Couples Massage After Birth: Fostering the Bond Between Mom, Dad, and Baby

A couples massage after the birth of your first baby is an amazing way to foster the bond between the three members of your family. Although the baby will most likely not be present, the bonding between new mom and dad in a couples massage will be invaluable for your family.

It has been shown in numerous studies that massage therapy stimulates the release of oxytocin, which is a hormone that helps with bonding. Since new fathers do not have the benefit of lactating, thus producing this hormone themselves, couples massage can take the place of this natural event that occurs in the mother’s life for the new father.

However, massage’s bonding benefits are more than hormonal, as humans are themselves multi-dimensional beings. In addition to the hormonal changes that occur, simply relaxing and being together in the same room also fosters closeness and bonding. And, as would seem obvious, if the mom and dad are strongly bonded, then the baby will find it easier to bond with both of them.

Returning to the hormonal changes that occur, it will also be easier for the mother and baby to bond during nursing because the release of oxytocin causes lactation and bonding in the new mother. Most often, it is the new mother who is in need of help with lactation, since her body may not be producing enough of this new hormone that has never been needed before.

So for women who are having difficulty producing enough milk, this type of post partum couples massage may be ideal. It is a much more relaxing and bonding experience to have a massage session, even a post natal massage session, with your loved one. Then the two of you can return to your new jobs as parents of a brand new baby with freshness, ready and able to provide the nurturing care that this new little one needs.

For more information about our couples massage services, or to book an appointment, please click here.
A couples massage after the birth of your first baby is an amazing way to foster the bond between the three members of your family. Although the baby will most likely not be present, the bonding between new mom and dad in a couples massage will be invaluable for your family.

It has been shown in numerous studies that massage therapy stimulates the release of oxytocin, which is a hormone that helps with bonding. Since new fathers do not have the benefit of lactating, thus producing this hormone themselves, couples massage can take the place of this natural event that occurs in the mother’s life for the new father.

However, massage’s bonding benefits are more than hormonal, as humans are themselves multi-dimensional beings. In addition to the hormonal changes that occur, simply relaxing and being together in the same room also fosters closeness and bonding. And, as would seem obvious, if the mom and dad are strongly bonded, then the baby will find it easier to bond with both of them.

Returning to the hormonal changes that occur, it will also be easier for the mother and baby to bond during nursing because the release of oxytocin causes lactation and bonding in the new mother. Most often, it is the new mother who is in need of help with lactation, since her body may not be producing enough of this new hormone that has never been needed before.

So for women who are having difficulty producing enough milk, this type of post partum couples massage may be ideal. It is a much more relaxing and bonding experience to have a massage session, even a post natal massage session, with your loved one. Then the two of you can return to your new jobs as parents of a brand new baby with freshness, ready and able to provide the nurturing care that this new little one needs.

For more information about our couples massage services, or to book an appointment, please click here.

Massage Therapist as First-Line Health Advocate: Trained in Observing Signs of Pathology, Therapists Notice And Report Health Issues Before Anyone

Massage Therapists, whether employed in a spa setting, or working with a mobile company like ours, are an invaluable part of your health care team. Chances are, if you are a regular massage therapy client, you see the massage therapist more than your doctor. And of course, that's a good thing, indicative of even better things! As a result, your Massage Therapist may be the first health care professional to observe and report to you that something might be of issue.

Of course, a Massage Therapist is not a doctor, and isn't qualified to make diagnoses. If your therapist is doing this, it might be a good idea to start looking now for someone new, and quickly. Massage Therapist training includes a lengthy module on Pathology. This includes identifying all sorts of skin issues, from tinea to melanoma. And that's important, because a massage therapist, working on a client's back every two weeks, can easily be the only one in that person's life in a position to notice changes in a mole on a client's back.

Please click here to continue reading this blog post

Post-natal Massage: Helping to Restore Your Flatter Tummy

Most women who have had their first child are very disappointed with the speed at which their stomach returns to normal. In a normal situation, the stomach starts to flatten in a couple of weeks, and becomes more or less normal in a few months or more. I say more or less because without certain interventions, the tummy will not return to completely normal.


