Massage is believed to make you relax, not only your body but also your soul. During pregnancy, feeling sored and tired are normal because the weight mother should carry will progressively increase day by day. The unbalance hormonal condition could affect the mood as well. That is why massage during pregnancy is essential.
Is Massage during Pregnancy Safe?
However, the big question is whether massage during pregnancy is safe or not. The fact is, if the purpose of the massage is only to relax the mother is safe and should be conducted by professional only. Conducting massage even in the third trimester is quite safe with one condition that the massage is only conducted in the back area, feet or head. Avoid the stomach area is a must. Actually, there are a lot of benefits of massage during pregnancy third trimester, that is why in some cases, conducting it is very essential and recommended.
Benefits of Massage during Pregnancy Third Trimester
When a mother reach the third trimester, the weight mother should bring every day is significantly increased because the expecting time is getting closer. The baby inside the womb in this stage will actively move to find the right position and sometime, during the process will make mother super uncomfortable. Doing massage during pregnancy in this stage is recommended and below are the benefits of massage during pregnancy third trimester, every mother should aware.
- Solution to Back-Pain
Back pain is almost normal to be suffered by mothers during pregnancy. The weight in the womb will affect the back and spine. Sometimes mothers should deal with it without consuming pain killer because it could put the fetus in danger. That is why massage may bring more benefits in this matter.
- Reduces the Muscular Spasm
Not only the back and spine, muscular spasm is also normal during pregnancy. The cause is the same due to the weight in the womb that is increasing every day until the due date. The muscular spasm is commonly occurring in leg and feet. It is quite safe to massage leg and feet to help relieving and reducing the muscular spasm.
- Increases Flexibility
Most mothers during pregnancy should limit their movement for the sake of the safety of the baby. However, this condition may lead to inflexibility of some muscles. Doing the massage to the inflexibility muscles could help increasing the flexibility. The result is not only the range of motion is increased but also balance and body posture.
- Relieves Stress
There are a lot of factors why pregnant mothers are easily affecting by stress from hormonal condition, morning sickness, unsupported environment and many more. However, massage could help relieving stress because untreated stress during pregnancy could lead to more serious condition like symptoms of depression and post-partum depression well known as baby blue.
- Improves Mood
From the previous point, you could see that pregnant mothers are easily affecting by mood swing. Maintaining the mood is essential during pregnancy. Among the amazing benefits of massage, massage could improve mood. The effect is really significant because a good mood could affect the mother in positive way as well as the baby so the development could be optimized.
- Acts as Immunity Booster
Believe it or not but massage could stimulate some hormones inside the body to work optimally and the effect is immunity system becomes better. During pregnancy is important to find a solid way to maintain the immunity booster because even a simple flu could be fatal for both the baby and the mother.
- Relieves Tension
Tension in the back, hip and especially legs could be super annoying especially at night. During pregnancy, though limited, mothers should have normal activities because movement could help stimulating the optimal development of the fetus. However, due to those activities, mothers are suffering tension in those three parts of the body. Massage is the only natural way to deal with them
- May Reduce Headache and Migraine
There are a lot of factors that could cause headache and migraine but during pregnancy, the factors may increase but the solution is decrease. During pregnancy you cannot just consume pain killer because the chemical compounds may affect the fetus. The only option is by doing massage because there are a lot of benefits of massage for tension headache.
- Reduces Fatigue
Fatigue in normal condition could be the strong indication that your body is in problem. During pregnancy, fatigue is considered as normal though it is not something you could take for granted as well. Massage is excellent way to reduce fatigue because mostly fatigue caused by slow blood circulation that normal to happen during pregnancy.
- Increases Blood Circulation
As mentioned in the previous point, blood circulation may be affected during pregnancy due to the limited activities of the mother. Muscular spasm is one of the factors that may slow down the blood circulation. To deal with it, a simple tension massage in the back or leg may help increasing the blood circulation and some problems like fatigue and tension will be eliminated.
- Reduces Anxiety
Anxiety during pregnancy could be produced by the low level of oxygen in the blood. That condition happens when there is disturbance with the blood circulation. There are a lot of essential benefits of oxygen, not only anxiety condition like fatigue, nausea even vomiting well known as morning sickness are symptoms that normally occur when your body is lacking of oxygen.
- Improves Sleep Habit
It is important to have a normal sleeping habit during pregnancy because during sleeping, mothers could have a rest they really need. However, most mothers find it difficult to have a good night sleep during pregnancy, especially when they have reached the third trimester. Massage is one of the highly recommended solutions to help improving a good sleeping habit during pregnancy.
Cautions of Massage during Pregnancy Third Trimester
There are a lot of types of massage and benefits of full body massage but mothers should be super careful when choosing it while pregnant. Choosing the professional who is specifically well-trained to massage during pregnancy is highly recommended. More cautions you should aware as below:
- Stomach area is forbidden to be massaged. The effect could be fatal because could stimulate premature birth.
- The choice and health benefits of oil massage is also essential. During pregnancy, mothers should avoid using all kinds of stuff containing chemical content that may put the fetus in danger. There are a lot of health benefits of oil massage for pregnancy but only the natural one is recommended.
- You should aware with your current condition first before decided to conduct massage. It is better to discuss this matter with your doctor first.
It is even better if your doctor could recommend a professional to do the massage; the one who has experiences to do massage for mothers during pregnancy.