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Home › Articles › Emotional and Mental Health › The Right Touch

The Right Touch

Massage for Prenatal Health and Comfort

By Phyllis Edgerly Ring

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As you share your body with your developing child, you can also share the many benefits the comfort of prenatal massage brings to body, mind and spirit.

A woman's body goes through tremendous changes during pregnancy, when rapid weight gain causes a change in her center of gravity and her posture. Certified Massage Therapist Steve Traylor of Silver Spring, Md., says, "As her abdomen grows, the curve of her lower back increases and her knees rotate outwards. These changes put extra strain on the muscles of the hips and lower back."

Because of these changes, pain tends to develop in the muscles of the neck and back and in load-bearing joints in the hips, says Certified Massage Therapist Jennifer Berumen of Redwood City, Calif.

Big benefits from receiving prenatal massage from an experienced therapist include reduced edema (swelling) and pain associated with pregnancy. But many of massage's most powerful effects come with the relief it brings from anxiety, stress and depression caused by pregnancy's hormonal changes, Berumen says.

Benefits for Two
Reducing anxiety and stress also helps prevent complications associated with pregnancy. "Studies have shown that women with high levels of anxiety and stress have more complications, such as nausea and vomiting, longer labors, spontaneous abortions, postpartum complications, maternal illness and toxemia," says Melody Cook, a certified prenatal massage therapist and certified infant massage instructor in Dallas, Texas.

Elaine Stillerman, author of Mother Massage (Delta, 1999), has cited a recent study on the effects of maternal stress on the developing fetus. The findings indicate stressed pregnant women produce fetal heart rates that stay higher longer. This response has also been linked to retarded fetal development and higher risks of heart disease and diabetes later in life.


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