Pregnancy Massage
Massage Studies support what more and more women are discovering about massage therapy during pregnancy – it has been shown to:
- improve maternal mood
- decrease depression and anxiety
- decrease pain
- decrease stress hormones in pregnant women (including those suffering from depression)
- decrease obstetrical complications, and
- improve neonatal health and development.
In addition, the overall benefit of improved mood to maternal and neonatal health has the potential to positively impact the health of individual mothers and children. There is also evidence that massage therapy through the labour and birthing process helps to:
- decrease pain in all three stages of labour (latent, active, and transition),
- reduce anxiety in the latent stage,
- reduce stress during labour, and
- increase the quality of your experience of childbirth.
These immediate effects of massage therapy may affect other longer-term effects such as decreased length of labour, shorter hospital stay, less touch sensitivity and fewer instances of postpartum depression.
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