Pregnancy Massage Survey

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Rebecca Overson on March 8, 2010 at 2:39pm

Rick, is there another national association for pregnancy massage? I've seen them quoted in old articles but nothing on the web comes up... at least not that I can see.... just curious if you know anything about that.

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Permalink Reply by Rebecca Overson on March 8, 2010 at 2:46pm

This was a question posed in an earlier thread:
"But I am curious why you feel advanced certification is warranted. Why not push to have this valuable information in basic training?"


I have thought about this too.... and here's my thoughts on it - around here (Salt Lake City, Utah) there are a several massage schools within a 20 mile radius. The two that I am well-acquainted with only include pregnancy massage as part of their "Survey of Bodywork Modalities" courses - in other words, it gets covered in one 2-hour class - along with infant massage.Having taught several of these classes myself, I would have to argue that this is nowhere near enough time to cover what a prenatal practitioner needs to know. (I tell my students that, too - that this is a crash course should they ever happen to encounter a pregnant client). The "average" person doesn't know a whole lot about the physiology of pregnancy, which I personally feel is important to know. It's hard to teach that to students that don't want to really know about it, and I think that's why most schools (that i am aware of) have a similar approach to prenatal massage - they only touch on it, like an Intro course, and then offer advanced certification.

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Permalink Reply by Susan G. Salvo on March 8, 2010 at 3:26pm

How many hours of pregnancy massage do you recommend schools teach?

Pregnancy massage is included in most, if not all, entry level massage textbooks.

And pregnant clients do come through our student clinics. I'm sure that is true for most schools.

Pregnancy is regarded as a normal life stage and not a pathologic condition (unless abnormalities exist and then modifications are needed as they are with ANY client, pregnant or not).

Does anyone feel that therapists should avoid pregnant women unless post-graduate hours are obtained?

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Permalink Reply by Rebecca Overson on March 8, 2010 at 6:44pm

Susan G. Salvo said:

How many hours of pregnancy massage do you recommend schools teach?

Pregnancy massage is included in most, if not all, entry level massage textbooks.

And pregnant clients do come through our student clinics. I'm sure that is true for most schools.

Pregnancy is regarded as a normal life stage and not a pathologic condition (unless abnormalities exist and then modifications are needed as they are with ANY client, pregnant or not).

Does anyone feel that therapists should avoid pregnant women unless post-graduate hours are obtained?

My response on Rick's survey was that I don't think most massage therapists can safely and confidently work on pregnant women without more than 2 hours of training (in my school's case) - unless the mom and babe are healthy and there are no other medical or special considerations. With some of the things I see on intake forms with my clients (who are all pregnant) I would be really nervous thinking that these women might find their way into a student clinic and a therapist would just move ahead doing massage in instances where they really ought to have medical clearance from the woman's care provider.

Now, granted, those are the exceptions, but when you work with pregnant women exclusively, you see all kinds of things :) Unless a student is well-versed in pregnancy, they may not know what to look for or what the meaning of certain terms are and may not have the confidence to ask or to tell a client who is standing there, ready for a massage, that they have a condition where it's actually not safe to proceed.

Again, that's going to be the exception, not the rule.

I think any massage therapist without extensive training will not likely seek out or feel comfortable working on pregnant women all the time, and will proceed with caution if they face a situation they are not confident with, which is prudent.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Morgan on March 8, 2010 at 7:43pm

There was one that I discovered when we were in conception . It existed a number of years ago but has since gone out of business. I don't know any of the details except it was based in Texas.

Rebecca Overson said:

Rick, is there another national association for pregnancy massage? I've seen them quoted in old articles but nothing on the web comes up... at least not that I can see.... just curious if you know anything about that.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Morgan on March 8, 2010 at 7:47pm

Hi Susan,
I will hold back my response until after the survey is complete. I don't want to steer the results in any way.

Susan G. Salvo said:

How many hours of pregnancy massage do you recommend schools teach?

Pregnancy massage is included in most, if not all, entry level massage textbooks.

And pregnant clients do come through our student clinics. I'm sure that is true for most schools.

Pregnancy is regarded as a normal life stage and not a pathologic condition (unless abnormalities exist and then modifications are needed as they are with ANY client, pregnant or not).

