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Breast Massage: An Overview and History Breast Massage Is For Every Woman! Breast Massage benefits women of all ages and phases of life. It's that simple. While not popular in the U.S., that doesn't mean it's not effective, and even proven so by extensive research. Breast Massage techniques include lymphatic drainage to promote the movement of lymphatic fluid, which can potentially reduce swelling in the breasts. Breast Massage for PCOS, PMS, and Menstrual Pain Women of childbearing years utilize breast massage to combat breast tenderness associated with PCOS, as well as the premenstrual and menstrual phases of their monthly cycle. It's especially soothing during times when a woman experiences Pre-Menstrual Syndrome (PMS), and even Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). Breast Massage can help with anxiety, and other emotional, cognitive, and even physical symptoms that occur each month in the luteal phase (second half) of a woman's cycle. Of course, every woman is different and not everyone experiences PMS or PMDD. Breast Massage can help raise oxytocin levels and stabilize serotonin levels during this time. Breast Massage For Pregnancy Breast Massage can also help during pregnancy. Breast Massage during pregnancy can help relieve breast tenderness, discomfort, and swelling. Prenatal Breast Massage improves blood circulation, promotes lymphatic drainage, and prepares the breasts for breastfeeding. Breast Massage during pregnancy also encourages colostrum and helps to encourage milk letdown in the last weeks of pregnancy, and helps reduce the probability of blocked ducts. The breast will be better prepared to do the work involved in breastfeeding. Of course, breast massage during pregnancy is gentle and nurturing in character, never vigorous or overstimulating. Strong and prolonged nipple stimulation during Breast Massage should be avoided during pregnancy, otherwise it's fine. Breast Massage For Postnatal Women Postnatal breast massage can provide numerous benefits for breastfeeding mothers, and works well as a complement to seeking help from a Certified Lactation Specialist. In actuality, Postpartum Breast Massage is probably one of the most valuable resources for pregnant women, and our clients understand this because of their experiences. Postnatal breast massage relieves breast engorgement, and of course that makes mastitis far less likely. Breast massage in postnatal women prevents blocked milk ducts. For ducts that are already clogged, Breast massage can help free the blockage. Overall, there's less pain associated with lactation, approached from a different direction than your CLC might. Some other benefits of Postnatal breast massage include promoting milk flow, imrpoved milk ejection reflex, reducing stress and anxiety, improving circulation in the breast tissue, helping to increase the milk supply by fully emptying the breasts. All of this contributes to a more fulfilling, effective, and comfortable breastfeeding experience, as well as foster improved self-efficacy in new mothers, with regard to lactation and breastfeeding. It also helps because your therapist will be able to spot yeast infections and cracked nipples, possible before you even do. Breast Massage For Menopause Menopausal breast massage can potentially help alleviate breast pain and tenderness associated with hormonal fluctuations during menopause, as the ovaries begin producing less estrogen and progesterone, as Follicle Stimulating HOrmone (FSH) and Luteinizing hormone (LH) levels increase. This causes a number of symptoms, including hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, mood swings, vaginal dryness, decreased sex drive, decreased bone mass, and increased risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Breast Massage For Menopausal women can improve circulation, reduce tension in the breast tissue, and promotes lymphatic drainage. Menopausal Women may also experience a feeling of relaxation and well-being by addressing discomfort and emotional tension in the chest area. What Does Breast Massage Feel Like? Breast Massage is not painful and is usually quite relaxing. Breast Massage can be very relieving, especially if the therapist is working on helping with engorgement, freeing clogged ducts, or massaging sore lobules in the breast. Breast massage can feel grounding, reassuring, and help dispel anxiety and stress. It's about as relaxing as it gets. The release of oxytocin and the rise in serotonin probably make the experience about as pleasant and comforting an experience as you might have. Can the Breast Massage Remedy Clogged Ducts? A trained LMT can certainly help with clogged milk ducts experienced postnatally, and with experience this can be safely accomplished with ease during a Breast Massage. (Please see below for more details.) Can The Postnatal Breast Massage Session Help With Engorgement? A skilled and properly trained Massage Therapist can definitely help with engorgement