5 Things Having a Baby Taught Me About Postnatal Massage:
Amber 8 months pregnant, photographed in October at Otter Cliffs in Acadia National Park. Maternity Photography by Breezy Photography
I think the thing I love the most about massage therapy is that there is always something new to discover! I am always learning or finding new ways to help clients understand their bodies better and how to make a difference in how their bodies feel. Last year I read Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. A phenomenal book, which I highly recommend! Despite a lifetime in the hospitality industry, I still learned so much and gained so many insights on the ways we can transform ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences for those we serve.
I have always found that one of the best ways to provide excellent customer service is to think of yourself in your guest or client’s place. This is helpful regardless of your career or business. But some times, you just don’t know until you know, or until you experience it for yourself. I found this to be true with both prenatal and postnatal massage — services I’ve offered since I was first licensed as a massage therapist. I’ve been trained to offer them and have experience doing so. But what I found to be the most valuable insights for these services came only when I became pregnant, had a baby. and experienced them for myself.
Most people are familiar with what Prenatal Massage is. But what is Postnatal or Postpartum Massage?
Postnatal, or Postpartum Massage is a type of massage therapy that can help new mothers recover from giving birth, whether vaginally or by C-section. It can be received anytime after giving birth. The massage can help with physical discomfort, hormonal fluctuations, and emotional support. It can also help with swelling, muscle tension, and pain relief.
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
As a massage therapist, it’s important to do a thorough intake with a new client so you are aware of their health history AND to check in with them again before each massage. The DO NO HARM principle applies to massage therapists as well, even when we haven’t taken the Hippocratic Oath. This medical ethics principle emphasizes avoiding harming clients during care. It goes beyond physical injury to include aspects like respect and dignity. Health Intakes and the conversations we have before each massage help us to minimizing risks, provide information, incorporate our clients in the decision-making processes, and gives us the opportunity to clarify with our client any accommodations we can make to make them more comfortable during our sessions. (Read more about Health Intakes here.)
Massage can help with C-section scar healing by increasing scar tissue mobility and elasticity, reducing pain and itching, and improving the scar's appearance.
For a postnatal massage I would want to know when my client delivered their baby and what type of delivery they had. As a general rule, following a vaginal delivery, you can receive massage as soon as you feel comfortable and would like to. Following a caesarean delivery, the standard recommendation is at least 4-6 weeks from delivery, (when your incision has healed and you may feel comfortable lying face down on the massage table). And, like in any massage, I’d want to know how they are currently feeling and what their intentions are for their session. I’d clarify any areas they want focus AND any areas they prefer not to have massaged.
But it turned out that there were 5 things I did NOT know about Postnatal Massage, until after I’d experienced having a baby myself.
5 Things Having a Baby Taught Me About Postnatal Massage:
Foot massages can help with postpartum comfort and pain. They can also help with anxiety, hormonal fluctuations, and physical discomforts like fatigue, backache, and muscle tension.
There are areas I REALLY want touched. My back is killing me. Can we spend the whole massage there?? Also, I’m taking care of a LOT of other people at home. And some days it feels like no one is taking care of me. Nothing feels more luxurious to me than having my feet rubbed. Can we spend extra time on my feet? This will vary person-to-person I’m sure, but for me, I was all about the back and feet postpartum!
As a massage professional who has experienced a variety of massage modalities from a variety of practitioners, I was surprised to find that there were areas of my body I just wasn’t comfortable having touched. Even though they were areas that I would have felt comfortable receiving massage pre-pregnancy. For example, I used to enjoy abdominal massage and I understand its value and importance when addressing various issues, especially when it relates to hips and back pain. However, right now, I’m just not ready to have someone massaging that area. (Again, this will vary from person to person).
As a breastfeeding mother, for my own comfort, I found I’d need to empty my chest (by feeding babe right before my session, or by pumping) and start facedown on the table. If my chest was filled with milk it would be too uncomfortable for me to lie face down. If I arrived to my session full I may need to be massaged in a side-lying position, or require a chest cushion—something some therapists have on hand to offer to those with a lot of breast tissue. (Massage Tip: In a pinch, if no chest-cushion is available, rolled up towels under the arms or between the breasts can help relieve the pressure.)
As a breastfeeding mother, I would need a soft towel or pillowcase over my chest both face up and facedown to feel comfortable without my bra and the nursing pads that accommodate my leaking chest. Otherwise I’d end up making the table and sheets wet with breastmilk and be both uncomfortable and embarrassed. This was especially true during the first 4 months of motherhood for me, when even a stray thought of my baby would cause spontaneous leaking (something that happens to breastfeeding mothers when their chest is full or when baby begins to feed, but can also happen to some mothers when they hear their baby crying, or, like me, when they even think of their baby, or sometimes, for any and no reason at all).
When I am a client on the massage table I really tend to rely on my massage therapist’s expertise — to spend the time on the parts of my body that they feel needs attention, or to address the specific concerns I made known to them during our intake. But there are some times in life where I want to just come in and say, “do it exactly like this, please.” And this was one of them. And that’s okay. My therapist WANTS me to be comfortable on the table. They WANT me to have everything I need so I can relax and enjoy—whether that’s extra pillows, extra warmth, a bathroom break in the middle, a change of music. This time is FOR ME and it’s always okay (and encouraged) to be clear about what I need and what I want (more feet, please!).
So when it is you on the massage table, please, speak up! We want you to be comfortable and leave feeling better! If there is anything we can do to make your session more enjoyable, or ways we can customize things just for you, we definitely want to hear about it. Regardless of the style of massage we can almost always accommodate changes to things like music, lighting, temperature, draping, techniques, pressure, focus areas, cushions and bolstering, etc…. Some of us have been there. We’ve had babies, we’ve suffered through what you’re suffering through, we’ve rehabbed that injury, played that sport, worked that job, slept funny, overdone it shoveling, or what-have-you. But we haven’t all been through and done everything. So we rely on you, our clients, to help us give you our very best. So please, tell us what you need. Happy massaging.
Baby Lane, 7 months old. Photography by Britney Kelley Photography