5 things to know about perineal massage

🔆Why? Some research has found that it improves the pelvic muscle length and reduces the risk of tearing. It also helps you acclimate to the discomfort of the stretching to that area, while keeping the muscles relaxed and lengthened in order to prep you for birth. Another thing I’ve heard suggested to help with the discomfort is to start taking cold showers so that you get used to calm breathing through pain.

🔆Talk to your medical provider before starting! This is good and suggested for most people but there are contraindications, which is why I always suggest talking to your medical provider first. Those include: cervical shortening, placenta previa, blood pressure problems, and an activev@gin@l infection (ex. yeast, UTI, herpes, etc.).

🔆I typically encourage people to start perineal massage at 34 weeks of pregnancy. You can start slowly and less often in order to ease in as you get more comfortable with the process.

🔆How often: I typically suggest people spend 5 minutes a day on this 5-7x a week.

🔆You can use your own hands, get a partner to help, or a device such a wand (or anything similar that you have on hand)

🔆Know that it’s not the most comfortable, but some research has found that it improves the pelvic muscle length and reduces the risk of tearing. It also helps you acclimate to the discomfort of the stretching to that area, while keeping the muscles relaxed and lengthened in order to prep you for birth.