issues. The therapist can help drain your breasts completely, which relieves the soreness, pressure, and pains associated with engorgement of the breasts. Utilizing focused massage techniques, Postnatal LMTs palpate any clogged ducts and work on them, following the clog to the nipple, until the clog is expelled. Postnatal Breast Massage Therapists can even show you how to hand express to relieve the pressure yourself. This is a specialized skill and requires advanced training, as the breasts are glands, fat, and skin, and LMTs usually don't work on glandular tissues. Can Postnatal Breast Massage Session Help With Slow Letdown Or Low Milk Supply? For women experiencing difficulties with milk let-down or even a low milk supply, Postnatal Breast Massage can help. Just because you're experiencing slow, or even nonexistent letdown without resorting to pumping, doesn't mean that is the final answer. Postnatal Breast Massage can help with milk let-down in numerous ways, whether associated with PCOS or not. Gentle manipulation of the breast tissue can stimulate nerves that trigger the milk ejection reflex. Breast massage strongly stimulates the release of oxytocin, the hormone that causes spasms in muscles surrounding the milk ducts to contract and eject milk. Postnatal Breast Massage helps to develop a stronger milk ejection reflex by improving both blood and lymph circulation to the breast tissue. Your therapist can work with you on this issue once this has been identified as a difficulty. Postnatal Breast Massage improves milk flow and makes it easier to express milk and more comfortably feed the baby at your breast. There is also an emotional component to this. While not anything like talk therapy, Therapeutic Massage can help you get past emotional blocks, but in a different way, by fostering relaxation and ease, rather than analytically tackling what's keeping you tense, as a counselor might. Often, what's making mothers tense is that they can't produce enough milk or don't have an easy let-down, or they've been assured by a less-than-knowledgeable Lactation Specialist that there's no solution. However, longstanding, or acute, stress in a woman's life outside of pregnancy can also affect the ability to relax and experience let-down, everything from family to work. By removing milk from the breasts, helping the postnatal person relax, along with stimulating the release of oxytocin, Breast Massage can help with a low milk supply by ramping up milk production, especially when performed more than once, weekly. Nipple Simulation Reduces The Risk Of Postpartum Hemorrhage By stimulating the release of oxytocin, current research suggests that a woman may reduce the risk of postpartum hemorrhage via nipple stimulation after birth. While some studies have shown that this seems to the case, more research is needed. Therefore, nipple stimulation is not used as a first-line treatment for postpartum hemorrhage. Why Do I Feel My Vagina and Uterus Contracting During Breast Massage? You may experience strong uterine contractions, especially if you're a postnatal woman, or you're at the time of your month the immediately precedes your bleeding time of your menstrual cycle. Stimulating the breasts, especially the areolae and nipples, triggers the strong release of oxytocin, the hormone that causes the milk ejection reflex in the breasts. Oxytocin also causes the uterus to contract. As the Round Ligaments are connected to the uterus, you may also feel your Round Ligaments contracting. You may also experience vaginal contractions during Breast Massage for the same reason that uterine contractions happen. This may feel like your vagina is tightening and releasing rhythmically. You may also experience contrations of the muscles of the sacrum, due to the uterus contracting. You may experience mild cramping in the pelvic area, if your uterus is contracting strongly. Will My Breasts Leak Milk During The Breast Massage? If you're a Postnatal Woman right now, you may want to use leak guards for the part of the Massage Therapy session that doesn't focus on the breasts, especially if your letdown is strong and you're comfortable with the therapist. Expect to leak a bit. It's fine; your therapists will bring hand towels. During the breast massage, you remove your bra and and leak guards you may be wearing. Your breast may leak if you're presently breastfeeding, or you've recently given birth, whether breastfeeding or not. If you're pregnant and past the third trimester, you may also leak colostrum, a clear or milky fluid.
Some women also experience slight discharge during breast massage even during times in their lives when they're not in the prenatal or postnatal phase, referred to as "physiological discharge," and 50 to 70% of non-perinatal women experience such discharge. What Are The Contraindications To Breast Massage? Most women can safely have a session of Breast Massage without concern, however, there are a few populations that should be careful and consult their physician first.
