Frequently Asked Questions (currently be updated - check back soon!)

Yes! I will continue to happily treat all existing patients.

While my practice is shifting its focus toward perinatal care and MPS scar release, this change mainly guides how I move forward - continuing education choices, marketing, and the direction of my treatment offerings - and does not affect the care I provide to you. As they say, variety is the spice of life! And I look forward to continuing to treat all of my existing patients. 

Yes - positioning is always tailored to you. We may choose face down, side-lying, face up, or a combination of all three depending on your comfort, stage of pregnancy, symptoms and treatment goals. We will always discuss positioning at the start of every appointment.

A postpartum recovery massage is, essentially, very similar to a regular massage therapy treatment. Every treatment is tailored to your individual goals and what your body needs that day. No two treatments are exactly the same.

The biggest difference lies in how we approach, understand, and support the body postpartum.

Postpartum massage is specifically focused on supporting a body that has gone through pregnancy, labour, and childbirth. Your treatment takes into account the unique physical changes of the body from the first trimester into the fourth. This includes healing tissues, changes in posture, the physical demands of feeding, carrying, and caring for your baby, breathing mechanics, and connection to your core.

Treatments may place more emphasis on areas commonly affected in the postpartum period, such as the neck, shoulders, back, hips, and abdomen. Positioning throughout treatment is fully adaptable (side-lying, face-up, face-down, or a combination), and techniques are selected to meet your comfort level and stage of healing. Treatment will also include patient education and homecare. 

Ultimately, while the structure of the appointment may feel familiar, postpartum massage is intentionally designed to meet you where you’re at in your recovery and support the specific needs of your postpartum body.

While recovery treatments are needed for both vaginal and cesarean births, and the appointments will have many similarities, if you would like the treatment to have a specific focus on treating your cesarean incision, please book a MPS Scar Release treatment. If you do not need or want your incision treated, a postpartum recovery massage treatment can be booked. 

Whatever you need it to.

It might be a quiet hour to relax and focus on breathwork and increasing your parasympathetic nervous system because you are suddenly so overstimulated now.

It might be a treatment focused on relieving aches and pains from labour & childbirth, from the various positions you’re now in to feed and hold your baby, or from non-stop babywearing (velcro baby moms? I see you).

It might be a treatment focused on reconnecting to your core and addressing breathing mechanics and postural changes.

It might be a combination of all the above treatments. 

Each postpartum recovery treatment meets you where you are in your recovery and works towards your goals for that day.

Yes. MPS scar release appointments are not exclusively treatment with the MPS units. In addition to MPS, all scar release treatments include manual treatment (hands-on treatment, cupping, etc) and patient education (homecare, self-massage, exercises/movements, stretches, posture, and more). All MPS treatments fall under the scope of Registered Massage Therapy and are billed as such, which means they are eligible for extended health covered under Massage Therapy. 

For your first appointment, I recommend booking a 60 minute appointment, at minimum (although, 75 or 90 minutes are more ideal if you also require a ‘regular’ massage therapy treatment at the end). 

The appointment will start with a discussion about your health history, birth, and recovery thus far, followed by some treatment planning. This will include short-term treatment planning (what the rest of that appointment will look like) and more long-term treatment planning (how the next few appointments should be structured).

After we have created a plan, we will move on with treatment. This will vary from person to person, and can include:

• Physical assessment
• MPS and manual scar release (this takes approximately 30 minutes and can include hands-on techniques, cupping and other tools)
• Patient education which can include discussions around posture, breathing mechanics, core control, at home scar massage, remedial exercises/movements, and more.

Depending on the appointment duration we may finish with more typical massage treatment for any areas that need a little extra TLC. For example, a 90 minute appointment may have time for a 30 minute massage at the end that could focus on back, neck, and shoulder tension from holding and feeding baby, aches and pains from labour and childbirth, etc.

All treatments are structured with input from me, but also based on what you are looking for that day. Perhaps you don't have many additional discomforts - great, we can focus more on optimizing the healing of your incision through movements and creating a great homecare routine. Maybe the next treatment you come and are experiencing some pain through your upper back and neck, so we focus less on homecare and more on general massage after we finish treating your cesarean incision. Every treatment will be different based on your needs and priorities for the day. It's safe to assume the hands-on, cesarean scar specific part of treatment will take at least 45 minutes, including intake.

***All durations mentioned are estimates and will vary from person-to-person & treatment-to-treatment**