Pregnancy Massage and Pregnancy Yoga in Northumberland: Nurturing the Mother for Better Birth Outcomes

Pregnancy massage is an essential part of birth preparation and has been for many centuries. Yet in recent times we have moved away from focusing on nurturing the mother in pregnancy and post partum and instead focus on the baby. Its size, making sure it’s born on time, getting it into the right position…

But what if we turned the attention back to the mother? What if we made her body feel safe, allowing her mind to stress less and tune into the life she is growing inside? Surely then more babies would be the size they needed to be, in the optimal position for them and the mother to be born, and maybe, just maybe, more babies would arrive without intervention because the mother had time to really connect into herself.

And then the postpartum stage would be easier too.

What Happens When the Mother Feels Safe and Supported

Perhaps the mother would be better able to advocate for herself to rest. She would know what she needed to eat to nourish herself. She wouldn’t just survive in the early post partum but flourish. Can you imagine how a baby might be if its mother was deeply content, nourished and grounded?

Why Massage Supports Deep Self Connection in Pregnancy

Massage is one of the best tools for self connection for me personally. After the birth of my second child I took a lot of time before I felt ready to share my body in a massage setting. I really carefully chose my therapist, who I had known for a long time from a distance.

And pregnancy massage is no different.

The Benefits of Pregnancy Massage

The benefits of pregnancy massage are vast:

Better connection to your body, to your baby

Building self trust and, of course, creating a regular self worth practice which will set you in such good stead for your postnatal period.

Both of the above lead to better birth outcomes.

But there are few good studies about how effective pregnancy massage can be. I have linked one study here investigating the impact of pregnancy massage in reducing anxiety and depression in pregnancy. This study itself states that more good quality research is needed.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S026661382030190X

Massage is seen as a luxury, but in pregnancy I believe that massage is as essential as attending a hypnobirthing course or NHS antenatal classes.

Barriers to Pregnancy Massage

Now there are many barriers to massage. Many women are cautious of doing anything that might harm their baby, and salons or spas will not allow massage in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

Time is another barrier. We often feel pressure to do lots in our pregnancies. Get as much work as we can done so that we prove our worth in the working environment. Perhaps travel. Or maybe just feel utterly awful and need to spend all the free time you have resting.

Cost is another barrier that I see. With maternity pay looming, women either choose to save their money or spend the money they do have on all the baby kit. Babies actually need very little once they arrive. One thing that means the world to them is a mother that feels like a safe person to be with. And massage is proven to reduce stress and anxiety, as well as support relaxation. This is what your baby needs.

So surely we should be investing some of our money in massage, especially if we are hoping to have a physiological birth.

Is Pregnancy Massage Safe?

Yes, pregnancy massage is safe in pregnancy when you visit a therapist that is trained in pregnancy massage. These courses are usually specific qualifications layered on top of a holistic massage qualification. My pregnancy massage qualification is layered on top of a Swedish massage qualification, for example.

Are There Any Areas That Cannot Be Massaged in Pregnancy?

There are areas to avoid in massage around the arch of the foot and ankle, and the webbing between the thumb and first finger. These points, if pressed hard enough, are said to trigger or stimulate the womb space. All other parts of the body are safe to apply pressure that feels good for the individual.

Of course, we do not massage the abdomen in pregnancy and we are respectful of the mother’s wishes around the hips and side of the body.

A therapist is likely to ask you often if pressure is ok and if you are happy with their hand placement around your pelvis and abdomen.

The fact that you, the mother, feel safe is so important, which is why I also suggest that you take time to really understand who your therapist is before you invest your time with them. If you want to find out more about me you can read my blogs here, as they give you a flavour of who I am, or you can follow me on Instagram @mamawellnesswithchloe.

How Soon in Pregnancy Can You Have a Pregnancy Massage or Pregnancy Yoga?

Many salons and spas will not offer massage inside the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. This also used to be the guidance for movement in pregnancy. This is nothing to do with identified dangers of massage or movement in early pregnancy. There are no studies or indeed no collected data that specifically say massage or pregnancy yoga, for example, are dangerous in the first trimester.

In all honesty, this rule or guidance is put in place to protect the therapist and/or teacher. The first 12 weeks of pregnancy are the most likely time of miscarriage. Therefore women have been advised not to engage in movement or massage just in case.

This advice can cause harm, especially for women who have always exercised or moved their bodies, to then feel as though normal things are now dangerous. I always take time to talk to women who are newly pregnant to find out exactly what they did before they fell pregnant. If they did yoga before, then the likelihood is yoga in the first trimester is actually going to support their physical and emotional wellbeing. Sure, we wouldn’t do any closed twisting over the abdomen. But gentle movement could actually be really beneficial. It may even support more positive birth outcomes.

