Conception, Pregnancy & Child Birth
Supporting the Journey of New Life
Bringing a new life into this world is a beautiful and special journey. Each stage, from conception, to pregnancy, to childbirth, can be uniquely supported.
Pregnancy Packages:
Rachel Benbow, CST-T, LMT, MLIS, provides prenatal care at The Roots of Health, and offers a special package to support your pregnancy. Throughout the length of the pregnancy, pregnant moms may receive a once a month Pregnancy CranioSacral Therapy session or Pregnancy Massage for $10 off the normal session price.* In addition to the monthly discount, your baby may receive one FREE Pediatric CranioSacral Therapy session within one month of their birth.
The Gokhale Method for posture also is of invaluable benefit to pregnant women, enabling them to realign themselves and protect their body from many of the common pains endured during pregnancy and childbirth. Although the Gokhale Method classes are not discounted, Rachel is also offering pregnant mom's who take the course during their pregnancy one FREE Pediatric CranioSacral Therapy session for their baby within one month of birth.
Some pregnancies or individuals may need extra support with more frequent CranioSacral Therapy or Massage Therapy sessions. For complicated pregnancies or mom's with complex health situations, please consider one of our weekly prepaid packages.
*Offer not to be used with other discounts or package rates. Monthly payments at the discounted rate will be automatically billed to your debit or credit card from the onset of the package until the end of the pregnancy. For example, if you start your pregnancy package in your 3rd month of pregnancy in March, you card would be billed monthly from March until close to your expected due date in September. If you give birth before your last auto-payed session, you may receive the last session after the birth.
CranioSacral Therapy for Conception, Pregnancy & Birthing:
CranioSacral Therapy (CST) in a gentle hands-on therapy that works with the body's tissues to release tension and restrictions throughout the body. The underlying premise of CST is that the human body wants to heal and correct itself. Practitioners listen to the body to find areas of restriction, and support and facilitate the body's unwinding and processing while working with the body's inner wisdom. This is why CST works so well with conception, pregnancy and birthing. An expecting mother's body innately goes through enormous change in preparation for conception, the gestational process, and the birth itself. It is an amazing process, led by the bodies of both the mother and the baby (fetus) which inherently know what they need to do. During pregnancy CST is applied to both the mother and the baby together, but also as their own unique individuals. Special care is taken to hold space for the baby while the mother is doing her own processing.
CST can be a wonderful way to nurture and support a standard pregnancy, as well as assist with far more complex cases. It may help free tension and restriction patterns within the pelvis that might be effecting the reproductive organs or fetus. CST may also address pain throughout the body, headaches/migraines, stress/anxiety, as well as emotional difficulties. When used with standard medical care, CST has been shown to help avoid invasive birthing techniques, as well as ease the recovery from childbirth.
All CST sessions are performed with the client wearing their normal clothes.
Pregnancy Massage:
This is a 60 or 90 minute general relaxation massage that helps to melt away the stress, aches and pains of pregnancy. Pregnancy massage is done with the client in a sidelaying position for the comfort of both mother and baby. Pregnancy massage is offered for mothers from the beginning of their second trimester through the end of their pregnancy.
Gokhale Method for Pregnancy:
Offered at the Roots of Health by Rachel Benbow, qualified Gokhale Method teacher, the Gokhale Method uses healthy posture and movement to help you restore your structural integrity and regain a pain-free life. It addresses the root cause of most muscle and joint pain, which is posture. For a personal account of how the Gokhale Method can transform the pregnancy experience, please read this blog post.
Most women experience lower back pain or other joint or musculoskeletal pain during their pregnancies.(1) However, such pain is often a manageable and, in most instances, a preventable problem. It is of course best if women who plan to become pregnant prepare their bodies for the dramatic physical, musculoskeletal, and hormonal changes that lie ahead. During pregnancy a woman's body undergoes a number of changes, many that are inherently stressful. These of course include:
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Extra weight
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A shift in the center of gravity
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The impact of the hormone relaxin on ligaments
Extra weight and the shift in the center of gravity not only pull on the lumbar vertebra, arching the lower back into the exaggerated sway so often seen in pregnancy, but it also shifts too much weight onto the front of the feet. With relaxin coursing through her system, that extra weight stretches unprotected ligaments further than they are designed to stretch, predisposing women to vertebral disk herniation and creating elongated feet (the foot bones do not grow during pregnancy, the foot simply stretches/flattens out).
The Gokhale method teaches you how to realign you body such that women, even those well advanced in their pregnancy, may:
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Lengthen and remove the sway from the lower back.
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Bring and maintain your center of gravity back towards your center.
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Provide extra space for the baby through the abdomen and torso.
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Create space for and protect the intervertebral discs.
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Bend while protecting your back and making room for the belly.
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Protect your feet from being overstretched.
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Walk with more comfort while protecting the feet, knees, hips and lower back.
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Sleep with greater comfort, with the added benefit of creating length and resetting the spine into a healthy position.
Lower back and structural pain can start at any point during pregnancy. This means that whether a woman is one-month pregnant or on the cusp of giving birth, she may be experiencing pain--pain the Gokhale Method may help to address. The good news is that by making adjustments, women at every stage of pregnancy can prevent musculoskeletal and joint pain from occurring, or--if pain is already an issue--take real steps to manage this pain.
Notice the difference between the healthy neutral spine in the French anatomical drawing from 1925 on the left, and the extremely curved spinal sway of the modern anatomical drawing on the right. Also note in the modern drawing how much further the baby projects away from the mother's center of gravity, and out over the pubic bone of the pelvis (where as on the left the baby and uterus are nestled nicely into the pelvis).
Learn how to change your pregnancy experience by
enrolling in a Gokhale Method Foundations Course.
For a personal account of how the Gokhale Method can transform your pregnancy, please read this blog post.