a community of practitioners

Being pregnant and a full time massage therapist...

Hello... i had a few questions about this subject. To start I am 15 weeks pregnant and i am a full time massage therapist with a pretty busy spa. My pregnancy has been great, for it being my first. I told my boss the other day about my pregnancy and she was happy for me. Now my questions start since this is my 1st time being pregnant, how far should i work up to until i have to take my leave? And since this is a first, when would be good to come back to work? I'm not sure how i will be feeling after the birth of my child and how soon i will be able to go jump back into my busy schedule. I am just looking for opinions, my boss never had children and any massage therapist that was pregnant at this spa, never came back to work, so i cant ask them, plus i never knew them :( Anyways thank you for you opinion and advice! It is much appreciated :)

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by elizabeth mount on March 22, 2011 at 9:57am

I am currently 1 week overdue! i worked until two weeks before my due date. (10 massage /week) physically I could have continued on a reduced schedule until now. For my own bussiness, I felt uncomfortable scheduling appointments durring the two weeks before my due date. I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep them ect. The massage center I worked at has the therapist off two weeks before the due date b/c of scheduling? i'm not sure. I am already wanting to go back! In my own bussiness I had a little trouble encouraging people to come in for their appointments. I think some people felt uncomforatable about it? I combated this by communicating more. I sent extra reminders of when I would be starting leave and made individual phone calls. Sometimes people will make comments about shouldn't you be getting the massage or they think that massage is really hard work physically. The comments came from kindness and only appeared around 7 months. I just tell people, oh i feel really good, i'm lucky, i do get massage or anything to negate their gulit/concern.

you're gonna be just fine!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Abbie Darrough on March 22, 2011 at 1:13pm

Thank you! I will look around on the website for helpful information... And Elizabeth, congrats when the baby does come, lol.