With today's Observer newspaper there is a 66 page booklet about massage and relaxation. There are some useful sequences to help a few conditions that you might want to give clients for self care. There is also a 2 for 1 Embody and FHT treatment voucher - both valid until the end of Sept.
I got it today in The Guardian. Haven't read it through yet.
Luv Binah
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Flipped through it and seemed an OK booklet for people who are not qualified but concerned that they say on page 42 that everyone can be treated with a foot and lower leg massage including pregnant women (no mention of avoidance of first trimester or any other contras). Hope I am just being over cautious, what do you think?
'B
Hi B,
I personally would massage a pregnant women at any stage in the pregnancy - I don't view pregnancy as an illness it is a natural state and women have been massaging each other for millenia. Neither have I seen any evidence to suggest that massage is anything but helpful in pregnancy. I would be interested to hear whether youhave any evidence to support not massaging in the first trimester?
I think the massage relaxes the recipient so that she could better handle the early stages of pregnancy when you are likely to feel extremely tired and nauseous. Having said that I wouldn't be doing sports massage or deep tissue.
Binah
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I think it was a great thing to get people thinking about massage and am sure it will give a boost to bookings on a national level over the coming weeks.
A bit cheeky I had to go out and buy the observer today to satisfy my curiosity about part 2!!
concerned that they say on page 42 that everyone can be treated with a foot and lower leg massage including pregnant women (no mention of avoidance of first trimester or any other contras). Hope I am just being over cautious, what do you think?
I don't think you are being over cautious.
Take massage out of the equation, the standard recommendation is no major changes to normal routine in the first trimester, it is the most delicate stage of pregnancy, if something is going to go wrong, it's usually the first trimester, don't make major changes. That means no shift in exercise routine, no shift in diet beyond what might be required for managing morning sickness, they even recommend don't change jobs or move in the first trimester. So I just put having a massage in that no change to normal routine - if they are regular clients, I will still work on them in the first trimester, if I've never seen them before, I won't work on the in first trimester, add the fact people usually start looking for 'pregnancy massage' at week 10 or so, getting them to wait a couple of weeks is easy. I don't think a normal massage can set off anything that wasn't going to happen anyway (eg massage to bring on labour, they'll usually start labour in 24 hr or more than a week, it's as if it it was moving towards it in 2 or 4 days time it will accelerate it, but if it hadn't started progressing it doesn't seem to make much difference) Millions of people get a massage between becoming pregnant and realising they are pregnant without any ill effects, no miscarriage, no five headed babies. If massage in the first trimester was such an effective way to cause a misscarriage there would be no unwanted pregnancies, 'just press there!' would be known by many. I've got more faith in accupunture having an effect, but it's difficult for a normal massgae to stimulate accupuncture points to the same extent.
Having said all that, first trimester, if anything is going to go wrong in the pregnancy it's usually then and if something does go wrong, some people will look for any excuse, and since 'expert' text books and training say no massage in the first trimester, massage in the first trimester could very easily be implicated if someone was looking for something to direct the finger pointing at, the fact they'd been on a roller coaster, had an x-ray, eaten unpasturised cheese and been cleaning out the kitty litter can be overlooked and the massage gets blamed.
I've had a few odd enquiries where people are looking for a pregnancy massage very early in the pregnancy (4 - 6 weeks) when I said no they wanted fairly explicit directions of where to avoid, it was like they were fishing for information, so the public does seem to be thinking massage in first trimester can be risky. (if they are fishing I'll be vague with 'you need training to know all the spots')
No massage in the first trimester is for the protection of the therapist, not the client! Are you being over cautious? For your sake no, for the pregancy's sake, probably yes.
I thought they were quite interesting supplements - and anything that stimulates demand for therapies has got to be a good thing - but I was curious about why they classified aromatherapy as a "mind" therapy rather than a "body" therapy in Sunday's one.