- Reduce stress and anxiety levels
Breathing is opening up your body
- Improve endocrine system and hormone levels
- Stimulate T-cell production in lymphatic system
- Relieve gastro-intestinal disorders
- Improve bowel function and elimination
- Support menstrual disorders
- Reposition displaced or malpositioned organs
Fertility massage is a specialised massage – to improve a woman’s health and function by focussing on areas of stagnation and tension within her body.
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Abdominal focus
Various massage techniques are used to identify stagnant areas (such as adhesions, muscular tension, digestive problems, oedema) and to rectify the areas of need. It’s particular focus is abdominal, to relieve tension in the soft tissue areas, aiding digestion, detoxification, elimination and tonifying the viscera. The abdominal cavity – from the diaphragm to the pubic bone – houses our digestive and reproductive organs, and is an often ignored area of focus. Poor nutrition, work stress or other stressors can compromise a person’s health, affecting or compromising digestion and eliminatory processes.
The english language long recognises this sensitivity of mind and body balance or imbalance, as the case may be; with such pithy phrases as; “broken-hearted”, or “had a gutful”, or “can’t stomach it”, or “liverish” (crankypants), or “all knotted up”. Hence this focus is an important one to assist a woman’s health to be as optimal as possible.
Lymphatic focus
The other focus is the lymphatic system, in helping to ‘decongest’ areas at the lymphatic sites; thus improving its main function of defence, and stimulating in turn the circulatory system of which it is a part of.
Over time, with variable diets, variable exercise regimes, age, natural stresses of life, these vital organs and connective tissue can be damaged or at least, challenged. Poor health is often the result often masked by other symptoms like poor sleeping, low sexual desire or coping mechanisms like smoking, alcohol or eating binges. Infertility is often a result further down the track when you want to conceive, and discover that you are having problems in doing so.
The abdominal area – in many cultures, has long been considered the heart of good health, with a focus on massaging the area to stimulate digestion and elimination; and increase sexual appetite and generalised wellbeing. In traditional forms of Oriental medicine, the approach to health is largely a preventative one, with the therapies of Acupunture, Shiatsu, Moxa (heat treatment of tsubos/acupoints), and Anma (rubdown or massage) with a variety of herb-bark-root medicines, actively used today.
The western approach to health is generally a more medicalised one and symptomatic-based rather than holistic, and again, generally reliant on pharmaceutical drugs for symptomatic relief and in the absence of an improved outcome, surgery to effect more drastic results. Alternative or complementary health approaches have sought to introduce a more holistic model, where the whole person is considered in making assessments of their health needs, rather than the symptomatic-based approach of conventional or allopathic medicine.
We are fortunate in the western world to have access to both models of health and healing, where there is generally a healthy crossover and overlap of the different health models. Infertility is often such a case of the ‘best of both worlds‘ where both approaches can provide a more efficacious outcome.
Abdominal massage has many benefits and can improve the possibility of fertility taking place.
Here are some of those benefits again:
- Reduce stress and anxiety levels
- Improve endocrine system and hormone levels
- Stimulate T-cell production in lymphatic system
- Relieve gastro-intestinal disorders
- Improve bowel function and elimination
- Support menstrual disorders
- Reposition displaced or malpositioned organs
The action of abdominal massage is further enhanced with the use of particular base and essential oils, and is especially effective for fertility improvement.
Other techniques – can be added to a Fertility massage such as acupoints, lymphatic drainage and non-invasive pelvic alignments to provide a cumlative effect for the best result. A combination of other natural therapies is often a useful approach, so as to enhance the outcome and the likelihood of a hoped for pregnancy.
Intestinal cleansing – One of the key steps in improving health is the foundational step of intestinal cleansing of the gut, whether it’s for weight loss, fertility or cancer. This can be accomplished by abdominal massage, exercise, diet and herbal supplements, either in combination or individually. Massage however makes the strongest first impression, as the physical touch both palpates and manipulates the tonal quality of your abdominal area more effectively than any of the others singularly.
What happens in a Fertility Massage?
The abdomen – is palpated and any areas of tension and distension are noted and gently worked on within a woman’s comfort (mostly). Abdominal breathing is encouraged to shift tension from within the abdominal area, with responses again noted for further treatment. Most tension will soften with the combination of focussed breathing and palpation of the soft tissue and underlying areas (deeper fascia) in the abdomen.
