Heal the Womb, Heal the Woman

Clare Blake

Featured in the Daily Mail, Womb Massage has enabled women with major fertility issues including premature ovarian failure and Asherman’s Syndrome to conceive and give birth. Clare Blake explains the background to this hope-enhancing therapy…
Womb massage has a lineage dating back thousands of years. Egyptian women massaged their wombs to heal themselves. Norse traditions also mention goddesses rubbing bellies to heal. In certain cultures, it still thrives today: clients from India, Africa, Russia and China have remarked that women in their homeland perform womb massages similarly.
A fertile womb is a creative womb; one that when nourished physically and emotionally will flourish and bloom, allowing creativity to be expressed through projects, ideas, visions, careers and babies.

Fertility Massage Therapy has many physical and energetic benefits. Both are important, but often the spiritual or energetic aspects of our womb are dismissed. It’s harder to understand the ‘energy’ of our womb, whereas we can easily comprehend the physical aspects.

Many women, in my experience, are disconnected from their wombs, mostly because, in the Western world, we live according to the masculine way of life, which is to “do” all the time. Whereas we should realise that, as women, we are cyclical and need to take time to rest, honour and “be”. This is where the true depths of this nourishing therapy come into play. A space is created for women to go within themselves, find a healing space and listen to the wisdom of their womb.
It’s an interesting concept to think about our womb in this way, to think ‘she’ has feelings, and a vibration or energy. A huge element of this therapy is, in practice, to help a woman’s womb become free from emotional and physical trauma, allowing them to connect to their wisdom and fulfil their potential.

The Fertility Massage Therapy™ I created, is a nourishing blend of modalities that when combined bring harmony and balance to the reproductive, digestive & sacral areas. On a much deeper, and probably more important, level, the treatment re-awakens and re-connects women to their bodies, especially their womb. The key physical aim of the massage is to improve the circulation of blood, lymph and waste removal and break down adhesions within our abdominal and pelvic area.
Although the name suggests that the focus is on fertility; this therapy benefits women at any stage of their reproductive life. Womb massage is just a part of the therapy; Rebozo and Pulsing are also included and together they all blend beautifully to create a nourishing flow of feminine energy, leaving the client feeling whole, centred and most importantly, nurtured.

Pulsing

Pulsing is a blend of several traditional techniques from Tibet and Hawaii and is known as the Tai Chi of massage. During pulsing you are gently and rhythmically rocked at approximately 120-160 beats per minute, which is the same as the heartbeat within the womb. Pulsing releases physical responses to emotional traumas. The fluid movement increases blood and lymph circulation throughout the whole body, improves digestive function and gentle encourages the fascia to release, allowing for a freedom of movement internally and a rhythmic rocking away of physical tension is rhythmically rocked away.

Rebozo

The Rebozo is a Mexican shawl, used as an extension of the arms to offer the sense that their body is being safely held in a soft hammock, allowing the body to let go. Rhythmic movements or ceremonial wrapping, will leave women feeling like a baby being rocked or swaddled; engendering a sense of returning to the womb or to the first few months of life.
These three main therapies are combined with guided visualisations or energy work as necessary to allow for a much deeper, energetic release than a regular style of massage.

Responses to the treatment

Women report that after one or two sessions, their menstrual cycle is healthier; either less pain, cleaner red blood flow or less spotting: confirmation that the massage is having a physical response. When assessing the woman’s womb, an assessment is performed to discover how their womb is presenting both physically and energetically. Physically, is their womb area cold, overheated or holding tension? Energetically, what stories are they holding and is there any vibrancy within?

Healing Asherman’s Syndrome – Case Study

Recently, there has been a rise in clients attending with Asherman’s Syndrome, which is scarring and adhesions within the womb. Asherman’s Syndrome is most commonly caused after a dilation and curettage (D&C) performed because of a missed miscarriage, retained placenta or elective abortion. It leaves a woman with scanty or no periods and, depending on the severity of the adhesions, infertility or recurrent miscarriages .
Massage can break down scar tissue and adhesions. While there have been no medical or case studies on the effectiveness of Fertility MassageTM for scar tissue, this next case study demonstrates the power of physical and emotional healing for a condition that up until now, only medical procedures have helped.
Client A attended her first Fertility Massage session in December 2014, after being told by doctors that she would not be able to conceive. A scan in August 2014 had shown 50% scarring of the womb lining and fully blocked fallopian tubes. She received weekly sessions of Fertility Massage Therapy for four months, followed by fortnightly sessions for three months. During this time, the client developed a connection to her womb through guided visualisations, and continued with self-care massage and visualisations between sessions. She began to realise that despite originally attending to receive help to conceive her second child, she discovered her true passion was a new career path and that a second baby wasn’t what she truly wanted, however it was what peers had expected of her.
In August 2015, a year after her first scan, her gynaecologist was shocked to reveal that all of the scarring within her womb and fallopian tubes had cleared, all except one small patch the size of a fingernail. Thought to be impossible to clear without having surgery, the only treatment this client had was massage and energy work.

Re-Awakening Ovaries – Case Study

Client B presented with Premature Ovarian Failure (POF) which meant that her ovaries were not functioning, thus ovulation was not occurring leaving her infertile. After trying to conceive naturally for 18 months and two failed IVFs, client B was left devastated when told she had POF and would not be able to conceive. When she came for her first session, she said that she wished to be re-connected to her ovaries and ‘wake them up’. Dr. Christiane Northrup says in her book “Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom” that ovaries can hold grief. Based on this theory, the client explained that her father had a stroke three months prior and she was saddened at the fear of losing him. Using this as the basis for the healing, the client had two sessions which resulted in her feeling a reconnection to her ovaries. The following month, she conceived her first child. Returning two years later to receive help to conceive again, after her ovaries had once again “shut down” due to the death of her father, she conceived her second child after two sessions.

These two case studies show just how powerful intuitive healing and nourishing massage can be, healing the mind-body connection and bringing balance and harmony.
Clare Blake holds courses nationally and internationally teaching her approved Fertility Massage Practitioners Course and has over 10 years’ experience in womb massage. To find out more visit www.fertilitymassage.co.uk

Valle RF, and Sciarra JJ. Intrauterine adhesions: Hystreoscopic diagnosis, classification, treatment and reproductive outcome. Am J Obstet 1988; 158:1459-1470.