Benefits of Massage During Pregnancy

INCREASED BODY AWARENESS: Helps her develop skills in relaxation, self-care and self awareness.

INCREASED ENERGY: Relieves fatigue, stress, insomnia, and encourages the release of endorphins. Touch stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, helping Mom relax and simultaneously increase attentiveness.

MUSKULOSKELTAL EASE: Helps alleviate stress on joints and muscles and improves their function.



RELAXATION SKILLS: Provides an opportunity to practice touch relaxation, and breath awareness in preparation for the birth process. Associating touch with relaxation before birth facilitates automatic relaxation with touch during birth.





IMPROVED PHYSIOLOGY: Increases the return of venous blood to the heart. Increases oxygen flow through Mom’s tissues to Baby and assists removal of cellular waste with increased lymphatic flow. This helps decrease non-pathological edema, reduce blood pressure, and relieve headaches. Increased circulation through the groin area helps reduce varicosities, edema, muscle spasms and numbness of the feet.

IMPROVED POSTURE: Gives opportunity for posture correction, providing relief to particular aches and pains and the physiological/hormonal/postural changes occurring on a daily basis which cause low back pain, headaches, neck and shoulder pain, foot discomfort, sciatica.


ENHANCED PLACENTAL FUNCTION: Stimulates prolactin production and enhances placental function. The hormone prolactin influences Mom’s “nesting instincts” and abilities to nurture her infant.

INCREASED IMMUNITY: Enhances immune system function by reducing stress.

PERINEAL EASE: Massage of the perineal area before and during labor can help facilitate stretching of the tissues during birth. Familiarity with the stretching sensations in that area reduces Mom’s resistance or fear when the sensations occur during birth, thereby reducing g risk of episiotomy, and speeding tissue healing in postpartum.

INCREASED NURTURANCE: Provides an experience of nurturing, healing touch which increases Mom’s ability to touch her infant similarly. (Particularly important for women with a history of abuse.)


INCREASED WORLD PEACE: As a mother has the experience of nurturing touch, she learns to touch her infant with nurturance, enabling the infant to grow and develop with a positive experience of touch and caring, who can then carry that forth into the world. Infants that are not touched become aggressive and withdrawn, with more tendencies toward violence.




FOR MORE DETAILS OF MASSAGE AND PREGNANCY VISIT: TOUCHFORBIRTH.COM