Castor oil – is highly prized as a therapeutic and beneficial oil , 90% rich in ricinoleic acid (unsaturated omega-9 fatty acid) and long used in traditional and alternative medicine. It is “generally recognised as safe and effective”. There are no side effects to castor oil, but it pays to know how to use it correctly for the right therapeutic outcomes.
Efficacy for fertility Massage
Read more about Castor oil… The oil is extracted from mature castor seeds (Ricinus communis) and is an anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal, and used topically for certain skin conditions, reduces pain and stimulates the immune system.
For improving fertility outcomes – castor oil in conjunction with abdominal massage, is absorbed into the skin (epidermis and the dermis layers) to aid the skin, joints and the intestine, and also stimulating both T-cell production in the lymphocytes and circulation of the lymphatic system. Abdominal massage can be further enhanced by castor oil cloth applications, sealed in by plastic wrap and topped with either a heat pad or hot water bottle, and left for 30minutes to an hour. There is no doubt that a warm hot water bottle on a tummy is very soothing and comforting, and causes a person, whether in a therapeutic setting or at home, to enjoy a sedative experiencetemporary respite
Edgar Cayce (the “Father of Holistic Medicine”) used and recommended castor oil as the treatment for a variety of ailments and listed over 30 physiologic functions of castor oil including:- Increasing eliminations, lymphatic circulation, relaxation
- stimulating the liver, gall bladder, lacteal duct and circulation (absorbs dietary fats in the small intestine) and cecum
- Dissolving and removing adhesions, lesions and gallstones
- Relieving pain
- Reducing flatulence, inflammation, nausea, swelling
- Improving intestinal assimilation
- Co-ordinating liver-kidney function
These claims have been tested by doctors and naturopathics alike and considered both safe and effective, despite science not knowing exactly how castor oil works.
In terms of fertility or rather difficulty in conceiving, it is thought that some women and male partners, have such difficulty through years of living an unhealthy lifestyle and poor nutrition. The use of castor oil in conjunction with other therapies, has a number of beneficial effects on the body to induce an improved health state for conception to be more likely to happen.
Skin conditions are often generated by an unhealthy colon – and the build-up of stored wastes slowing down the lymphatic system. Castor oil stimulates the lymphatic system, specifically the flow of lymph which accumulates wastes and toxins from in the body, and helps to improve the digestive-eliminatory tract. This in turn, helps to improve immune response, producing more antibodies to kill off viruses, fungi, bacteria and cancer cells.
Further studies on Castor oil show that it produces prostanoids, which are precursors to prostaglandins, which is how castor oil can produce the beneficial effects that it does. Prostaglandins are a group of hormone-like lipid compounds derived from fatty acids (the link between castor oil and prostaglandins). They are mediators in the body and have a variety of strong pysiological effects, and help to regulate the contraction and relaxation of smooth muscle tissue. In terms of women’s health, they have a wide variety of effects as in:
- cause constriction or dilation in vascular smooth muscle cells
- induce labour
- regulate inflammation
- regulate hormones
- regulate calcium movement
- control cell growth
- support kidney filtration
- support stomach to inhibit acid secretion
Self-treating
If you are self-treating, you can massage your own abdomen with any preferred base oil, such as almond, grapeseed, olive or castor (preferably cold-pressed) or other massage oil mix. Of all of these, castor oil (thicker and stickier) is the most therapeutic in its use. Various scientific studies show that the use of castor oil peaks its lymphocyte activity at 7 hours after use and declines naturally at the end of a 24hr period, thus encouraging the importance of daily use. Hence the importance of regular manual massage, either done by yourself or intermittently by a practitioner as well. In general, a lymphatic and abdominal massage done by a practitioner, is likely to be a more sustained and thorough effort than your own and therefore recommended as part of your treatment plan to become more fertile.
Contact Us to find out how we can help you
Request an appointment
Testimonials to check out what our other clients say about us
Ring Claire to find out more on 0438 216 351 or book an appointment for a program of mind and body sessions to promote your fertility.
The Healing Practice
129b Balmain Road
Leichhardt, Sydney NSW 2040