Reflexology for Pregnancy
Reflexology during pregnancy
Reflexology is a wonderful, supportive treatment that is safe to be enjoyed throughout pregnancy.
I recommend looking for someone who has specialist training in maternity reflexology and/or reflexology for women’s health and wellbeing. This ensures you are getting the best possible treatment, that will support the changes you are experiencing and also provide support for your growing baby.
The treatment itself provides time out of a busy day to focus on you, noticing how you are feeling and spending time enjoying feeling baby’s movements.
Mum’s always comment on how connected they feel to baby during treatment, how much they enjoy space to calmly feel the movements of baby (babies seem to love reflexology and are usually active during treatment).
You may also be experiencing a lot of changes, feeling tired, picking up coughs and colds, struggling to fall asleep or waking often throughout the night. Reflexology can support with some of these symptoms. Clients often find that sleep is dramatically better after a treatment and for some clients it has really eased pelvic pain or nausea.
Is reflexology safe when pregnant
Yes, reflexology is safe throughout pregnancy.
The treatment will be adapted to suit your current stage of pregnancy. I have trained in advanced reflexology techniques for women’s health and maternity reflexology so can safely support you through all stages of pregnancy.
When receiving any treatments in pregnancy always look for a therapist who has specialist maternity training, to ensure they are working in the most supportive way.
Can reflexology help with a short and productive labour
I’ve worked with clients to prepare for all kinds of birth, including home births and caesareans.
Their experiences have been overwhelmingly positive. It has been wonderful to hear from clients how reflexology has encouraged the natural progression of labour, given the birth partner key points to work so they feel empowered and able to help and provided pain management techniques.
I have also researched extensively into natural methods to support a positive labour and developed a course on how to have a positive, intuitive birth. I deliver this course with highly experienced cognitive hypnotherapist, Sian Quipp. You can find out more about upcoming dates here.
Reflexology is a wonderful tool to help prepare for labour. I recommend working together over four or five sessions. Each session will involve a full reflexology treatment and a detailed discussion about any concerns.
Together we will test and experiment to find the tools and techniques that will enable you to access calm and to feel confident about the birth. These are different for everyone and it can be really helpful to have one to one support to find the things that are most effective for you.
This birth education and building up trusted techniques for your birth partner, alongside reflexology treatments will support you to have a positive birth experience.
To find out more about reflexology and labour, please visit this blog post.
How often should I have reflexology when pregnant
If you are seen by a fully trained maternity reflexologist it is safe to have reflexology throughout all stages of pregnancy and you can have as many sessions as you wish.
Clients who have waited a long time to conceive and have had success using reflexology for fertility, usually choose to have regular reflexology during the first trimester.
I usually recommend treatments every four to five weeks throughout pregnancy and then moving to every other week from week 32 onwards. This works really well and the increased sessions towards the end of pregnancy are wonderful to allow that time for preparation for birth.
I really recommend considering a treatment for after the birth, it is such a huge transition. It can be a very overwhelming experience and bodywork, especially reflexology and acupressure are calming ways to close the experience and feel grounded and settled after the labour.
For all treatments post birth, I will allow plenty of extra time so if baby needs feeding, changing, rocking etc you will feel comfortable and not at all rushed.
Book maternity reflexology
You can book a reflexology treatment in Heaton Moor or at your home (I see clients across South Manchester & Cheshire). Most women come to see me at lunchtime or after work in the early stages of pregnancy and as we get closer to delivery these sessions will usually move to a home setting.
You can book online or contact me to find out more.