These contraindicated groups include women who have had:
How Did Breast Massage Become Popular In Recent Times? Breast Massage was popularized in recent years in the United States by Cheryl Chapman, RN LMT. Sadly, Cheryl passed a few years ago, but lived in New Jersey for many years. She wrote the ever-popular and impossible-to-find book entitled "The Happy Breast Book." Cheryl Chapman also coined the term, "Phluff Your Girls," and the associated brochures and videos describing beast self-massage for women in concise and direct terms. Self-touch is often uncomfortable for women in our culture, however massage is vital for breast health, in that the breasts need to be touched to be optimally healthy. Cheryl Chapman helped American women,and women worldwide, to be less uncomfortable providing self-care to their breasts. The ideas of breast health awareness and self-examination emerged alongside Cheryl Chapman's ideas in the twentieth century, and we're certainly fortunate to have had such a strong advocate for women's health as Cheryl had been. Breast massage is often recommended as component of regular breast self-exams, so that women can become familiar with their breasts and better able to identify any changes to the texture of their breasts, fostering an ease of identifying any potential abnormalities. Where Did Breast Massage Originate? In South and East Asia, more specifically India and China, respectively, systems of healing developed that included Breast Massage as an important component. And so, we know that Breast Massage has been practiced for thousands of years in these cultures, stretching all the way back to ancient times. While the systems of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda in India are not identical, there are some similarities, including an appreciation of the body/mind as being energetic in nature, as well as having a physical aspect. Indian Ayurveda And Breast Massage In India, Breast Massage is deeply rooted in the age-old practice of Ayurveda, which countless people still follow to this day atound the globe. In traditional Ayurveda, Breast massage was chiefly for helping to promote lactation, a well as aiding to maintain a woman's reproductive health. There are specific techniques detailed in Ayurvedic texts dating back thousands of years. Today, observers of Ayurvedic principles have adapted Breast Massage to include women at all ages and stages of living, though the focus on nurturing the postnatal woman is still an important goal. Taoist History Of Breast Massage Ancient civilizations, namely those in the lands of India and China, understood that Breast Massage helped to strengthen feminine energy in the person being massaged. Taoism and Confucianism, together, are considered the two poles that keep Chinese civilization balanced through the eons. In the ancient Chinese Taoist tradition, Breast Massage is associated with the concept of "The White Tigress" and the cultivation of feminine energy through touch. There are many modern books that detail the tradition that have been penned in recent times, based on the ancient Taoist texts dating back 3,000 years. Breast Massage was so highly regarded that the practice was considered to not only promote youthful radiance, but also lasting health and perhaps, immortality. Tantra and Breast Massage Tantra is a Spiritual practice and philosophy hailing fro India that includes a variety of spiritual and Yogic exercises, some of which deal with cultivating a woman's sensual energy. The Tantric tradition holds that breast massage is a sacred Spiritual practice for enhancing a woman's capacity to experience pleasure and connect with her own sensuality. The development of Shakti, or feminine energy, is the goal, with the results being a strong body, mind, and Spirit, and a heart receptive to love and joy. Taoist, Tantric, and Ayurvedic Breast Massage all help drain the lymph from the breasts. Breast Massage For Induction of Labor Breast Massage may be utilized as a component of a Pregnancy Labor Induction Massage session, alongside other techniques. This is, in fact, supported by the science, and numerous studies tout the benefits of strong breast and nipple stimulation for helping to induce labor by raising oxytocin and starting organized uterine contractions. And, breast massage only causes transient spikes in oxytocin levels, in contrast with the exogenous synthetic hormone, Pitocin, though both successfully create uterine contractions and help induce labor.. Pitocin, provided by IV to induce labor, creates a sustained high level of oxytocin in the blood. Prolonged exposure to this synthetic hormone can make the pregnant person's body, and specifically the uterine muscles, less responsive to endogenous oxytovin, the hormone that the body naturally produces. This may also lead to postpartum hemorrhage and potential de-sensitization to the body's own comparatively lower levels of oxytocin. Health Research Studies Supporting Breast Massage
The Effect of Breast Massage Training on Self-Efficacy and Perceived Stress of Primi Parous Women: A Clinical Trial Study
The Effect of Circular and Oscillating Breast Massage on the Amount of Breast Milk Produced: An Innovative Method
The Effect of Oketani Breast Massage on Successful Breastfeeding, Mothers’ Need for Breastfeeding Support, and Breastfeeding Self-Efficacy: an Experimental Study
Integrated breast massage versus traditional breast massage for treatment of plugged milk duct in lactating women: a randomized controlled trial
The effect of back and breast massage on the amount of milk and anxiety level of mothers with preterm birth: A randomized controlled study
The effect of oxytocin massage and breast care on the increased production of breast milk of breastfeeding mothers in the working area of the public health center of Lawanga of Poso District
Effectiveness of breast massage for the treatment of women with breastfeeding problems: a systematic review
Therapeutic Breast Massage in Lactation for the Management of Engorgement, Plugged Ducts, and Mastitis
Treatments for breast engorgement during lactation
Breast massage: can it keep mothers breastfeeding longer?
Heterogeneity of Outcomes Reporting in Trials Evaluating Traditional Chinese Medicine Breast Massage for Stasis Acute Mastitis: A Methodological Review
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