The Benefits of Specializing in Prenatal Massage
Jessica York • September 12, 2023
Most of us learned some form of prenatal massage when we were in trade school.
Maybe we learned a sample routine or 2, contraindicated acupressure points, a few positioning tricks, but then......that was about it. Believe me, there is so much more to this lucrative and fulfilling field of study.
According to the CDC, as of 2019, there were 3,791,712 births in the US. That means that as prenatal massage therapists, we could potentially have millions of clients nationally! Think about it! What an amazing time to be in an industry that can actually make a drug free pain management plan for this group of women who so desperately need it. Particularly because the average woman is having her first child later in life, which can present a host of biological challenges and physical concerns.
In my career, I have never once met a pregnant person who wasn't having some kind of physical symptoms that made her uncomfortable or in some kind of pain. And even if you get the rare unicorn that doesn't, the mental overload alone can be very taxing and put stress on her unborn child as well. The majority of women today do not get the luxury of laying around, having all the time and money in the world, and a full staff to plan for the needs of their child within a 9-month window. Women today often have other kids, a full-time job, schooling, household duties, and social obligations to meet-not to mention doing all these things in a post pandemic world with higher inflation, higher taxes, and more social anxieties. They're lucky if they can squeeze in an hour just for themselves!
Which is where we come in, the massage industry. We offer a rare hybrid of physical and mental health improvement, all within one hour. The benefits don't stop there either. Serotonin produced during a massage can last weeks after treatment, helping ease some of the pain receptors and mental anguish occurring for our prenatal clients.
Here are some of the essential reasons you should consider upping your prenatal game:
- Pregnancy affects every system of the body. Skin, organs, circulation, nothing is left unaltered during the course of a pregnant woman's journey. This causes a variety of problematic concerns from skin stretching to strained occipitals to ankle swelling, all that can be managed effectively by a skilled massage therapist.
- The retention rate is very high for prenatal clientele. At any point a pregnant woman comes to you during her 9 months, provided that it can financially be worked out and her schedule allows, she can typically become a regular customer for the remainder of her term. This is a great way for her to see her improvements as she goes along and monitors her progress. She knows she's investing in her health and once she settles down at home postpartum, she'll be eager to come back and get additional treatment to help her feel like herself again and continue the healing process. Postnatal massage is also a category that is booming due to our high C-Section rates year after year and becoming skilled in this field will extend that relationship with your prenatal client.
- Prenatal massage is the best word of mouth. Choosing a massage therapist during pregnancy can be terrifying. You don't want to try just anyone, you're worried about hurting the baby, and so on. Being a skilled prenatal therapist with knowledge and techniques to share makes your pregnant client feel very comfortable, which in turn makes you more likely to be referred to other pregnant women. Pregnancy can be very community oriented and by making a good impression, you're guaranteed to obtain new clientele.
- You're contributing to a pain management system in America that is moving towards a more drug free approach as it is and commonly does not offer fantastic choices for pregnant women due to limited medical studies in the field. With the opioid epidemic in America having swept the nation, the market for alternative treatments compared to pharmaceuticals has skyrocketed. 69.2 billion dollars was spent in 2019 on a variety of complimentary medicines and more traditional pain management solutions like yoga, acupuncture, tai chi, massage therapy, and many, many more. Numbers do not lie. Our American society has taken notice, which could potentially mean more necessary funding and research in the future of our industry, which has survived the test of time for thousands of years.
So, what's stopping you from taking the leap into expanding your career? You and your clientele are worth investing into for their bodies and the little ones growing inside of them. It is a precious thing, being able to take care of a woman with child. Enjoy the unyielding benefits that come from growing your prenatal practice.
Before I became a massage therapist, I trained as a doula and fell in love with all things pregnancy and birth. I was living in Ireland at the time, and then I spent two months volunteering as a doula in Honduras. In one town I taught childbirth education classes in Spanish, but in all three hospitals where I volunteered I offered labor and birth support. Sometimes I wondered how I could help when I myself hadn’t yet had children, but I quickly learned that it was all about being a quiet presence and supporting the birthing woman’s own natural process. The following year I became licensed in massage and was excited to start working with prenatal clients. I noticed some of my co-workers at the spa hated getting booked prenatals, and I wondered why since I truly enjoyed the work. Over the years, chatting with colleagues helped me understand some of the things they didn’t enjoy about prenatal sessions: They hated massaging in side-lying position. They didn't like all the cushions. They fumbled with the draping. They were nervous they’d send their client into labor. (If only it was that easy!) THEIR bodies hurt giving the massage. In the beginning of my career I definitely felt physically uncomfortable giving some prenatal massages, like if my table wasn’t the correct height or my client’s back wasn’t close to the edge of the table. Sometimes I would contort my body to give what I thought was a good therapeutic massage. As I deepened my Thai massage practice, I noticed my body started feeling so much better than it ever had before. Working on a mat on the floor allowed me to use more of my body during the session and to deepen the work without having to overexert myself. One of my Thai massage teachers, Homprang Chaleekanha, says in her classes that when giving the massage stops feeling good for the practitioner, the work stops being therapeutic for the client. When I was pregnant with my daughter I received a Thai massage, but it was a bit too intense. The stretches went too far, the compressions too deep, and I felt very protective of my low back. After that, I assumed Thai massage was just something you couldn’t get when you were pregnant. In 2022 and 2023 I went to Thailand to study womblifting with Homprang, whom I first studied with in 2019. She taught us how to make herbal poultices and use them during the treatments in a traditional way. (I wish I could heat clay pots over an open fire in my treatment room!) Although womblifting is totally contraindicated during pregnancy, I learned so much about the approach of working with women where one of my jobs as the therapist is to nurture and support. Attending that training was deeply healing for myself after having had my first baby a couple years prior. Women need special attention in the prenatal and postpartum periods, and I love learning different holistic ways I can offer that. Over the years, I started feeling much more confident doing Thai sessions with pregnant clients. I realized those sessions aren’t (only) about what not to do in terms of stretches and compressions, but how to nurture the pregnant woman with oils, gentle focused stretching, and warm herbal poultices. Although experiencing pregnancy is ABSOLUTELY not necessary to be able to give a wonderful prenatal Thai massage, I made note of the various changes my own body had made during pregnancy to help customize each and every session. Listening to the cues my clients' bodies give before and during the massage always helps me learn something new with each treatment. Some of my favorite sessions to give are prenatal Thai massages! I love mixing the herbal blends, filling the treatment room with the sweet floral aromas before the client arrives, and creating an environment where the client can truly tune in with her body and relax mentally. Giving prenatal Thai massage on a mat allows for much more room for cushions and for the client to rest comfortably however she wants. The steamed herbal poultices are a soothing extension of my hands…not to mention MY hands feel amazing while working with the herbs. As one of my clients once put it, receiving a prenatal Thai massage is like taking a nap in a warm cup of herbal tea! I’m excited to teach Thai Prenatal Herbal Poultice Massage to therapists so we can help more pregnant women experience this deep and nourishing relaxation!
Discover the often-overlooked iliopsoas muscle and how it contributes to chronic low back pain, mobility issues, and postural imbalances. Learn why modern therapists must understand this key muscle and join us for Iliopsoas Mastery—a trauma-informed, neuromuscular, and Thai massage workshop designed to address pain at its root.
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