Pregnancy Massage
After completing a two year Holistic Therapy Course, I decided I would like to specialise in Pregnancy Massage. In Ireland at that time as a massage therapist I was often told never to massage pregnant women, this was very strange to me, as I believed if anyone needed a massage it would be a pregnant women. I looked around for an excellent Pregnancy Massage Course and I discovered Suzanna Yates, BA(Hons), DipHSEC, MRSS(T), Dip Therapeutic Massage (APNT), PGCE (PCET) an English lady who is the Director of Well Mother, a Shiatsu practitioner and accomplished author for midwives, who came to Ireland to teach Pregnancy Massage with acupressure. I found the course fascinating and loved every minute of it.
The first couple of years doing Pregnancy Massage I used a large floor cushion, but I found this was a little awkward for the mum-to-be, having to lower herself to the floor and worse still, get back up off it after! It was also very taxing on my own body. This is when another therapist introduced me to the Body Cushion, at first I was very sceptical as I never liked the pregnancy massage beds, but after using her cushion for a month with my clients, I discovered how amazing this was. For the first time pregnant women could get a really good back massage, which in my experience is exactly what they want and need.
I worked in Google as one of their on-site massage therapists for over 4 years, at that time pregnant women in the company were not allowed to avail of the massages, so I introduced the Pregnancy Massage Program in Google Ireland and for a few years I was the only therapist who was allowed to do pregnancy massage, so nearly all my clients were pregnant women, it was a wonderful experience and taught me a great deal of what I know today.
Over the years, I have worked with pregnant women of all ages and levels of experience, from first babies to fifth, from one baby to triplets. I have helped mums with breach babies, morning sickness (or all day sickness), oedema, back pain and migraines. It never ceases to amaze me what a miracle bringing a child into the world is. There is nothing I haven’t heard when working with pregnant women. I can almost map the emotions, fears, excitement, and symptoms of many of these women. This is why I go the extra mile when dealing with these ladies, by offering a warm, nurturing and caring environment where they can discover for themselves the wonder of pregnancy. I help relieve all of these symptoms with firm but at the same time gentle pressure during the massage, each massage is tailored to the how the woman is feeling on the day. I also frequently offer home-care advice and give them exercise sheets, show them and often their partners, techniques to use during early labour, either on the floor or by using a “Fitball”. For me, providing the service of Pregnancy massage, should encompass a whole lot more than just the massage, and that’s exactly what I strive to achieve.
