Pre- and Perinatal Massage Therapy
‘It takes a village to raise a baby.’ Those are the first words written in the foreword by Penny Simkin and they resound truth. During pregnancy, labour and the postpartum period, numerous people are involved. Doctors, midwives, family members and even massage therapists are dedicated to helping both mother and child to ensure they are healthy and happy during pregnancy.
From the very beginning, the book highlights the different stressors pregnant women undergo and how they can be relieved by certain massage therapies. By reading this book, I learnt more about the benefits of massage therapy for pregnant women, which is still a relatively new concept.
‘Massage therapists are dedicated to helping both mother and child’
Each chapter exposes different aspects such as a child's development, the breakdown of nurturing a mother through massage and so much more. In one specific chapter, the authors talk about how touch affects a child's development if they grow up with or without a mother's touch. A researcher tested that if a child grew up with physical touches from the mother, they tended to exhibit low levels of crime and violence. But if a child grows up lacking their mother's touch, they are more inclined to have depression, experience isolation and become violent.
Following that chapter, the book breaks down massage therapists' beliefs on how nurturing the mother through massage can cause them to be more inclined to nurture their own babies. Giving a pregnant woman a massage also results in a reduction in depression, prematurity, low birth weight, an improvement in sleep patterns and less pain during labour.
Throughout the book, the authors quote numerous different scholarly articles about the health of pregnant women during pregnancy. Each symptom that the mother undergoes, such as stress, back pain, anxiety disorders etc, massage therapists are able to diagnose and treat to make both mother and baby happier. During the postpartum period especially, massage therapists address emotional, physical and physiological adjustments that help the mother feel more relaxed and relieve burdens from their everyday life.
Additionally, the authors go into detail about when it's safe, and unsafe, for a mother to undergo massage therapy, what are the proper precautions to take, safe positioning and more. It is said that a mother should not get a massage when they are in the first trimester of pregnancy. Midwives especially should take this book into consideration because they can learn more about how massage therapy can help pregnant women. They can also learn new techniques to help postpartum mothers struggling with pain.
‘Detail about when it's safe, and unsafe, for a mother to undergo massage therapy’
Another aspect that the authors cover is promoting a positive birth experience. Massage therapists can offer touch and positional comfort measures to mothers for when they are at the hospital, birth centre or in a home-birth setting. Opting for massage therapy during pregnancy can also help increase self-confidence during labour, improve movement and flexibility, create better breathing awareness, prepare the pelvic floor for birth and so much more.