Massage, whether from a therapist or from your partner or a friend, can help alleviate many of the discomforts and make your pregnancy and delivery easier. A word of caution: BE VERY CAREFUL DURING THE FIRST TRIMESTER. Avoid deep abdominal and low back massage for those first three months.
After that period, you can have your whole body done. For the first few months, you can still have light massage for your whole back. You will probably still be comfortable lying on your front, but as soon as that becomes a problem, experiment with other positions.
When I am working with a pregnant woman, I pull out all the spare pillows I can put my hands on. I get her to lie on one side, with her top leg bent at hip and knee, and I put one pillow under that knee. She also gets a pillow for her head and another to rest her arm on or to hug against her chest. When she is quite comfortable, I am then able to massage most of her back and the top hip and buttock. Then she maneuvers herself over to the other side and I repeat the treatment. This way, she gets her entire back and both hips treated. Breast massage may also be part of the session to help relieve the heavy, full feeling many women experience with pregnancy. Massage improves circulation of blood and lymph, and helps keep the breasts healthy. I also encourage all my female clients to practise regular breast self-massage. For an excellent site on the how-to and why, go to http://medicinegarden.com/Library/Breast....
In addition to regular massage throughout pregnancy, massage during labor has been known to provide relief and a lessening of the pain. More and more massage therapists and hospitals are offering massage to laboring mothers. If you have the option, seize the opportunity, or take your labor partner to a class or two on labor massage. Also, check out my list of Pregnancy sites. The "Loving Pregnancy with Partner Massage" has some very good instructions on how your partner can provide massage. It might make all the difference in the world to you.
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