Massage and shiatsu during birth

Massage and shiatsu during birth: Why is the right kind of touch so important in pregnancy and birth? For mother and for baby.

Parents to be often come to me wanting to learn a technique of massage or shiatsu which will help them avoid medical pain relief and give birth more easily. Or so that their partner can have something to do during the birth. Or because they want to have something done to help them go into labour naturally without medical induction.
It is true that massage/shiatsu can often produce these desired effects. Many of the women I have worked with over the years have gone into labour sponatenously soon after having received massage or shiatsu. Many others have found that massage/shiatsu is in fact all the pain relief they need, even during long, tiring births. But massage/ shiatsu offer so much more.
Touch is the earliest sense we develop…