Creating new life is a truly wondrous thing, but the journey is far from easy. A pregnancy takes a toll on your body, as it is your body that nourishes the life growing inside you. It can affect your body in several different ways, some of the most common being muscle cramps, fatigue, nausea, back pain, swollen feet and heartburn.
While that may sound extremely daunting, there are steps that expecting mothers can take to reduce these effects, such as eating healthy and nutritious food, performing gentle exercises such as yoga or walking and receiving regular prenatal massages. In this blog, we will discuss the health benefits that a prenatal massage can offer.
Benefits of Prenatal Massage
Prenatal massage helps your body to cope with the side-effects of a pregnancy, reducing the symptoms by addressing the root cause. Let us examine the effects that prenatal massage can help counter and how it does that.
1. Reduces Swelling: Pregnancy can cause the hands, feet and joints to swell up as a result of the reduced circulation and the increased pressure on major blood vessels caused by the heavy uterus. A prenatal massage helps alleviate the swelling by focusing on the areas with fluid buildup. During a prenatal massage, the focus when massaging an area with swelling is to reduce the collection of fluids in the hands, feet or joints, by stimulating the lymphatic system. As an added bonus, this process also helps rid the body of toxins!
2. Nerve Pain: The pressure caused by the uterus tends to increase the tension in muscles in the upper and lower leg, causing them to swell and often resulting in nerve pain. During a prenatal massage, this problem is addressed by focusing on the muscle tension. It is important to remember that the nerve pain is a result of the increased muscle tension, which is why the prenatal massage focuses on relaxing the muscles in the upper and lower leg. Once that tension vanishes, the nerve pain will also start to recede.
3. Hormone Levels: There have been several studies conducted in the past decade that have demonstrated how introducing massage therapy into a mother-to-be’s prenatal care routine can significantly alter the hormone levels associated with stress and relaxation. Expecting mothers who received a bi-weekly massage for five weeks showed a marked decrease in hormone levels associated with stress (norepinephrine and cortisol), and a marked increase in hormone levels associated with relaxation and happiness (dopamine and serotonin).
The increased levels of dopamine and serotonin also helps improve sleep quality. Poor quality of sleep is a common complaint among expecting women, but the increased level of feel-good hormones and the relaxation they provide to the nervous system helps improve the quality of sleep.
4. Improved Posture: As the baby grows, the added weight carried by expecting mothers can cause back issues, as the added stress on the muscles often results in shifting one’s posture to reduce the stress. While it may alleviate the stress in the short-term, these changes in posture are rarely positive in the long run- and massaging the back and hips gently on a regular basis can ensure that the muscles are far more relaxed and able to continue bearing the stress put on it without having to change postures.
One of the most understated benefits of a prenatal massage is that it allows expecting mothers to achieve these results naturally, without the use of pharmaceutical assistance. This can be priceless, as the use of medication is much more limited during pregnancy to ensure the safety of the baby.
As is evident, prenatal massage can be incredibly helpful throughout every stage of pregnancy. It’s a safe, non-invasive way to support both the mind and the body, increasing the chances of a comfortable pregnancy by alleviating the forms of discomfort that are most prevalent during pregnancy.
At Yinyang, we do everything possible to ensure the safety of both the mother and baby during our prenatal massages, setting up the massage table in a semi-reclining position, using body pillows, wedge pillows and extra padding to ensure comfort. The prenatal massage is performed by experienced professionals with several years of experience. We also offer large discounts on bulk packages for our pregnancy massages. Visit our bulk packages page or get in touch with us to book an appointment!