Does anyone feel that therapists should avoid pregnant women unless post-graduate hours are obtained?

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Permalink Reply by Susan G. Salvo on March 8, 2010 at 8:03pm

Thank Rick.

Again, I appreciate you bringing more attention to this important topic.

Rick Morgan said:

Hi Susan,
I will hold back my response until after the survey is complete. I don't want to steer the results in any way.

Susan G. Salvo said:

How many hours of pregnancy massage do you recommend schools teach?

Pregnancy massage is included in most, if not all, entry level massage textbooks.

And pregnant clients do come through our student clinics. I'm sure that is true for most schools.

Pregnancy is regarded as a normal life stage and not a pathologic condition (unless abnormalities exist and then modifications are needed as they are with ANY client, pregnant or not).

Does anyone feel that therapists should avoid pregnant women unless post-graduate hours are obtained?

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Permalink Reply by Susan G. Salvo on March 9, 2010 at 6:47am

AAHHHH, the question of confidence…

I struggled with this one as a student, then as a therapist, and now as an educator trying to instill confidence in my students.

In my humble opinion, confidence takes time.

No amount of hours in class will give it to you.

I wish it were that easy.

One of my instructors, Carol Kresge, said in class, “You know, it took me one year to build a clientele but 4 years to know what I was doing.” I jotted it down and read it often


Rebecca Overson said:

Susan G. Salvo said:

How many hours of pregnancy massage do you recommend schools teach?

Pregnancy massage is included in most, if not all, entry level massage textbooks.

And pregnant clients do come through our student clinics. I'm sure that is true for most schools.

Pregnancy is regarded as a normal life stage and not a pathologic condition (unless abnormalities exist and then modifications are needed as they are with ANY client, pregnant or not).

Does anyone feel that therapists should avoid pregnant women unless post-graduate hours are obtained?

My response on Rick's survey was that I don't think most massage therapists can safely and confidently work on pregnant women without more than 2 hours of training (in my school's case) - unless the mom and babe are healthy and there are no other medical or special considerations. With some of the things I see on intake forms with my clients (who are all pregnant) I would be really nervous thinking that these women might find their way into a student clinic and a therapist would just move ahead doing massage in instances where they really ought to have medical clearance from the woman's care provider.

Now, granted, those are the exceptions, but when you work with pregnant women exclusively, you see all kinds of things :) Unless a student is well-versed in pregnancy, they may not know what to look for or what the meaning of certain terms are and may not have the confidence to ask or to tell a client who is standing there, ready for a massage, that they have a condition where it's actually not safe to proceed.

Again, that's going to be the exception, not the rule.

I think any massage therapist without extensive training will not likely seek out or feel comfortable working on pregnant women all the time, and will proceed with caution if they face a situation they are not confident with, which is prudent.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Morgan on March 16, 2010 at 8:29am

To all those who have taken the Pregnancy Massage Survey, thank you! If you haven't yet, please do. We are very close to having enough responses to do some analysis and I can't wait to share the results. I know anyone who does pregnancy massage and isn't on the forum, share the link so they can do it too.

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Permalink Reply by Rebecca Overson on March 16, 2010 at 9:40am

That's a great quote, Susan!

I have just launched an internship program at my Center. I have four interns, all whom have taken a 24-36 hour course in prenatal massage, who will be working on pregnant clients under my supervision (mentorship). They are all looking forward to getting started. I will offer intern sessions at half my normal rate, so this will also be a nice thing for those who may not otherwise "afford" massage therapy during pregnancy.

To me, an internship/mentorship would have been so helpful - in ANY aspect of massage therapy - so I'm hoping increased confidence will be the outcome of this program!

Susan G. Salvo said:

AAHHHH, the question of confidence…

I struggled with this one as a student, then as a therapist, and now as an educator trying to instill confidence in my students.

In my humble opinion, confidence takes time.

No amount of hours in class will give it to you.

I wish it were that easy.

One of my instructors, Carol Kresge, said in class, “You know, it took me one year to build a clientele but 4 years to know what I was doing.” I jotted it down and read it often


Rebecca Overson said:

Susan G. Salvo said:

How many hours of pregnancy massage do you recommend schools teach?

