HI... I thought it would be great to have a forum for issues related to bodywork and the perinatal cycle, since that is my specialty. I am author of Nurturing Massage for Pregnancy, a new textbook focused on specifics of touch during the perinatal cycle. Also the instructor on the DVD: Mastering Pregnancy Massage, and producer of a new film.... MotherTouch: Nurturing Touch for Birth, and a second one, Touch Techniques for Birth.. which should be out this fall!
So many more resources are coming out to address this special client population. I"ll be interested to hear what kinds of concerns or questions or situations people are encountering.

Hello Leslie, thanks for starting this group. When I went to massage school at Desert Institute of the Healing Arts I ended up taking the prenatal massage course twice because I liked doing it so much. It is one of the few modalities that gives back more then we put in. I own a small massage school in Ojai, CA now and teach three pregnancy massage workshops here a year. The workshop is thirty hours long and I feel that it is only scratching the surface. I have used Carole Osborne-Sheets excellent book as a required text and recently I have started to require Elaine Stillermans Prenatal Massage book and require the students to take the online tests that are supported by the publisher for this text. I can now see that I need to get your book and video and review it as an added resource. I see that LLW publishes your book. Do they offer online support material for this text too?

HI Nickie
Thanks for joining! Yes, there is online support with the book, including video clips from my video Mastering Pregnancy Massage that correlate with the text. There is also class outlines, and resources online. The book is very focused and streamlined specifically for massage students. My students also find that the DVD-- 3 hours of info--- is a great review for them. I teach a 60-hour certification program in Oregon twice a year, and many of my students get that. I was living up til this year in Idyllwild, above Palm Springs.. isn't that where the desert institute is?!

I've been working with pregnant women since I was in school and have been a certified massage doula since 07, my first birth was in '05. Love the fact that there are others in the profession that love to work with women during this special time!

I'm waiting for a baby due September/late August with a woman in her 30's. It is a highly complex situation emotionally/psychologically, with history of incest, a midwife that she is not entirely confident about, and recent traumatic deaths in her family, all of which of course is coming up during this pregnancy. I have known her since she was 10 years old, so an integral guide in her life, with an understanding of many ways her history has affected her life. I am working with her to explore how she can feel safe in this experience and come to terms with all the changes. She can no longer do carpentry (her primary income) at this point in the pregnancy, so is having to surrender now, to her changing role, to allowing others to help her, to watching her body grow. Touch is a way that she determines her safety with someone... if she can relax with their touch, she can let go of control in some ways. We will be doing a lot of preparatory touch sessions when I get there, several weeks before the birth. (hopefully!)

I do work with stones in the postpartum period mostly.. Not specifically La Stone. I have not studied that. But use stones on acu-points, belly work, acu=meridians, to help with PP recovery.
have not used during pregnancy so much.

If anyone is in Maine in August, I will be doing a screening of my film, MotherTouch: Nurturing Touch for Birth, and having a discussion about touch and the perinatal cycle. It will be at the DownEast School of Massage in Waldoboro, the first week of August. Contact them for details.

I'm in Massachusetts waiting for a baby due any day. First time mom, who is a carpenter who built her own house, and who is tiling and completing her new bathroom shower this weekend––lifting, climbing ladders, and working hard with her huge belly. We've been doing daily massage, that has been helping her relax, receive and take time for herself in a way that she does not often allow herself. For some women, the most vital benefits of massage during pregnancy are in this realm,--helping her take time to nurture herself, or to receive nurturing...which can transfer on to nurturing of the baby as well.
(Of course the relief of muscular strain and tension with massage is also much needed and appreciated!)

My name is Carol Nicolich and I am a registered Massage Therapist in Colorado and work at the Aurora Campus of the Denver School of Massage Therapy. I am writing to let other therapist know that Laura Charleton, a Certified Infant Massage Educator and member of Infant Massage USA, is offering a course to become a Certifed Edudator of Infant Massage. The course is from Thurs. 10/22 thru Sun. 10/25 from 9am - 5 pm in Parker, CO. Please contact me for more information or if you would like to register. Thank you

MotherMassage (R): Massage during Pregnancy in Newington, CT 9/25-27 and Seekonk, MA 10/16-18. 24 CEUs and loads of fun! www.MotherMassage.Net

Hi Elaine! I will see you in Newington....I'm very excited about your course!

One of my students came in asking if I knew if there were any prenatal chiropractors in the Denver CO area. I realize you are all massage therapists, but I was hoping someone who has worked with a chiropractor who has worked with pregnant clients.

Thank you for your help.

Ah, thanks for asking!
It was a long labor (36 hours) at home, with continuous massage, mostly to the hips and sacrum due to extreme back labor. Baby had both hands up at his face, so it made it a very painful labor and difficult to push him out (and he was 9 lbs).

She ended up with 3rd degree tears and now severe pudendal nerve pain continuing since then (5 weeks postpartum), making me ever more aware of the discomforts that postpartum women experience that go unnoticed by the public at large.

More attention needs to be given to new mothers; they are a special population in desperate need of bodywork that acknowledges their current physiological and hormonal states. They need to be treated differently than your normal non-pregnant client. I'd love to see hospitals implement a massage offering for all postpartum women..

