The Benefits of Reflexology During Pregnancy

During pregnancy your body is changing before your eyes. There is a lot of new information to take on board and lots of changes to cope with both mentally and physically.

Many clients have found that having regular reflexology during their pregnancy has been very beneficial to their overall wellbeing. Being able to support women with reflexology through their pregnancy an beyond is a wonderful experience and one I feel honoured to be part of.

Reflexology during pregnancy aims to optimise wellbeing and promote relaxation and stress reduction.

What the research says about reflexology and in pregnancy and the perinatal period

 – Two studies have shown that reflexology in pregnancy significantly reduced pain during labour (1, 2) and reduced the length of the first stage of labour (1).

 – One study showed improved quality of sleep in post-natal women (3)

 – One study showed that 6 weekly treatments of reflexology prior to giving birth on for women who experienced low back and/or pelvic girdle pain during their pregnancy significantly reduced the second stage of labour by 44.3 minutes (4).

 – Reduced pain and stress levels for women with low back pain or pelvic girdle pain (5)

 – Foot reflexology was found to have a positive effect in lowering the total anxiety scores of women in labour (6)

There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence of women benefitting from having reflexology during their pregnancy and their post-natal period and is an area for more research.

Post natal reflexology 

Many mums who have enjoyed reflexology during their pregnancy choose to continue with treatments after the baby’s arrival.

References

(1) Valiani M et al. (2010) Reviewing the effect of Reflexology on pain and outcomes of the labour of primiparous women. Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research. 15 (Dec) p302-310

(2) Iran Red Crescent Med J 2011; 13(7):475-479 ©Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal

(3) Lic Y C et al (2011) Randomised controlled trial of the effectiveness of using foot reflexology to improve quality of sleep amongst postpartum women. Midwifery. 27. p181-186

(4) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29024881

(5) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29705485

(6) The Effect of Foot Reflexology on the Anxiety Levels of Women in Labour. Yılar Erkek Z, Aktas S. J Altern Complement Med. 2018 Apr;24(4):352-360