Motherhood

Preparing for birth with pregnancy massage and supportive positions for labour as well as teaching breathing exercises, guided relaxation & perineal massage can help the expectant mother to feel strong and confident about her own ability to birth her baby.

Pregnancy massage involves a full body massage adapted for the pregnant person with side lying positions on the massage couch. It is deeply nurturing and relaxing and can help numerous pregnancy-related symptoms. It can be given in the 2nd and 3rd trimesters of pregnancy right up to and during the labour and birth of the baby, adapting positions as the pregnancy progresses.

Specific safe and gentle aromatherapy oils can be used or gentle herbal infused oils to apply the massage.

Cost: £95.00 90mins

New Motherhood is also now known as a time called ‘Matrescense’. This can be a stressful time with many physical, emotional and spiritual changes going on for the mother and women need support and care to be able to take on the new challenges of parenthood while recovering from birth. Having someone to talk to about feelings and struggles can be very beneficial in combination with nurturing touch, massage and ritual to help this transition. New mothers often feel overwhelmed by anxiety, feelings of apprehension and suffer from sleepless nights, have difficulty in concentrating and can have a whole range of physical complaints and muscle tension from difficult labours and long hours of feeding their baby. This is not uncommon but if left without support, maternal anxiety can quickly slip into depression and have a significant impact on the mother now and in the longer term as well as having an impact on her baby. 

Being Massaged teaches Mums the importance of self-care over time and it allows Dad’s much needed time alone to bond with their newborn while Mum enjoys a Massage. It promotes emotional well-being and reduces anxiety. It creates space to unwind, relax and restore lost energy. It promotes rest, recovery and healing and gives tired new Mums a break. 

Postpartum Massage can be given as soon as you feel you need it postpartum. Allow 6 weeks healing post c-section prior to receiving a massage. 

Massage, Gentle Touch & Movement, Aromatherapy, Listening & bearing witness to the new mother’s journey, providing support ed with ancient healing rituals post birth can help the Mum come home to herself. This enables her to feel contained and to have her own cup refilled so that she can contain and nurture her baby more easily.

Cost: £95.00 90mins

A closing ritual is a treatment ceremony originating in Ecuador given to new mothers. Traditionally women are given a massage within hours of the birth and receive it again at least 5 or 6 times during the first 40 days postpartum.

The massage stimulates blood flow which in turn cleans, moves fluid, hormones, supports the immune system and tones muscles and tissues. In traditional, indigenous cultures, the first 40 days of the postpartum period represents a sacred time of healing and recovery for the mother and baby.

The treatment includes gentle rocking, otherwise known as ‘Hipping’ with a Rebozo shawl or any traditional long shawl and with essential oils the belly and hips are massaged. The neck and shoulders, arms and hands can also be massaged to encourage blood flow, lymphatic drainage, prevent blocked milk ducts, relieve carpal tunnel syndrome as well as the back ensuring support for the chest while the mother lies on her front.

The body is then wrapped in several shawls and singing, poetry, sound and drumming is played. The ceremony acknowledges the spiritual opening of the woman at birth in that it gathers her physically and energetically ‘back together’. Women often say they feel more together somehow after the treatment. In the Maya tradition, it is said that during birth, the mother goes looking for the soul of her baby in the astral world to help bring it forth to earth and this ceremony helps bring the woman back home to herself after the difficult and challenging journey of birth.

The Ritual was brought to the UK by Rocio Alarcon, an Ecuadorian Midwife, Shamen and Ethnobotanist. The Ritual can be used to mark times of great upheaval and change and can be performed on women many years following the birth of their child. 

Allow 6-8 weeks following a c-section prior to the treatment.

Cost: £110 120mins

This involves carrying out a maternal mental health assessment where I ask some questions using evidence-based tools for postpartum anxiety and depression if your baby is under 1 year old. Generalised Anxiety Disorder 7 – item (GAD – 7) which is a self-report questionnaire that assesses the severity of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) along with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Score (EPDS) a questionnaire developed to identify possible symptoms of depression in the postnatal period. It also has adequate sensitivity and specificity to identify depressive symptoms in the antenatal period and is useful in identifying symptoms of anxiety also.

