PREGNANCY BODYWork

For deep care, comfort and birth preparation

you deserve loving care in pregnancy.

Pregnancy has a huge impact on your whole self, changing your body, mind, emotions and energy.

A relaxing pregnancy massage can be nice; but a Pregnancy Bodywork session that listens to the wisdom of your body and works with it to return to a state of balance can be life-changing.

When tissues are tight, compressed, overworked, or protective, discomfort arises in the body. Too often we are told that it is part of pregnancy to endure discomfort. Rather, it is an indication that imbalance exists, and that to bring the body back into balance can relieve this discomfort.

Pregnancy Bodywork sees and supports all of you -body, mind, emotions and energy - holding you in a way that realigns the body, allows you and your tissues to be heard and creates space for comfort, ease and release.

Pregnancy Bodywork eases the changes you are navigating, connecting you with body, baby and mind to help you find ease and prepare for a birth with self-awareness and alignment of you and baby.

You can benefit from PREGNANCY BODYWork if
you are EXPERIENCING:

  • A desire to nourish and care for your whole self

  • Pelvic, back or abdominal pain or discomfort

  • Reflux, shortness of breath, nausea, constipation or bladder changes

  • A sense that there is just not enough room for baby

  • Tension in the neck, throat, jaw or head

  • Reduced mobility through the hips or pelvis

  • Positioning of your baby in pregnancy that you feel is impacting your comfort

  • A bulging or lumpy feeling in your sacrum, or tailbone or sitting bone pain

  • Feeling disconnected from your body, breath or mind or a feeling not quite like yourself

  • A sense of fear, bracing or uncertainty about birth

  • Changes in comfort and sensations in different positions throughout the day

What’s involved in a PREGNANCY BODYWork session:

A Pregnancy Bodywork session is two hours of care focused on you. This usually involves:

  • A conversation about your current experience and any pelvic history that may relate to it

  • A discussion on relevant anatomy to support your knowledge of your body’s harmony and balance and birth physiology

  • An explanation of changes in pregnancy and how this may be contributing to your current experience and may influence birth

  • External touch and massage of soft tissue and bones of the neck, chest, back, abdomen and pelvis to release tension and bring comfort to muscles, ligaments, fascia, scars and joints

  • Gentle evaluation and realignment of pelvic and abdominal organs to bring them into balance and create space for your baby, including the uterus and her supporting structures, core tissues, diaphragm and pelvis

  • Release of tension in muscles and fascia affecting movement and comfort in pregnancy and to prepare the body for birth

  • Guidance on how to continue with self-care and further balancing work at home

  • Fitting of support garments to support alignment and balance at home

Book a PREGNANCY BODYWork Session

$220 for 2 hour session

Payment plan available

Sessions are held in my studio in Young, NSW

Upcoming Central West and Riverina visits:
- Wednesday 11th March - home visits in Orange
- Saturday 14th & Sunday 15th March at Cultivate Health in Dubbo
- Saturday 28th March at Body Compass in Wagga Wagga
($20 travel fee applies to Dubbo, Wagga Wagga, Orange and Bathurst)

For all enquiries, email Helen.

Book Appointment

MEET YOUR Practitioner

Helen Johnson
Practitioner, Nurse, Educator, & Teacher

I’m an Internal Pelvic Release Work practitioner, Registered Nurse, Childbirth Educator, Yoga and Meditation Teacher and mother to two beautiful young children.

After 16 years as a Registered Nurse and Clinical Nurse Educator in Australia and abroad, I noticed a troubling trend in the health practitioner-patient relationship concerning women’s health. Many women are being advised not to trust or understand their bodies, losing touch with their intuition when seeking answers to their physical, mental, and emotional signs and symptoms. With my background in supporting women through pregnancy, birth, postpartum and beyond as a Yoga teacher and Childbirth Educator, I wanted to offer my community more.

I discovered Internal Pelvic Release Work through Fiona Hallinan and recognised it as a crucial tool for many women I encountered in pregnancy and postpartum. I believe you are the expert of your own body-mind-energy, and I am here to help you reconnect with that wisdom and find the answers that modern medicine often overlooks.

Read more about Helen

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  • The intention and ways of working with the body in a bodywork session is different to physiotherapy and osteopathy, as I have a significant focus on exploring your experience, providing education and using intuitive touch and listening to tissues to relieve discomfort.

    If you are likely to benefit from the care of a physiotherapist or osteopath, I will always refer you on.

  • Internal Pelvic Release Work is the gold standard for birth preparation and relief of pelvic discomfort in pregnancy. If you are planning a vaginal birth or have pelvic pain in pregnancy, Internal Pelvic Release Work is preferable and includes external bodywork as well.

    If you are planning a Caesarean birth, have previous experiences that make internal work highly uncomfortable for you, or are under 28 weeks gestation, book a Bodywork session.

    If you are not sure what is right for you, please get in touch with me.

  • The number of sessions is dependent on you as an individual, what we discover together in your body, and your response to the care session. As a general rule, most women require 2-3 sessions, 2-6 weeks apart, for optimal benefits to be achieved.

  • At least 20 weeks, to ensure baby is nestled in comfortably in your body.

  • Please just come as you are, no preparation is necessary.

  • After care is important for Pregnancy and Postpartum Bodywork. Your tissues will take some time to settle into balance, so plan to take it easy for 48-72 hours after your care session. Plan to return to a quiet space where you can integrate what you’ve learnt about your body. A warm bath and heat packs can feel really nurturing. A high-protein meal can help nourish the tissues you’ve worked with.

  • It’s ideal to have bodywork without little people present, so you can focus on yourself and be uninterrupted. If you need your baby or child present, please have a carer with you to entertain them.