Hi today's video is all about perineal massage. Massaging your perineum and stretching your
vaginal opening during pregnancy is a great way of making those tissues more flexible so that
when you give birth to your baby, you're far less likely to experience any vaginal tearing.
if we haven't already met my name's Anja and I'm an antenatal class teacher specialising in
hypnobirthing. On my youtube channel you'll find pregnancy labour and birth related videos as well
as a series of hypnobirthing guided meditations and pregnancy relaxation audios for you to enjoy.
Don't forget to click the subscribe button and the bell icon so you'll get notified when
I upload new videos. I bring out new ones every single Tuesday. To demonstrate how to do pereneal
massage I'm going to be using this fake vagina. Now I had to buy this from an online sex shop.
It gives me the creeps thinking about how men might use this but it is a great way
to demonstrate how to massage your perineum effectively so please excuse where I bought
it from but it is just used for educational reasons to help you. Before I do the demonstration
I just need to give you a little bit of background information about perineal massage.
It's recommended that you start doing it at around 34 weeks of pregnancy but you can
start doing it a little earlier if you want to. Before you start the massage make sure that you trim
your fingernails and you might even want to have a warm bath to soften and warm up your vaginal area.
Make sure that you're naked from the waist down then get some sunflower oil or olive oil
on your thumb or these two fingers and place one foot up on the side of your bathtub
sofa or bed. Then what you need to do is place your thumb or these two fingers about 2-
3cm into your vaginal opening.
So hopefully this demonstration has proved to you that perineal massage is effective and
it is worth doing if you want to reduce your risk of vaginal tearing. Now I wanted to point out here
that if you're struggling to do perineal massage standing up then you can do it lying down instead
so just lie down on your left hand side put one of your legs up in the air and try to access your
perineal area like that. If you're struggling to do it lying down and standing up then just ask
your partner to do it. Don't be shy! Show them this video so they know how to do it correctly
then you can even set a timer on your phone so they don't do it for longer than necessary :)
Actually whether your partner's doing your perineal massage for you, or you're doing it
by yourself it is a good idea to set a timer on your phone so you know "Okay I've done this
for a minute I can stop now!" " I've done this for two minutes, thank goodness now I can have a few
days off!" And a few final tips... When you're doing perineal massage, try to relax your
upper body. Don't frown, clench your jaw or raise your shoulders up- because it's going to make the
perineal massage more uncomfortable and you might want to put on some music in the background.
Some relaxation music just so that you can feel a bit calmer when you're doing the massage technique :)
Thanks so much for watching this video today! I hope you found it useful if you've got any
Questions or thoughts about perineal massage leave me a comment below and I'll get back to
you as soon as I can. I love to connect with my viewers so I'm here for you if you need me!
Please stay tuned for more helpful videos and you can click the video on this screen right now :)