Leslie,
Best of luck to you and your beautiful, new family! Elaine Stillerman

This is in response to Carol N. who posted back in September ~ sorry, I just noticed it. The chiropractor I work with near Detroit adjusts many women in all stages of pregnancy. I know the proximity won't do you any good, but I would be happy to pass any questions to her if that helps. She is Palmer-trained and has a lifetime of experience with the "chiropractic lifestyle." Her practice focuses on family care. ~m

i've resently started studying pre-natal massage and attempted to induce a co-worker of mine she is full term and the session felt sucessful except there is no resonse. im just curious if anyone had any amazing results they would like to share.
caitlin marie

Hi Caitlin,
As perinatal massage specialist, labor and delivery nurse, doula, childbirth educator, and author of a perinatal massage text, I have worked with 100's of laboring women, and spoken to many practitioners. My experience and belief, based on this, is that without quite extreme measures like use of oxytocin in the hospital, we will mainly be effective with touch by helping a mother relax, and preparing the body for birth in the timing that baby is ready for. If that happens soon after massage/touch session, that is more likely coincidence than directly related to the massage itself.. I do not suggest or encourage the use of massage for "induction". I believe talking about it in that way gives false expectations and hopes to a mother, and raises the question of working outside your scope of practice.

Instead, emotional support combined with nurturing touch and the use of acupressure, hydrotherapy, MFR, and the like, can all help to reduce the release of stress hormones in the body, and increase the body's readiness for labor to begin. IF the timing is right for baby and mom, then labor will begin, but that is less likely than just creating optimum conditions for labor to begin in its own timing.

The only time I think it important to really focus on beginning labor is when a woman is going to get scheduled for pitocin induction at a hospital. In this case, to try to avoid the medical induction, there are multiple methods that will be much more effective than touch alone.. including sexual activity, castor oil and acupuncture.

Touch needs to be used regularly, multiple times over a period of days, with very focused intention to have any hope of real effectiveness. No reason not to do that, but baby is going to come out sooner or later no matter what.. THe vast majority of babies that are born at 42 weeks are totally fine and normal, and did not need to come out earlier... Most first time mothers will birth at least 1 week past their due date.

DUe dates are a real problem---women get attached to that day and when it goes by without a baby, it is cause for alot of stress and impatience!... They should be "due Months" instead..>!

To Caitlin,

I have been massaging pregnant women since 1980 (written 2 books and teach the professional certification course. "MotherMassage (R)" all over the country). A woman will start labor only when she, her baby, and her placenta are ready to do so. A relaxing massage can reduce stress levels, provide comfort, and reduce pain, but will only support labor when these three interrelated factors are working in harmony.

Once labor is established, there are some points that are effective in speeding things up. Her body, her heart, her mind must all be respected. The baby will come when the time is right. As massage practitioners, we can make the journey more comfortable, provide more control for the mother, and offer support.

Elaine Stillerman, LMT
MotherMassage (R)
www.MotherMassage.Net
"Prenatal massage: a textbook of pregnancy, labor, and postpartum bodywork" (Mosby, 2008).

I am a massage therapist/COTA who works in a hospital setting as well as a day spa. Right now I have a room to see outpatient's at the hospital and I massage moms after they've given birth in the OB. Just wondering if anyone else out there also does the same? It was really a rewarding place to be working. I love it!!!

Wow Kylie, that is awesome that you have a room to work from in the hospital. I work as a Mobile pregnancy massage therapist, in Australia. How did you go about getting the room and permission to work from the hospital? I think it is a great idea and would love to see this integrated in my community.

The hospital and clinic are connected so my room is in on the clinic side of things, but I see the moms right in their hospital rooms. I got hired as a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant, but they knew I was a massage therapist too when hiring me. They had wanted to start a massage program so I just fit right in. I didn't have to do any convincing, administration was in my favor already. I have done my own research on implementing it into the rest of the hospital, but haven't had the time lately to get that started yet.

Just in time for the holidays, Elsevier Publishing is offering a 20% discount on all their massage and bodywork titles, including Prenatall massage: a textbook of pregnancy, labor, and postpartum bodywork (Mosby, 2008). Makes a terrific gift for prenatal practitioners. Go to the MotherMassage website (MotherMassage.Net) for details..
Elaine Stillerman, LMT

Kylie, where are you located? What are the massage licensing laws like where you are? That sounds like a fantastic setup! I'm in PA, just outside of Philadelphia, and I'm pretty sure that any bodywork that's happening with pregnant women is outside of the hospital situation - unfortunately, there are maternity wards closing left and right around here, and the hospitals that do offer delivery like to get slicey with the knife.

I'm in Wisconsin, I'm nationally certified...is that what you were asking? I'm not there during the delivery, I'd be there all the time....with no breaks lol. I do also massage following a C-section too. The hospital loves having me there, it really boosts the patient satisfaction scores for them. The mom's also get a free 30 min. gift cert.to come back and see me in my outpatient setting once they are discharged. So they get a free massage while in the hospital and once their discharged. It's really a great program, there are so many women who have never had a massage and this is their chance to experience having one.

Hi Kylie! How did you come about arranging such an affiliation or arrangment with the hospital? SOme advice would be greatly appreciated.