Studies have shown that a massage during your pregnancy can help relieve muscle and joint aches, reduce anxiety and possibly even decrease feelings of depression. Apart from these clinical benefits, a pregnancy massage offers the indulgence and pampering every mommy-to-be deserves!
This body treatment is all about helping you relax and helping your circulation. Pregnancy massages are relaxing and easy on your body, making them perfectly safe for you and baby. What a great way to get off your tired feet and into the hands of a massage therapist!
A pregnancy massage is one of the most recommended treatments for pregnant women. One reason is because it directly addresses many of the common discomforts caused by a shift in your body’s hormones. Your hormones change during pregnancy and, among other things, can affect your skeletal and circulatory systems.
Pregnancy puts a lot of stress on a woman’s body and her daily life, and a safe way to help her relax can be significantly beneficial to an expectant mother’s overall health. A pregnancy massage can improve moods and cardiovascular health. Women who get bi-weekly massages for just five weeks of their pregnancy have shown reduced stress hormones such as norepinephrine and cortisol, and increased dopamine and serotonin levels that help fight depression.
The decreased stress hormones for the mother also contribute to less complications for the newborn and an easier birth process.
Normal aches and pains are associated with most pregnancies. These often include a stiff neck, backaches, headaches, leg cramps and swelling. Regular pregnancy massages can ease pressure and pain on weight-bearing joints as well as decrease nervous tension, which can in turn promote a better sleep. Pregnancy massages can also have a positive impact on blood and lymph circulation.
Sciatic nerve pain is one of the things that plague many women later in their pregnancy. This can stem from the uterus putting pressure on the pelvic floor and lower back. That pressure then affects the upper and lower legs which can swell and put an increased amount of pressure on other nerves. Massage can help ease the tension on affected muscles leading to a decrease in sciatic nerve pain.
Nearly all women experience swelling in their joints, aided by the lower circulation and increased pressure on blood vessels around the uterus. A pregnancy massage can help stimulate affected soft tissue which in turn reduces fluid collection to decrease swelling.
As with all medical and therapeutic treatments during pregnancy, a woman should discuss getting a massage with her prenatal care provider as well as with the massage therapist. If your doctor signs off on a massage, you want to make sure you’re going to a therapist who can work with your condition. Be sure to mention it when booking your appointment, not when you get there. You want to have the best experience possible and being prepared can help with that.
Take advantage of our
Pregnancy Massage
at Sewickley Spa and let us help you have a peaceful pregnancy!
