Pregnancy Massage Survey

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Permalink Reply by Rebecca Overson on March 16, 2010 at 9:40am

That's a great quote, Susan!

I have just launched an internship program at my Center. I have four interns, all whom have taken a 24-36 hour course in prenatal massage, who will be working on pregnant clients under my supervision (mentorship). They are all looking forward to getting started. I will offer intern sessions at half my normal rate, so this will also be a nice thing for those who may not otherwise "afford" massage therapy during pregnancy.

To me, an internship/mentorship would have been so helpful - in ANY aspect of massage therapy - so I'm hoping increased confidence will be the outcome of this program!

Susan G. Salvo said:

AAHHHH, the question of confidence…

I struggled with this one as a student, then as a therapist, and now as an educator trying to instill confidence in my students.

In my humble opinion, confidence takes time.

No amount of hours in class will give it to you.

I wish it were that easy.

One of my instructors, Carol Kresge, said in class, “You know, it took me one year to build a clientele but 4 years to know what I was doing.” I jotted it down and read it often


Rebecca Overson said:

Susan G. Salvo said:

How many hours of pregnancy massage do you recommend schools teach?

Pregnancy massage is included in most, if not all, entry level massage textbooks.

And pregnant clients do come through our student clinics. I'm sure that is true for most schools.

Pregnancy is regarded as a normal life stage and not a pathologic condition (unless abnormalities exist and then modifications are needed as they are with ANY client, pregnant or not).

Does anyone feel that therapists should avoid pregnant women unless post-graduate hours are obtained?

My response on Rick's survey was that I don't think most massage therapists can safely and confidently work on pregnant women without more than 2 hours of training (in my school's case) - unless the mom and babe are healthy and there are no other medical or special considerations. With some of the things I see on intake forms with my clients (who are all pregnant) I would be really nervous thinking that these women might find their way into a student clinic and a therapist would just move ahead doing massage in instances where they really ought to have medical clearance from the woman's care provider.

Now, granted, those are the exceptions, but when you work with pregnant women exclusively, you see all kinds of things :) Unless a student is well-versed in pregnancy, they may not know what to look for or what the meaning of certain terms are and may not have the confidence to ask or to tell a client who is standing there, ready for a massage, that they have a condition where it's actually not safe to proceed.

Again, that's going to be the exception, not the rule.

I think any massage therapist without extensive training will not likely seek out or feel comfortable working on pregnant women all the time, and will proceed with caution if they face a situation they are not confident with, which is prudent.

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Permalink Reply by Susan G. Salvo on March 16, 2010 at 10:09am

Rebecca,

I love the idea of mentoring. I wish more therapists who possess specialized skills would do it.

Good luck with your program.

Rebecca Overson said:

That's a great quote, Susan!

I have just launched an internship program at my Center. I have four interns, all whom have taken a 24-36 hour course in prenatal massage, who will be working on pregnant clients under my supervision (mentorship). They are all looking forward to getting started. I will offer intern sessions at half my normal rate, so this will also be a nice thing for those who may not otherwise "afford" massage therapy during pregnancy.

To me, an internship/mentorship would have been so helpful - in ANY aspect of massage therapy - so I'm hoping increased confidence will be the outcome of this program!

Susan G. Salvo said:

AAHHHH, the question of confidence…

I struggled with this one as a student, then as a therapist, and now as an educator trying to instill confidence in my students.

In my humble opinion, confidence takes time.

No amount of hours in class will give it to you.

I wish it were that easy.

One of my instructors, Carol Kresge, said in class, “You know, it took me one year to build a clientele but 4 years to know what I was doing.” I jotted it down and read it often


Rebecca Overson said:

Susan G. Salvo said:

How many hours of pregnancy massage do you recommend schools teach?

Pregnancy massage is included in most, if not all, entry level massage textbooks.

And pregnant clients do come through our student clinics. I'm sure that is true for most schools.

Pregnancy is regarded as a normal life stage and not a pathologic condition (unless abnormalities exist and then modifications are needed as they are with ANY client, pregnant or not).

Does anyone feel that therapists should avoid pregnant women unless post-graduate hours are obtained?

My response on Rick's survey was that I don't think most massage therapists can safely and confidently work on pregnant women without more than 2 hours of training (in my school's case) - unless the mom and babe are healthy and there are no other medical or special considerations. With some of the things I see on intake forms with my clients (who are all pregnant) I would be really nervous thinking that these women might find their way into a student clinic and a therapist would just move ahead doing massage in instances where they really ought to have medical clearance from the woman's care provider.

Now, granted, those are the exceptions, but when you work with pregnant women exclusively, you see all kinds of things :) Unless a student is well-versed in pregnancy, they may not know what to look for or what the meaning of certain terms are and may not have the confidence to ask or to tell a client who is standing there, ready for a massage, that they have a condition where it's actually not safe to proceed.

Again, that's going to be the exception, not the rule.

I think any massage therapist without extensive training will not likely seek out or feel comfortable working on pregnant women all the time, and will proceed with caution if they face a situation they are not confident with, which is prudent.

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Permalink Reply by Robin Byler Thomas on March 16, 2010 at 2:51pm

Great way of handling mentoring Rebecca. How long will their internships last?

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Permalink Reply by Rebecca Overson on March 17, 2010 at 11:46am

Robin Byler Thomas said:

Great way of handling mentoring Rebecca. How long will their internships last?

My initial approach is to have them complete 25 sessions, at whatever pace they desire.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Hinkle on April 3, 2010 at 2:04pm

Thanks, Rick!

Rick Morgan said:

Thank you!!!
Round one of the survey is complete and we downloaded the data from the first 100 participants. If you haven't done the survey and want to, please do so. We will be doing another analysis after we reach a larger milestone to validate the results from the first 100. Thank you all for helping us get this done. It will take a few days to a week before the initial analysis is complete and then when we have done the detailed analysis we will publish a paper on the results. I will post a link on this forum for all those interested in the results.

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Permalink Reply by Vlad on April 4, 2010 at 8:18am

Hey Rick -
This is brilliant, man.
I've been popping on here just waiting on your survey results. Why? Because I've wondered about so many things that were on the survey. It'll be interesting to see what the results show even though it's a small sample.

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Permalink Reply by Deborah Stevens on August 5, 2010 at 9:13am

Rick, I am new to this forum and finding the survey itself but not the results--where can I see the results? TIA.

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Permalink Reply by Deborah Stevens on August 5, 2010 at 12:01pm

Susan, any pointers as to where to find good, current info on massage in the first trimester? Is your project in the public domain? TIA.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel Cohen on August 5, 2010 at 7:20pm

I took the survey. I think the questions were well stated and useful. I am glad you asked about first trimester. From what clients tell me I am the only one in my immediate area that will do massage for first trimester. All of the Asian modalities I have studied included first trimester bodywork. Modst of the Western style warned against it. Different ways of approaching it and different professional concerns..

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