Post-Natal Massage: The Many Benefits of A Post-Natal Series

As women from India have long realized, post-natal massage is totally essential to every woman. In India, massage therapists travel to the home of the new mom to provide massage therapy every couple of days for several weeks after she has had her child. This helps the new mom in a variety of ways.

First, and perhaps most importantly, massage can help the new mom produce enough milk. Very often, when it is a woman’s first child, her body is not capable of producing enough milk. This often leads to supplementation with store bought formula, since regardless of the mom’s capacity to produce; the infant’s needs are ever present. So, to avoid this, post-natal massage can help the mother’s body to produce more oxytocin. This hormone is responsible for stimulating the production of milk, so this can help to increase the amount of milk she is producing.

Second, this same hormone stimulation is well known for facilitating the bonding between the mother and her new baby. It is the bonding hormone, in addition to being the milk production hormone. Every new mom should have at least one post-natal massage session to help her body adjust to its new job of producing milk for the newborn.

A third benefit of post-natal massage is in reducing the amount of stretch marks, and the severity thereof. While one massage may not help much in this area, several massages over the course of the few weeks following birth can have a significant effect on stretch marks. Massage helps restore the skin to normal, and helps bring blood flow to the skin of the abdomen, conditioning it and restoring its suppleness and flexibility.

There are several other helpful benefits of post-natal massage that are only available when a trained certified massage therapist provides it. Restoring the uterus to its proper place in the abdomen is one of the most crucial benefits. If the uterus is not restored to its proper place, the abdomen will never return to its prior shape. Other massage techniques can be applied at the abdomen to help it return to its normal size and shape. All of these techniques are best applied by a certified peri-natal massage therapist, to have the best result.

There are other benefits of post-natal massage, many of which are enumerated in studies that can be found on our massage benefits page, linked to by clicking here. If you would like more information on post-natal massage, or to book an appointment, please click here to visit our website.