The interventions that I am mentioning specifically relates to reconditioning of the rectus abdominis so that it joins together again. Most women are not aware that the main muscle in the center of the stomach, the rectus abdominis, actually splits in half during pregnancy. If it did not split in half, it would become stretched and distended, thus becoming non-functional after the baby was born. Instead, our intelligent bodies preserve the form of the rectus abdominis by splitting it right in half down the middle, and sending half to one side of the body and the other half to the other side of the body.


Please click here to read the rest of this blog

Pre-Natal Massage: Preparing For A Natural Healthy Birth With Fewer Complications

It has been reported many times in the past few years that women in New Jersey have among the highest rates of cesarean sections in the country. For many women who have become pregnant, this is an alarming fact. It is sometimes a statistic that they do not want to add to. It has also become known in recent years that cesarean sections are not the best way for a woman to give birth. It is a major surgery that is, usually, not life threatening. However, there are many risks that are associated with it that can become life threatening. Some of the risks that are involved with a c-section are outlined in this excellent article that can be accessed by clicking here.


However, there is also a much longer post-partum recovery period simply due to the fact that she has just undergone a major surgical procedure. Pregnancy massage has been studied with regard to natural birth complications, with positive findings being reported by the Touch Research Institute. Fewer complications often mean a better chance of completing a natural, rather than a surgical, birth.

After you have given birth, the long sleepless nights begin. Along with that, if you are nursing, the neck and shoulder pains from long nursing times also begin. This is certainly not the ideal time to be recovering from a major operation. Many people do not realize that a c-section is a major operation simply because it is so common. There are some women who even have a scheduled c-section around their due date, and arrive in the hospital to deliver their baby on their own schedule.

As with everything else, every person has their own decisions to make for their own body and life. For some women, childbirth is a natural end to the pregnancy. More and more women are choosing to have their child in a safe environment with a midwife, a doula, and very often, a pre-natal and post-natal massage therapist. Other research by the Touch Research Institute has concluded that receiving pre-natal massage can help labor go more quickly and more smoothly, which is a very desirable outcome. Considering the recent rise in popularity of doulas and midwives, it is possible that the statistics mentioned above with regard to c-sections will change in the next few years.

Undoubtedly, there are situations where a c-section is absolutely necessary, and where not performing one might lead to the death of the child. Situations such as placenta previa, where the placenta blocks the passage to the birth canal, might necessitate a c-section. However, many midwives are experienced in restoring a natural birth situation even when conditions exist where a physician would normally call for a c-section.

Perhaps it is not well-known, but I have known many pregnant women who have given birth to breech babies under a midwife’s care without the need for surgery. Nuchal cord babies have also been safely naturally birthed with a midwife’s care. A nuchal cord birth occurs when the umbilical cord is wrapped around the baby’s neck. A good midwife will begin the natural birth, and when the head appears, quickly and deftly unwrap the cord, thus saving the infant from asphyxiation. These types of situations are covered in the training that a midwife receives, and experience and intuition also help the midwife to know what to do in these types of situations.

Many women who are interested in having a midwife are also referred to a pre-natal massage therapist, and may also have a massage therapist present during the labor and birth itself. In this case, the therapist may be able to help with the pain of labor, reduce the stress of labor, assist with the process of labor with certain acupressure techniques, and provide emotional support to the new mother as she gives birth to her child. Then, of course, continuing with massage therapy in post-natal treatments after the birth is always a wise decision. Other blogs on this site have discussed the benefits of post-natal massage therapy in great detail.

For more information on pre-natal massage therapy, please visit our website by clicking here.

Massage For Children: Even Younger Kids Get Stressed

Children's massage is not at all a new development, though it is not nearly as popular in the US as it is worldwide. In many traditional cultures, massage for children is commonplace and nearly ubiquitous, such as is the case in India. The most common reaction to the idea that Pediatric Massage helps children ease stress is the notion that kids live stress-free lives. Nothing is further from the truth, and those of us with good memory recall can remember just how stressful childhood was.