Now guidance around movement and exercise leans toward putting the mother as the expert. Pregnancy yoga is advised to improve body awareness and connection to the physical and emotional self. Pregnancy yoga improves mobility and circulation and eases muscular tension. My pregnancy yoga classes in Northumberland and my pregnancy yoga online programme all focus on these areas, with a big focus on using your intuition to find movements that work for you.

As a yoga practitioner, massage therapist and a woman who has engaged in regular massage practice over the last 18 months, I am certain that massage provides all the benefits of pregnancy yoga. But if you have never had a massage in your life, then having one in your first trimester would not be advised. If you have had them twice a month for a long time, then adapted massage in your first trimester may well be exactly what you need to help you feel safe in a body that is rapidly changing.

Again, when it comes to massage we need to put mothers at the centre. What do they feel they need? I couldn’t possibly have had a massage in the first trimester in either of my pregnancies because I felt too poorly. So my body told me no… It is a case of listening to your intuition.

When Should You Stop Having Massage in Pregnancy?

Honestly, I think massage is important all the way up until and indeed throughout labour!

In order to birth you need to feel safe. Massage helps you to feel safe. This allows your nervous system to produce hormones that control birth. Pregnancy massage is likely to support the production of oxytocin (the love hormone), the driver behind effective contractions to bring your baby earth side.

If your body is in its rest and digest state it will be able to produce both oxytocin and endorphins, two of the magical pain relieving hormones that make a physiological birth experience feel manageable for birthing mothers. So by having a massage at the very end of pregnancy you could just tip the balance and encourage labour to begin with a surge of oxytocin.

Can you imagine if instead of offering a sweep your midwife told you to get a massage to support your labour onset? Just reading those words feels so much safer, doesn’t it? And for the reasons just explained, safety is the queen here.

Massage in the later stages of pregnancy could also support the release of tension in muscles that need to soften to allow birth to happen.

Massage, Muscle Imbalance and Pain in Pregnancy

One of the main reasons the women I see experience pain in pregnancy is due to muscular imbalance. What I mean by that is holding patterns that cause muscles to shorten or lengthen to facilitate daily life. Think tight hamstrings causing hip and back pain. Your hamstrings could be tight before you fall pregnant because you aren’t walking through the whole of your foot. (Check the bottom of your shoes to see if you have even wear on the sole or one part that is more worn.)

Pregnancy causes your ribs to flare or open and lift up at the front. This in turn causes the hamstrings and the glutes to tighten even more, and the back. If one muscle lengthens, the other muscles in that team have to shorten, causing imbalance and then pain in pregnancy.

Over time the muscles on top, in this case the glutes and the hamstrings, are going to cause the fascia and muscles below, in this case the back of the pelvic floor, to be tight too. And that means that when your baby needs to rotate using its head on the pelvic floor it may feel more painful.

It could also mean that when it comes to pushing, when we really need the pelvic floor to lengthen, it can’t. It takes longer because your contractions need to slow down in order to give your body time to find the length in these muscles. This is perceived by a midwife as failure to progress and intervention can happen.

When really what you might just have needed is a rabozo rock around your glutes, a massage around the sacrum, a lunge position with hinge and a tailbone tuck through a contraction to get the back of the body to soften and lengthen. Or no intervention and the time for your body just to work it out.

This is magic. This level of knowledge is life changing. It’s not only going to support your labour and birth but help you to stop pain as you grow old. Understanding how your body holds itself and changing those patterns through massage and movement so that you can continue to live pain free. And it all starts with the biomechanical knowledge and then the practice.

In Summary: Why Pregnancy Massage Is Not a Luxury

In summary, pregnancy massage is not just a nice to have. It can be an essential piece in birth preparation. It will support muscle balancing to ease pain. It will also build self connection which fuels self trust — arguably the most important part of birthing a baby. It will make you feel better, support hormone release to encourage labour and also help you to heal after birth.

Book Pregnancy Massage or Pregnancy Yoga in Northumberland

If you would like to book a pregnancy massage with me in Northumberland you can do that here.

Alternatively, you can book a one to one session for yoga by dropping me a message here.

My next birth biomechanics workshop can be found here. This workshop is a great way to get to know me and my practice to support your birth preparation in Northumberland. I also have a short online bio mechanics for birth course here.

Massage can be a beautiful way to hold yourself through one of the most intense seasons of your life as a woman. One of the pieces of feed back I get so often is amazing a gentle touch feels. When we are giving so much tender loving care to others it means the world to receive it back.