Pregnancy Relaxation Massage

Giving your partner a prenatal massage can help her relax while pregnant and when she goes into labor. These easy techniques can be used throughout pregnancy and in the delivery room to relieve stress and ease tense and tired muscles.

 

 

Hair strokes: So partners, one of the first techniques that you can use is just some light hair, scalp stroking. Start where the hair meets the forehead and just slowly stroke back. Using breath as your guide, taking a deep breath in and having mom take a deep breath in too. Working your way down the hairline towards the ears. I like to go about 3 to 5 strokes in each spot. That can be really soothing. Then you can start to work your way down to the face. Put your fingers right in between her brow bone and start to pull back as well. This can be very soothing and you can either go to the hairline or through the hair. And mom, how does that feel? Which one do you like better?

 

Face relaxation: The next technique, partners, that you can use is just starting at the temples, doing slow strokes. Thoughtful circles. Again, having mom take a nice deep breath in and out. And you can breathe with her too. Going up to the forehead. Now working your way just down the face, making sure to hit the jaw joint. The joints can become a little bit more sore and tender throughout pregnancy, so it's really nice to give a little attention there.

 

Arm strokes: Moving down the body, we can do some light strokes on the arm. I'm just going to start at the neck and slowly stroke down the arm, and make sure you caress all of the joints, that it has a nice continuity to it, and it's very soothing.

 

Arm & hand squeeze: One other techniques, partners, that you can use that's just very easy, is just light squeezing along the arm, starting at the top. One hand on each side of the arm and just squeezing all the way down through each joint. Mom is taking nice deep breaths in. Partners, make sure that you squeeze each individual finger. Using a nice 2-to-3-second squeeze as your guide.