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Massage
Massage is one of the oldest recorded healing practices known to man. Massage therapy is more than just a relaxing spa treatment, and goes beyond being just a luxury. There are many compelling health benefits to massage, as well as therapeutic touch.
Therapeutic touch is known to cause relaxation, stress reduction, and aids in the relief of pain associated with several conditions. It can also help with anxiety, depression, arthritis and headaches.
In every continent, from Africa, Australia, Central and South America, to Europe, North America, to Asia, the midwife has been using massage to help woman during the stages of pregnancy and labor. Women have always been healers. They bathed and looked after the sick, the young and the old; looked after pregnant women; delivered babies.
Doula
The word "doula" comes from the Greek word meaning "servant" or "handmaiden" and is used to describe someone who assists both the birthing woman and her partner through prenatal planning, informal education, advocacy, emotional and physical comfort during labor and birth, and then also may assist with newborn care and breastfeeding in the postpartum period.
How a doula can help you:
During Pregnancy: Safe, drug-free relief of aches & pains, reduce swelling, ease pressure on the sciatic nerve, learn relaxation skills for labor, prepare your body for delivery, assist circulation, release emotional tension, improve sleep patterns.
During Labor: Shorten length of labor, reduce need for pain medications or epidurals, reduce the need for pitocin, reduce the need for forceps & vacuum extraction, reduce the need for c-sections, dramatically increase your odds of a natural labor, most importantly improve the health of your baby!
Postpartum: Restore muscle tone to abdomen, stimulate the uterus to return to its pre-pregnant size and position, alleviate muscle pain from postural shifts, fuller breasts, and weight of carried infant.
Whether this is your 1st or 3rd pregnancy you'll have a lot of questions.
You will be going through some changes during the months, both physical and mental.
A doula can help reassure you and keep you informed and under control through this beautiful experience.
Birth Partner Preparation & Role During Labor
Since labor is both physically and emotionally demanding for the mother, birth partners often feel at a loss as to how to help at this time.
Having an experienced, knowledgeable doula there can calm and help give the birth partner a positive role to play, as well as a positive experience, by showing pain relief, relaxation, & other techniques.
Massage doula: A massage therapist who has completed pregnancy massage certification and who has also earned a certification as a labor assistant.
In six different research studies, doulas have been shown to:
Reduce the cesarean rate by 50%
Reduce the length of labor by 25%
Reduce the requests for epidurals by 60%
Reduce the use of oxytocin by 40%
Increase the quality of mother-infant bonding
Increase a woman's confidence in her own ability to give birth
Pregnancy & Massage
In addition to the fact that massages during pregnancy just plain feels good, there are many other benefits for the mom-to-be and her baby, too. A study conducted by Dr. Tiffany Field at the University Of Miami School Of Medicine showed that massage actually reduces stress hormones in the body. Touch is vital to the mother's physical and emotional well-being as she adapts to her new body image. Regardless of individual circumstances, a pregnant woman's body is challenged, changed and stressed in many ways. Massage gives special attention to the mother-to-be, which in turn nurtures the new life that grows within her.
Massage can relieve discomfort associated with:
Hormone imbalance
Ligament pain, and stressed muscles
Stomach upset, indigestion
pain in the wrist and hand (due to hormones)
Basically anything pregnancy throws at you
Massage during the last weeks of pregnancy can help you to prepare your body for labor, and to allow you to ease into the natural flow of the labor.
Massage therapy after the baby can also help. Postpartum Massage Therapy can help restore your body back to your wild and crazy days.
Muscles of the upper back can become tight and stressed from caring your little one. Massage will help with the discomfort, and will also help the muscles that were strained during pregnancy.
For the next 18 years, your life is will be stressful but rewarding. Come and relax and get a little "me" time you need and deserve. Tell daddy he has diaper duty!
Touch Therapy for Infant
Infant massage has been practiced by other cultures for centuries. Vimala Schneider McClure brought this ancient art to the United States in the 1970's, after she observed the positive effect it had on infants in India. She practiced the Indian massage strokes on her own baby and observed its benefits first hand.
What are the benefits of infant massage?
As your infant learns to relax and release stress, sounder and longer sleep is often the end result.
Research
Research specific to the benefits of infant massage has been ongoing since the mid 1970's. This research has been conducted at various institutes and with infants who were premature, exposed to drugs in utero, and infants that had motor problems. All these categories of babies benefited from the nurturing touch of infant massage. These benefits included weight gain, neurological development, decreased hospitalization, and improved digestion.
Chronic Pain
Therapeutic touch is known to ease the pain of rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic headaches, and degenerative disc disease. It can also help with anxiety, depression, and arthritis. Practically all forms of pain management seem to benefit from therapeutic touch therapy.
Taking an Holistic approach to chronic pain will the best option. Treat the "whole body' instead of just the area that hurts. When you are in pain most of the time, it can lead to depression.
Chronic pain is a thief. It breaks into your body and robs you blind. With lightning fingers, it can take away your livelihood, your marriage, your friends, your favorite pastimes and big chunks of your personality. Left un-apprehended, it will steal your days and your nights until the world has collapsed into a cramped cell of suffering.