Pregnancy massage is included in most, if not all, entry level massage textbooks.

And pregnant clients do come through our student clinics. I'm sure that is true for most schools.

Pregnancy is regarded as a normal life stage and not a pathologic condition (unless abnormalities exist and then modifications are needed as they are with ANY client, pregnant or not).

Does anyone feel that therapists should avoid pregnant women unless post-graduate hours are obtained?

My response on Rick's survey was that I don't think most massage therapists can safely and confidently work on pregnant women without more than 2 hours of training (in my school's case) - unless the mom and babe are healthy and there are no other medical or special considerations. With some of the things I see on intake forms with my clients (who are all pregnant) I would be really nervous thinking that these women might find their way into a student clinic and a therapist would just move ahead doing massage in instances where they really ought to have medical clearance from the woman's care provider.

Now, granted, those are the exceptions, but when you work with pregnant women exclusively, you see all kinds of things :) Unless a student is well-versed in pregnancy, they may not know what to look for or what the meaning of certain terms are and may not have the confidence to ask or to tell a client who is standing there, ready for a massage, that they have a condition where it's actually not safe to proceed.

Again, that's going to be the exception, not the rule.

I think any massage therapist without extensive training will not likely seek out or feel comfortable working on pregnant women all the time, and will proceed with caution if they face a situation they are not confident with, which is prudent.

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Permalink Reply by Susan G. Salvo on March 16, 2010 at 10:09am

Rebecca,

I love the idea of mentoring. I wish more therapists who possess specialized skills would do it.

Good luck with your program.

Rebecca Overson said:

That's a great quote, Susan!

I have just launched an internship program at my Center. I have four interns, all whom have taken a 24-36 hour course in prenatal massage, who will be working on pregnant clients under my supervision (mentorship). They are all looking forward to getting started. I will offer intern sessions at half my normal rate, so this will also be a nice thing for those who may not otherwise "afford" massage therapy during pregnancy.

To me, an internship/mentorship would have been so helpful - in ANY aspect of massage therapy - so I'm hoping increased confidence will be the outcome of this program!

Susan G. Salvo said:

AAHHHH, the question of confidence…

I struggled with this one as a student, then as a therapist, and now as an educator trying to instill confidence in my students.

In my humble opinion, confidence takes time.

No amount of hours in class will give it to you.

I wish it were that easy.

One of my instructors, Carol Kresge, said in class, “You know, it took me one year to build a clientele but 4 years to know what I was doing.” I jotted it down and read it often


Rebecca Overson said:

Susan G. Salvo said:

How many hours of pregnancy massage do you recommend schools teach?

Pregnancy massage is included in most, if not all, entry level massage textbooks.

And pregnant clients do come through our student clinics. I'm sure that is true for most schools.

Pregnancy is regarded as a normal life stage and not a pathologic condition (unless abnormalities exist and then modifications are needed as they are with ANY client, pregnant or not).

Does anyone feel that therapists should avoid pregnant women unless post-graduate hours are obtained?

My response on Rick's survey was that I don't think most massage therapists can safely and confidently work on pregnant women without more than 2 hours of training (in my school's case) - unless the mom and babe are healthy and there are no other medical or special considerations. With some of the things I see on intake forms with my clients (who are all pregnant) I would be really nervous thinking that these women might find their way into a student clinic and a therapist would just move ahead doing massage in instances where they really ought to have medical clearance from the woman's care provider.

Now, granted, those are the exceptions, but when you work with pregnant women exclusively, you see all kinds of things :) Unless a student is well-versed in pregnancy, they may not know what to look for or what the meaning of certain terms are and may not have the confidence to ask or to tell a client who is standing there, ready for a massage, that they have a condition where it's actually not safe to proceed.

Again, that's going to be the exception, not the rule.

I think any massage therapist without extensive training will not likely seek out or feel comfortable working on pregnant women all the time, and will proceed with caution if they face a situation they are not confident with, which is prudent.

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Permalink Reply by Robin Byler Thomas on March 16, 2010 at 2:51pm

Great way of handling mentoring Rebecca. How long will their internships last?

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