese midwives perform acupuncture, shiatsu and specific to pregnancy, leg and foot massage during labour- in fact, the word for midwife in Japan translates as ‘elderly women who massages’, and Midwives in Southwest Mexico can efficiently determine the position of the baby against the spine by massaging the pregnant mother’s legs and testing the tension and vital energy flow of the mother.


 

Massage helps with pregnancy! 

Crazy, who knew? So, learning this I decided to give it a go and see if it would help me. Sadly the prenatal gift voucher my friend had long gone not used had expired so I had to pay full wack. Treating yourself when you’re pregnant is important though, and all the money I had saved not drinking for so many months had left me with a more than favourable bank balance! So I went and this is what happened:

The massage table I was so worried about (what with my large stomach that I certainly could not lie on) was no problem whatsoever! In fact, the massage table was designed especially, leaving an appropriately baby bump sized hole for me to be able to lie on my belly without squashing it. And there were designated gaps for my sore breasts- which again I had found painful to lay on. 

The masseuse then massaged my shoulders, really going to town on the tension I was carrying there, moving down my back and gently rubbing my spine, relieving it of so much pressure I had no idea had built up there. The massage really straightened me out. I felt relaxed for the first time in months, I felt lighter (which for a pregnant woman who is just getting heavier and heavier this was a real luxury!) During pregnancy your spine goes through real hardship. If you have ever read a baby book on the changes that the body goes through you will understand- but basically the spine has to bend in to a completely new shape to support the growth of the foetus. This leads to what feels like chronic back ache, the prenatal massage is designed specifically to relieve this and for me? It certainly worked. Before the massage I could barely lift a cup of tea without getting shooting pains up my spine, after my massage I could lift a bag of potatoes! The prenatal massage brought me back to myself, it gave me the strength to carry the baby and still function as I always had. 

Discovering prenatal massage at the end of my pregnancy was a blessing that now I don’t know how I would have survived without. I went a further two times before my due date and after discussing with other women that have used the service think that if I were to get up the duff again I would be booking myself in for a prenatal massage once a month throughout the pregnancy. It really is an underrated miracle. So if you get gifted a prenatal massage gift certificate at your baby shower; treat it like gold dust! It really is. If you want to know more about related forms of massage then try our blog

The following article Prenatal massage; baby mamas…is it worth the hype? was first published to: angelsofheathrow.com

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