Stress, Anxiety & Depression
"Massage has beneficial physiological effects
on all major systems in the body, some of
which have been shown to be measurable
in clinical studies...."
(Adam Jackson, Massage Therapy)
MASSAGE, IT'S ROLE IN MANAGEMENT OF STRESS, ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
Massage is one of the oldest healing techniques used to help us overcome psychological and physical health problems. It has probably been used since the dawn of human evolution and has been found to have been used in countries all over the world and in the early part of this century was still used in orthodox medical hospitals and clinics, but fell out of favour when high tech. medicine began to dominate our health care system.
BENEFICIAL BIOCHEMICAL EFFECTS OF REGULAR MASSAGE
Research indicates that massage can be of value in helping reduce stress, anxiety and depression. Massage causes the body to release many therapeutic mood and health enhancing chemicals, it increases dopamine and serotonin and reduces the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. It increases the relaxation alpha brain waves and also increases pain relieving levels of endorphins. Massage lowers noradrenaline and lowers the stress hormone ACTH (Adrenocorticotrophic hormone). Massage boosts the immune system, stabilises blood sugar levels, improves lung function and peak air flow, it generally reduces the number of visits to the doctor whilst increasing work productivity.
MASSAGE AND ANXIETY
Regular massage can help to reduce our anxiety levels. Research by Tiffany Fields, at the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine in the USA looked into the therapeutic value of massage in reducing anxiety and depression. The data from this study indicated that massage produced marked reductions in anxiety and depression in people who were massaged, but not in a control group who were not massaged. Mood and sleep patterns also improved they slept more soundly and for longer periods of time. The subjects massaged were found to have lower levels of cortisol stress hormone in their saliva and depressed people also had lower levels of urinary cortisol and noradrenaline which increase in times of stress.
Other studies have confirmed this research. Adults with chronic anxiety problems, people with muscle tension, aches and pains etc, who did not improve after being given anti-anxiety medication/antidepressants, muscle relaxants and relaxation training, were given a course of massage. Afterwards most reported less tension, pain and need for medication.
MASSAGE AND DEPRESSION
Andrew Vickers, a researcher formerly with the Research Council for Complementary Medicine who carried out research into the value of complementary medicine's in psychological health problems which was published in the journal "Psychiatry in Practise", said it's far too simplistic to say massage can cure depression or other diseases, but it can help us to cope better and improve the quality of life.
Osteoarthritis
In the first clinical trial looking at the effectiveness of Swedish massage for knee osteoarthritis, participants who received a one-hour massage either one or two times a week had improvements in pain, stiffness, and function. The control group had no such change.
Researchers from Yale Prevention Research Center and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey recently concluded that massage therapy is a safe and effective way to reduce pain and improve function in adults with osteoarthritis of the knee. After the first eight weeks of massage therapy, participants had improved flexibility, experienced less pain and improved range of motion. When reassessed eight weeks after completion of the massage intervention, the benefits of massage remained significant, Massage is free of any known side effects and,clearly shows therapeutic promise.
Massage and Menopause
Understanding the difference between hot flashes and night sweats is one of the bittersweet burdens every woman bears in life, but comradery doesn't make it any easier. Experts say we are in the midst of a giant "meno-boom" today, with more than 40 million U.S. women in the throes of this midlife rite of passage we know as menopause. The good news is there are many natural ways to make the transition a little easier for all of us.
According to a recent Cox News report, approximately 4,000 women enter menopause each day. The need for comfort and relief for these women follows them from the first stages of perimenopause through to the final transition.
Menopause is certainly not an easy passage for women or their partners. Those infamous hot flashes are the most recognizable symptom, but the effects of menopause include a host of other problems: dry skin, night sweats, poor memory, urinary incontinence, insomnia, anxiety, mood swings, headaches/migraines, bone loss, erratic menstrual cycles, vaginal dryness, painful intercourse and depression. For women in the midst of change, menopause is a daunting laundry list of symptoms that only seems to produce greater challenges each day.
Taking Menopause Back
Monica Brown, spa consultant and former director of the Greenbrier Spa Mineral Baths and Salon, said it's important to remember the resources available to women during this often tumultuous time. "Just as childbirth and death have been taken back from the medical community and given over to birthing coaches, midwives and hospice organizations, menopause, too, can generally be a natural passage for the vast majority of American women." She said nurturing and the healing power of touch are two valuable components in a treatment regimen for today's menopausal woman.
"Massage therapists and bodyworkers, whose purpose is to touch, nurture and heal, are in a perfect position to fill this need." Whether you look for help from your massage therapist, bodyworker or local day spa, there are numerous therapies that can diminish the worst of the symptoms and improve your ability to deal with the challenges you're still sure to face. Here's what some therapists are offering their menopausal clients:
- Massage, with special attention being paid to the abdomen and lower back.
- Relaxation techniques, including yoga, to alleviate stress.
- Aromatherapy massage and treatments with Clary Sage.