The City Birth Trauma Screening Tool can also be used to assess if a woman is experiencing the impact of a traumatic birth. Based on these assessment tools, the client may be advised to see their GP in addition to receiving Complementary Therapy support.

Cost: £60 50mins

This is a safe space where you can identify and validate your feelings around pregnancy, birth and post-partum experiences. It offers an opportunity to reflect on the life changing transition to motherhood and everything that goes with it. Being able to talk about your experiences and feel heard, allows you to process what you have gone through and can help build confidence as a new mother navigating the fourth trimester and beyond. All feelings and emotions are welcome in this space and support is on hand to help you reflect, reframe and redefine your experiences. Active Listening and Behavioural Activation as well as Motivational Interviewing and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Skills are used as needed to support you in coping with your experiences. 

Cost: £60 50mins

Postpartum depression and anxiety are very common disorders affecting as many as 1 in 6 new mothers. Postpartum depression and anxiety can be effectively treated with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with or without medication. CBT is a useful technique that can help you to find new ways of thinking and help you to see things in a more positive way. Sessions are offered weekly for 6-8 weeks. I will work with you to develop a pregnancy/postpartum wellbeing plan and encourage you to keep a journal.

I will also provide you with breathing techniques to help you to relax, guided imagery visualisation and gentle yoga techniques for calming the nervous system and strengthening your mindset. I will also support you with Aromatic oils and recommend specific Bach Flower Remedies for emotional support. Sometimes sessions may be held in nature as a walk n talk session.

Cost: £60 50mins

This theoretical model is underpinned by neuroscience on baby brain development. This approach involves psychoanalytic theory (containment), child development theory (Reciprocity) and behaviour theory (behaviour management). I support new parents to understand their emotional communications without feeling overwhelmed by them, restoring their capacity to think about situations and their ability to process their emotions. Part of this approach is helping the parent to understand the sophisticated interactions between them and their baby involving initiation, regulation and end of interactions where the parent is sensitive to the needs and feelings of the baby and responds to the baby and noticing how the baby responds back. I support parents to place reasonable boundaries around their child’s behaviour to learn self-control while encouraging the child with attention and rewards. This allows the child to gradually internalise both restraints and satisfactions and facilitates learning and development. 

Three Key questions are used with this approach including - 

What is the age and stage of the child’s development? 

What changes have occurred in the child’s life, however small? 

How well is the child able to communicate their needs to you? 

Often parents begin to feel contained, less overwhelmed and more in tune to the needs and communications of their baby due to working with this approach.

Cost: £60 50mins

There are numerous benefits of baby massage for parents and infants ranging from improving infant weight gain, strengthening bonding, improved infant sleep, bolstered infant immunity, easing teething pain, comforts infants with colic, accelerates infant brain development, prevents jaundice, aids digestion and improves circulation. The baby massage techniques are taught to parents and their babies over 6 weeks. I will demonstrate the strokes on a doll and parents will massage their own babies. Classes and one to one sessions are available. Baby Massage can be taught from 6 weeks to crawling.

Cost: £45 50mins

Aromatherapy is a gentle healing therapy for a wide range of common ailments in babies, children and adolescents. Used safely, Aromatherapy can help children feel calmer, sleep better, reduce nausea, discomfort and pain. It can bring relief from coughs and colds, common childhood infections, help adolescents with skin problems and exam stress, and support children with ASD and ADHD. Aromatherapy blends can be administered in lower dilutions for younger children and can be given in a massage, a bath, an inhalation, a roller ball or inhaler stick or a room diffuser. Get in touch if you would like to discuss how Aromatherapy could support your child’s health and wellbeing.

90min Treatments £95

60min Treatments £70

45min Treatments £50