SPEAKER_01: Marhaba, it’s a wonderful Tuesday morning in this heat. Yes, I think we all want to just relax in some cool place and enjoy your massage. But on that note, this is time for our Mums, Bums and Little One segment. We’re crossing over to Dula Sumeya Karim. She’s going to be chatting with us about pregnancy massage. Assalamu alaykum Sumeya. Alhamdulillah, welcome back to Urban Women. How have you been kicking?
SPEAKER_00: I’ve been so busy, so many birds, so many Mums. And I’m finally back to being able to speak to you again.
SPEAKER_01: Alhamdulillah, it’s awesome connecting with you as always. And now it’s so exciting, you know, you said so many birds, so many new Mums. I can only imagine what that lovely feeling is all about, you know, to get that bundle of joy in your arms. But now if we have to just, yeah, take a step back now before they actually deliver. And just chat a little bit about pregnancy and the whole massage concept. What would you say, Sumeya, because you know why we all want to feel pampered? But are there any limitations, restrictions? What would you say? Is it okay to get a massage while pregnant?
SPEAKER_00: So it’s absolutely perfect and fine for you to get a massage whilst you’re being pregnant. As long as you don’t have any country indications, any complications, and you’re given the go ahead, you know, from your doctor and you’re getting a pregnancy massage from somebody that’s certified in pregnancy and massage. So you know, there’s certain limitations that we have, certain women that we can’t massage. That’s why we always ask for the go ahead or let them from your doctor. We always fall in an intake form. If there are any complications, that we’re aware of it. Like with any massage, you know, if you have any spinal issues, you can’t, you know, randomly decide to go for massage without letting your therapist know that, you know, you do have certain country indications. So it’s always very important that you’re honest with your massage therapist and you give her all out of history and background which she will take with your intake form. And then it’s perfectly fine and safe to have a massage.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I wish I knew this when I was pregnant. I’ll share with you why. So when I was pregnant once we were in a holiday and a sous came over while I was told to come in massage as ladies. So I was like, oh, that would be so awesome in the heat and things. And little did I know it would end up being so torturous because she was actually a refluxologist. So she only worked on my feet and it was horrible. The pain. It was horrible.
SPEAKER_00: The pathology is if you have anything that comes up in a reflex session that needs to be cleared, then you do have pain. So you probably had a lot that needed to be cleared out.
SPEAKER_01: But it was not what I thought that relaxing massage. I was like, can we get over with this already? Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Shae man. It can be amazing, you know, provided that you have the right therapist in your massage.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely well said. So now in a pregnancy massage, Samaya, what is it that they actually do?
SPEAKER_00: So I can give you specifics of the pregnancy massages that I do. So I do a lot of lymphatic drainage. So you know that we have moms that end up with swollen feet and swollen hands because obviously your retention does increase because you’re obviously housing a whole entire being. So we do a lymphatic drainage with the lymph nodes. I work with reflex points for sciatica, which is quite common in pregnancy. And then I also work with the lower back pain, the sacrum pain, which I always refer to as the root of all evil because you know that lower back pain and that sacrum, what is your pregnancy and what is your post birth? Especially if you’re somebody that’s not exercising during pregnancy, we find that these moms have more pain in those areas. And then I do the stretches for specific muscle groups. I do feed compressions because they gain painful feet and inflamed feet because of water retention. So those are the things that we work with during pregnancy massage. Sometimes I might even do a sinus drainage massage because we find that we have stuffy noses in pregnancy because of the increase in hormones. So my pregnancy massage is a specific to each client. So I always ask, what are we working on today, what’s you know, what’s worrying you? And then I tailor each two specific clients.
SPEAKER_01: So yeah, everybody is so unique and they’re going through various things obviously. So absolutely. Now what would you say are like the no go areas during massage?
SPEAKER_00: So in pregnancy massage, we can’t massage very deeply. I don’t clear out trigger points because it’s country indicated in pregnancy massage. They start and reflex points that we don’t interfere too much with because I mean obviously unless you want an induction massage, we can do an induction massage. But we don’t want our mom going into pre-tam later. So we don’t massage those points. So again, it brings me to the point that you should go to for pregnancy massage to somebody that’s changed in pregnancy massage because we obviously don’t want any publications.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely. And at what point would you say in pregnancy, do you need a prenatal massage?
SPEAKER_00: I prefer waiting once the first trimester is over because that’s when we can have a lot of miscarriages happening and even though it’s not directly linked to a pregnancy massage, I don’t like interfering with anything in the first trimester. So I won’t even do any like, you know, after healing or pregnancy exercise, for example, in the first trimester, unless the mom has been training prior to pre-tam. So I like doing my pregnancy massages from after 12 weeks until the very end where then it ends up being an induction massage if moms are overdue.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely. Wonderful. That first trimester is absolutely critical and all moms should absolutely take care during that time. And finally, so may I watch your take a message for our wonderful urban woman listeners this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Get your pregnancy massage. It’s a simple her
SPEAKER_01: I love it short and sweet.
SPEAKER_00: You don’t need to feel uncomfortable. You don’t need to deal with the knee girls when they are alternatives and solutions to everything. So to get your pregnancy massage, make sure that she is trained specifically for pregnancy massage and I promise you, you will be booking them every week.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, sounds amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I literally just saw one of my mom’s own massage before I spoke to her before the show.
SPEAKER_01: How apt and wonderful. Thank you so much, Sumia. Always a pleasure connecting with you and we hope to see you soon. I hope to see you soon. Yeah. In chat a lot. But until then, keep cool and enjoy this weather and take care for now. Salamu alaykum.
SPEAKER_00: I’m not going to enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01: I’m not going to enjoy it. Carpe diyam simea.
SPEAKER_00: Carpe diyam. You’re taking a… Hola alaykum.
SPEAKER_01: …