Even in a well-adjusted child, living in a caring family, there is opportunity for stress. As "grown-ups", we tend to patronize children, insisting that playing with Babies can't be quite so stressful, and "real" stress begins with having a job and family - real responsibilities! However, such an idea is actually insulting to kids' real experiences, as it is a well known fact among those studying child development that kids get stressed too.


Click here to read more...


(C) Copyright 2013 H Miller, NJMassage.Info, All Rights Reserved.

Lymph Drainage Massage To Boost Your Immunity This Winter

Lymph drainage massage therapy is one of the most widely studied and accepted forms of massage therapy. It is often recommended by doctors to their patients to help boost their immunity, as well as for cancer patients to help reduce surgical scarring in their lymph nodes.

Mobile lymph drainage massage therapy is provided in the home, and usually requires several treatments for the entire body. In many cases, especially where lymphedema is involved, the part of the body that is affected by the edema will be focused on first.

Since it is a slow and gentle form of massage, it will feel very different from other types of massage therapy that the recipient may be familiar with. There is no deep pressure involved, and in fact the amount of pressure used is on the scale of two to four grams. There are scientific reasons for this low pressure, having to do with the lymph channels that are close to the skin. When too much pressure is used, lymph drainage massage does not serve to move the lymph correctly.

The way in which mobile lymph drainage massage aids in increasing immune function, effectively boosting the immunity, is that it opens the channels of lymph flow. This allows waste products to be effectively removed from the lymph system by emptying into the appropriate ducts, to be removed from the body. When the waste products are removed, the sluggish immune system will become less sluggish, and will be cleaner, thus more able to remove more waste from the system.

When lymph is allowed to stagnate, especially where there is lymphedema that is an indication of waste accumulation. Just as a car’s engine will not perform properly when there is waste in the system, so the human body does not perform properly when waste does not exit the system. Similar to an oil change, lymph drainage mobile massage can help to move the waste out of the body, creating a better internal environment.

This internal environment is then more able to handle the new toxins, bacteria, and viruses that never stop entering the body from the environment. A clean lymph system will be more able to fight infection as well, since the lymph nodes are the accumulation points where bacteria and viruses are trapped while the white blood cells work to neutralize and consume them.

Lymph drainage mobile massage is an excellent way to boost your immunity during this winter season. To learn more about lymph drainage mobile massage, or to book an appointment, please visit our website by clicking here.

Pre-Natal Massage: Preparing for the Rigors of Labor

Most women who have gone through the rigors of pregnancy and childbirth are familiar with the aches and pains that become a normal part of life afterward. For many women, for example, lower back pain starts during or after the birth of their first child. Neck and hip pain is also common during and after pregnancy.

This is why it is so important for women to have a pre-natal massage before they have given birth. Not only can it help reduce the aches and pains associated with the pregnancy, but it can also help to condition the mom-to-be for the rigorous activity that is childbirth. As the child is brought into the world, many muscles that have never been used are activated for the first time ever.

Uterine muscles, whose sole purpose is to birth a child, will suddenly become extremely active, as the new baby is pushed out of the womb. The activity is strenuous, as the muscles must contract forcefully enough to be successful in pushing the new baby into the world. This leads very often to fatigue in these very muscles, which most women have never noticed or knew they had. So there will now be new pains in places that were not ever an issue before.

Pre-natal massage can help to reduce some of this future pain, with gentle and careful abdominal massage, as well as other techniques. Some pre-natal massage therapists can assist with helping the mom-to-be relax the muscles in the pelvic floor region, thereby allowing the muscles of the uterus to be assisted and not have to push so hard. When the pelvic floor is relaxed, there will be less force needed to push the baby out. This is undoubtedly an overlooked benefit of pre-natal massage for new moms.

Other benefits include overall relaxation, reduction in some lower back pain and shoulder pain, as well as postural guidance by a pre-natal certified massage therapist.

If you would like more information on pre-natal massage therapy, please visit our website by clicking here.