OTHER THERAPIES - MATERNITY SHIATSU
Shiatsu is a form of clothed massage incorporating acupressure points. Treatments
are generally on a futon matress on the floor, and, or with a birthball. Shiatsu
treaments can be very relaxing and often women will nod off to sleep during
the treatment! Ailments of pregnancy such as carpel tunnel syndome, symphisis
pubis dysfunction, back pain, leg cramps, insomnia, heartburn, constipation,
haemmorhoids and more may be relieved with shiatsu.
Couples can be taught skills for labour, ie pressure points to calm, relieve
pain and stimulate labour. Have you made a friend at antenatal classes? Could
do a small group of 4 to learn together in your home.. Or on a couple to one
basis.
Women can be helped with breastfeeding problems, abdominal pain and other
symptoms postnatally.
Babies can also be helped with shiatsu for colic because it aids digestion,
constipation, calming, colds and spinal alignmnet to name a few.
Here is a testimonial from a case study!
"I was suffering with bad back pains and
twinges in my groin from around 30 weeks of pregnancy. The back pain was made
worse by carrying my 16 month old (non-walking) daughter around on my hip.
Cheryl offered to use me and my experiences as a case study.
In our first session, Cheryl did lots of work with me resting over a large
birthing ball, this was good for me in terms of trying to encourage the baby
to position himself properly and for me to keep my back straight. However,
after a prolonged period resting like that my knees were a little stiff and
it was no longer relaxing, so for the final part of the session Cheryl had
me lying on my side. This was much more comfortable, though some of the pressure
points she was working were definitely quite sore! The results from this initial
session were very very positive. My back no longer hurt all the time and the
number of sharp twinges had reduced hugely, though they were still there occasionally.
The remaining sessions continued this improvement. The majority of the session
was conducted with me lying on my side and once the ‘twingy’ pressure
points were over I was so relaxed I fell asleep! The results from just a few
sessions were great. I had very little back pain, the sudden stabbing pains
had reduced to one or two rather than tens, and I felt so relaxed after the
session the world was a better place. The sharp pains in my groin remained
as the baby was pressing on something but only occasionally."
Pressure points
Having planned to have a home birth again this time I was really concerned
about the baby’s positioning and that I would be able to give birth
at home (last time I was transferred to hospital during a prolonged second
stage). After I was 37 weeks Cheryl helped me by showing me several different
points on my body that were responsible for things like foetal positioning,
calming, the uterus, expulsion and a really severe pressure that made everything
move down! After marking these on with a permanent marker I started making
sure that these were worked at least twice every day and the positioning one
definitely more often! This had the added benefit of making me more confident
in the build up to the birth and also involved my husband as some of the points
needed another person to apply the pressure. I worked these points so vigorously
that I ended up with some quite nice round bruises! All of this obviously
worked as I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy at home at 38 + 5 days
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