Supporting pregnancy with massage and shiatsu

Introduction from your tutor

Welcome to the course. I hope you enjoying learning with me, Suzanne Yates, founder of Wellmother and author of your course book “Pregnancy and childbirth: a holistic approach to massage and body work”.

I’ve set this course up so it is relevant for anyone who works in a hands on way with pregnant clients. I cover the essentials that any bodyworker needs to know such as the main changes in the body during pregnancy, positioning, postural assessment, exercise and visualisations, working with higher risk clients. Some of the techniques are more massage based and other more shiatsu based, but I present them in a way that you can choose which approach works with your skill set.

These days, awareness of fertility and assisted conception is important, but that merits a whole course. However I include some detail here. It is also of course important to know something about birth and the postnatal period too, but again that is too much to cover in one course, although again I give some ideas of how to work during these times.

For the theory aspects and even the exercises and visualisations, in some ways an on line course may be better than an in person course. You have time to repeat and review. You can chose the time which suits you best to study.

Regarding the practical techniques: please be aware that these are suggestions only. I feel that an on line course without any face to face teaching can not fully equip you to assimilate the less familiar techniques into your practice. I can offer individual feedback through videos and individual face to face sessions. I also run a 4 day in person version of this course (two versions: one geared for massage therapists and one for shiatsu therapists). In order to fully embrace working with pregnant clients, you will need some individual feedback on the practical aspects.

I hope that by doing this course, however, you will get more out of attending a more practically focused course. It can also be a good way to get you started on your work in the maternity field.

I hope this course inspires you to want to work more with pregnant women. It is such an important time :  not only for the mother but perhaps even more so for the baby.

It is an on going study: there is always more to learn. If you are new to the field, and especially if you have not been pregnant yourself, then you are at the beginning of a learning curve. You can use this course to refer back to you as you start working more with pregnant women. I am still learning even after having started studying shiatsu and massage over 30 years ago!

First exercise:

Take a moment to reflect on where you are at with your work with pregnant women. Is it new to you? Have you already worked for a while but feel there is more you could do? Reflect on what you would like to learn by the end of this course.  Come back to this at the end of the course and compare!

How the course is structured:

The course is set up with 8 lessons. You can chose where you want to start and you can go back and forward between the topics. In each lesson there a mix of topics: videos, audios and text documents. At the end of each lesson is a quiz to check your learning and an assignment, which is either doing and recording some practical work, or a reflective piece. You can work through these lessons and the assignments at your own pace. Once you have completed all the topics and assignments you receive a certificate.

I have given an indication of length of video, audio and an average reading time for the text documents.

Total length of time for the course is 12 hours of course materials, plus whatever time you spend on including any personal exercise practice or working with friends or clients.

Don’t forget you can post comments at the end of each page. You can also email me for clarification. I occasionally offer live sessions to support the course which you can upgrade to.

Enjoy

Suzanne

Regarding language and using the term “mother”

I am aware that there is discussion around the use of “mother”  out of respect for transgender people who are pregnant. I am still pondering this. It is tricky since the name of my company is Wellmother! For the time being I use the term “mother” rather than “woman” to include anyone person who is carrying and nurturing a baby. I see mother as a broad term which includes male and female and Yin and Yang. We refer to the earth as Mother earth and the Sun as father sky. In this sense mother is a more Yin energy and father a more Yang energy. People can be both Yin and Yang. Please let me know your thoughts.

Supporting material for all lessons

Main course book: Pregnancy and childbirth: a holistic approach to massage and body work.