- Seaweed baths, body wraps for dry, sensitive skin.
- Acupressure to rebalance hormonal systems, as well as shiatsu and lymphatic drainage.
- Hydrotherapy algae baths to detoxify and rebalance the body.
- Reflexology as a natural alternative to synthetic hormones.
Besides the physical and emotional comfort, a woman going through the life-changing forces of menopause can find the oft-needed reassurance of her strength, beauty and womanliness in massage and spa treatments. It offers both a time for solace and inner thought, as well as a chance to attend solely to her body and spirit. Don't underestimate the very basic need for comfort and support that can be so important in a hormone-ravaged body.
It's Still About Stress
An Internet-based survey recently found a correlation between stress and menopausal symptoms -- the greater the stress, the greater the symptoms. It only makes sense to implement as many stress-reducing activities as possible, which puts massage and spa therapies at the top of the list.
Ask your therapist what they can do to help you through this trying time. Venture into a nearby spa to see if they offer any special services for menopausal women, as many facilities across the country do. And don't forget your own role in the process. Recognize your symptoms, find ways to walk away from stress, attend to your physical, emotional and spiritual needs, research your options, and above all else, relax. As they say, this too shall pass.
Originally published in Body Sense magazine
Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals. All rights reserved.
Therapeutic touch therapy is known to ease the pain of rheumatoid arthritis,fibromyalgia, chronic head aches, and degenerative disc disease, It can also help with anxiety, depression, and arthritis. Practically all forms of pain management seem to benefit from therapeutic touch therapy.
Taking an Holistic approach to chronic pain will the best option. Treat the "whole body' instead of just the area that hurts. When you are in pain most of the time, it can lead to depresion.
Chronic pain is a thief. It breaks into your body and robs you blind. With lightning fingers, it can take away your livelihood, your marriage, your friends, your favorite pastimes and big chunks of your personality. Left unapprehended, it will steal your days and your nights until the world has collapsed into a cramped cell of suffering."
Birth Matters Doula's strive to be their best. We do our best to make sure your birth is everything you and your partner want it to be. We are here to support you during labor and after. Whether you are planning a home birth, hospital birth, natural, medicated, or even a c-secton a doula will prepare, assist, and support you .
Birth Matters has a diverse group of doulas.Each have their own unique personality, and talents. You will be able to choose the doula you feel that is the best fit for you and your birth plans.
1. Emphasizing the importance of the whole and the interdependence of its parts.
2. Concerned with wholes rather than analysis or separation into parts: holistic medicine; holistic ecology.
Gravida LLC-Bellies & Babies 405.613.2066 OPEN Mon-Fri 9am-10pm, Sat-Sun 10-8pm By appointment
The proof is in the research...
Parents who receive support during pregnancy and labor can:
* Feel more secure and cared for
* Are more successful in adapting to new family dynamics
* Have greater success with breastfeeding
* Have greater self-confidence
* Have less postpartum depression
Women who receive a massage during pregnancy:
* Have shorter labor time
* Ruduce the number of stress hormones
about us
Gravida L.L.C has partnered up with Birth Matters, Oklahoma's only free- standing Childbirth Education and Resource Center.
Bellies & Babies specialty is prenatal , postpartum massage therapy. We also educate parents on how to do infant massage, and the life long benefits it offers.
Birth Matters of OKC offers doula services, and classes designed to help prepare and educate families about their options during their pregnancies, labor, birth and early parenting. Chris Cleary has shared her knowledge as a dedicated instructor and advocate for birthing families for more than 20 years. She has had the privilege of partcipating in the labors and births of more than 350 babies.
Click here for more information on classes and Doula servies at Birth Matters of OKC.
Together Birth Matters and Bellies & Babies offer everything you will need to prepare for your up comming arrival from parent classes to stress or pain relief.
Massage Doula
Brandi Schmit, LMT
Brandi is licensed as a prenatal and massage therapist. She has a strong interest in holistic health, which brings the body, mind and soul together for treatment of an illness
This belief stemmed from watching her mother suffer from chronic illness for many years.
She believes in empowering women to take control of their health, and to love their body.
She has had training in holistic medicine, massage therapy, aromatherapy, reflexology, acupressure, and mediation.
She is actively seeking a degree in Holistic Studies at Clayton Collage of Natural Health.
Send us an email
Gravida
Massage Therapy Tailored to Women
2027 Hwy 152 Suite 103
Mustang, OK 73064
Bellies & Babies at Birth Matters
6701 North Broadway Extension Suite 211
Oklahoma City, OK 73064
Click here
Important Forms
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405.613.2066
Oklahoma Birth Network - Group of childbirth professionals and mothers working together to improve maternity care in Oklahoma
Birth & Beyond
A Resource Guide For Families- OKC
Massage & Pregnancy
Prenatal Care Provider Release
Client informed consent
Client Intake Form
Bellies & Babies at Birth Matters 6701 N.Broadway Extention Suite 211 Oklahoma City, OK 73112 Gravida Massage Therapy 2027 Hwy 512 Suite 103 Mustang OK 73064
