Pregnant Women’s Massage: Why Everything You Thought You Knew Is Wrong

D Carlier Pregnant Woman and Child

Pregnant Woman and Child by D Carlier

Practically everyone in North America today knows who Oprah is.  And New Jersey’s own

Shira Gal Miss Pupik. Pregnant Belly.

Pregnant Woman’s Belly by Shira Gal Miss Pupik.

Dr. Oz.  “How exactly is this relevant?”, you’re surely wondering aloud by now. With the introduction of these familiar household names, we associate yoga, alternative medicine, and learning about self empowerment by taking control of one’s health, mental emotional, and physical.

By now, we are all in the category that only thirty years ago labeled one a tree-hugging oddity.  Most of us use soy, maybe as a creamer in our coffee, maybe as a substitute for cow’s milk.  Others of us do not use soy, having found other non-dairy alternatives that better suit us.  We all know the value of meditation, exercise, and stretching to keep fit with yoga.

Pregnant-By-Jaimee

Pregnant Woman by Jaimee

We even know about Massage Therapy.  Another native of the Jersey Shore, Bridget Turnbauch, was on Dr. Oz years ago, extolling the many benefits of Therapeutic Massage.  By now, we are all far more savvy than we were just a generation ago, understanding that lifestyle and habits influence epigenetics, and overall health, in innumerable ways.

But we still carry the notion that Therapeutic Massage during pregnancy is an extreme hazard, a dangerous practice that can cause more harm than help.  We carry a number of preconceived misconceptions about Pregnant Women’s Massage. Here, the most common misconceptions shall be addressed. Thus article will empower the reader to know that Pregnancy Massage is safe, helpful, and even beneficial.

Pregnant Woman In Light And Shadow

Pregnant Woman In Light and Shadow

Can a Pregnant Woman Receive  A Massage During The First Trimester?

The short answer is “yes”; the long answer is also “yes.”  Prenatal Massage is considered safe and effective.  Even in the first trimester.  Your obstetrician doesn’t even have to sign off on this.  The only time that is necessary is when a woman is experiencing complications.  In that case, of course your doctor should be alerted to everything you’re planning to do, and her approval should determine your course of action.

Can Prenatal Massage hurt the baby?

Dennis Natrayon's Image Laura During Pregnancy

Laura During Pregnancy by Dennis Natrayon

A carefully executed Therapeutic Massage session will not ever involve anything that could hurt the fetus.  Trained prenatal Massage Therapists know how to position a woman’s body so that blood flow is not impeded, nor are nerves painfully impinged.  This knowledge is likely not something the patient even possesses.  Learning about body positioning is a useful added benefit to receiving body work while pregnant.

Is it possible for pregnancy massage to cause a miscarriage?

This is also not based in any kind of evidence.  Even the commonly referred to reflexology points that have been shunned because they were purported to cause uterine contractions, have been studied and found not quite the hazard they were once thought to be.  In fact, there was no hazard found with such points.  The baby  benefits from the Mom having a massage.  Her blood chemistry and body function metric change for the better, and that affects the baby directly, in real time.

Is Pregnant Women’s Massage dangerous for women?

Newborn Baby By SeattleEye

Newborn Baby by Seattle Eye

The only time Massage For Pregnant Women is conta-indicated, is when there are complications.  In these instances, a doctor must approve of this, and prescribe Massage Therapy.  If your therapist doesn’t ask you if you have complications, and you are having issues, please find a more qualified LMT.  Even with complications, Therapeutic Massage is often approvedby the physician.  As with massage for the general population, there are times when Massage Therapy is not an appropriate course of treatment.  This includes while a patient is experiencing fever, or while an injury is in its acute phase.

Not only is a massage not hazardous  for women and the unborn fetus, but it’s been proven to actually be beneficial.  Health studies have demonstrated that prenatal massage hold many benefits.  It’s precisely the opposite of what’s commonly believed.

In time, these ideas and attitudes will shift to conceptions rooted in fact and truth.  It’s just a matter of “Alternative Medicine”, including Therapeutic Massage, becoming increasingly mainstreamed into American society.  It will happen naturally, just as out shift to soy-based products and Earth-friendly toilet paper have.  It only takes time.

Consider how herbal remedies were regarded in the 1980s.  Proponents were deemed overzealous quacks.  Now studying phytochemicals and plant-based solutions to health is far more common, with vast amounts of university research pouring out every year.

It’s the results of that research that propels more funding and interest in alternative plant-based healing.  The same is slowly happening with Massage Therapy, as the topic begins to receive more of a focus, with regard to health studies.

About Unending Health Quest Editor

Health Care Professional. Educator. Writer. Thinker. Empathic Human Being Helping Others.
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