Massage can help you enjoy your pregnancy even more!

Especially during those last few months when you may feel that your body is rebelling against you. As each month passes, some women find it harder to sleep, to move about freely, and to just plain relax. A new baby is a wonderful joy and blessing. But it also can bring about questions and concerns about how things are going to work out. Regular pre-natal massage can help alleviate both the physical and emotional stress of having a new baby join the family.

Pre-natal massage has many therapeutic effects, including:

• Stress reduction

• Relief from muscle spasms, back pain, and sciatica

• Increases blood and lymph circulation to support process of gestation

• Alleviates stress on weight-bearing joints (especially in back and pelvis)

• Helps reduce edema (swelling)

• Helps develop body awareness to facilitate the birth process

• Helps mom to experience a nurturing touch

• Prepares the body for labor through stretching and relaxation techniques

How Can Postpartum Massage Help?

Childbirth is typically physically, emotionally, and mentally demanding. Like an athlete who has just run a marathon, the new mother can benefit a great deal from massage. Massage therapy works to ease the aches, pains, and general physical discomforts women experience after giving birth. Postpartum massage focuses on helping to restore the woman's body to its pre-pregnancy condition. Massage therapy plays an important part in the restoration of the abdominal muscle wall and the uterus to its normal state. It helps to realign body weight to its original distribution, and tones over-stretched areas of skin. Massage increases circulation which helps with: the removal of excess fluids and  reduces swelling, brings fresh nutrients to the body's systems, and speeds the total healing process.  

As with all massage, it relieves muscle tension and stress from everyday activities, especially the responsibilities that correspond with caring for a newborn . In addition to helping restore the physical body, massage therapy also helps to revive the emotional state of the new mother. Postpartum stresses such as sleep deprivation, hormonal changes, postpartum blues, and depression can all be reduced through massage.

How Can Infant Massage Help?

Infant massage helps to promote the parent-infant bonding process into loving and positive relationships. Infant massage further helps improve immune systems, stimulate relaxation, promotes better sleeping patterns, decrease stress responses during painful health procedures like immunizations. Infant massage can also help to reduce colic, congestion and teething.

Infant massage is mutually beneficial. It helps to bridge bonding experiences for parents: Infant massage enables parents to recognize and respond correctly to infant's body language, promotes better patient-infant communication, and can decrease parent stress during separation times.

In general, infant massage is a type of massage that flows from the head to the toes of baby. Using soft, gentle touches, the infant massage starts on the head, then the face, shoulders, arms, chest, stomach and then the legs. Infant massage is practiced while parent makes deep eye connections to baby, and even vocalizes with the baby. Overall, infant massage touches are basically soft and nonmechanical. Contact Catherine Parker (619) 757-0062 for Current Infant massage Class schedule.