This is an excerpt from an email that was sent over two weeks ago, and has yet to be given a…read moreresponse by Patti or any of the office staff with access to the email login:
I had a massage yesterday and would like to give some feedback. It was my first prenatal massage (38 weeks today), and I was trying to do something for myself to help me relax and prepare for birth physically and mentally. Instead what I got was a nightmare. I am now bruised, and feeling like the massage therapist may have done damage to the baby.
The massage therapist was 15 minutes late to our appointment (I should have just left then, but gave her grace and stayed). The cleaning woman let me into the office. When Ariadne walked in, she was in her pajamas, did not introduce herself, and proceeded to set up the room slowly (we did not get started until 10:30, my appointment was supposed to have started at 10a). She never actually did introduce herself, so I'm not entirely positive that the person who was massaging me was Ariadne.
Once I got into the room and laid down on the table, she came in and asked how the music was, to which I replied that it was perfect (soothing and relaxing). She said she was going to change it to something better, and ended up picking loud, fast paced classical music- because the music wasn't for me- it was "for the baby."
She then proceeded to massage my back, which was fine. When I flipped to face up, she was extremely rough, especially on my abdomen down where the baby's head was, which is now bruised. She pushed so hard trying to "loosen my abs" that I was wincing in pain, and had to pull away from her at multiple points. I do not think this is part of a standard prenatal massage, and feared for the damage she may have done to the baby by pressing so hard as to bruise my skin right above the baby's head (my baby has been rotating between LOA, LOT, ROA, and LOP, so she easily could have been hitting a fontanelle or an eye, especially because there is so little fluid/cushioning next to the head near the pubic bone as its trying to engage). I tried to look her credentials up on the website to see if she was a certified prenatal massage therapist, but her bio is nowhere to be found.
Throughout the massage she talked about how this baby was going to teach me a lesson, especially if its being so stubborn in the womb (rotating all over the place at 38 weeks)- to which I replied, I don't think this baby is doing anything but trying to find the best way out. But she continued to talk about how babies that give their parents easy pregnancies are horrible kids, difficult to deal with, etc. After 7 miscarriages and a miracle to get to being this far pregnant I really felt insulted by her view of children, and her trying to impose these harmful views on an expecting mother who is mere weeks away from giving birth to her miracle/rainbow baby.
While she had me facing up she completely disregarded proper draping techniques which made me super uncomfortable, and decided to "stretch" my legs/hips, to the point that my knees were nearly touching my ears, which was extremely uncomfortable not only physically, but because of how exposed I was.
Overall, I am so incredibly disappointed in this experience, and can't believe that I was charged $140 for an hour and a half of torture, pain, and humiliation. I will never come back to the office for another massage.
I woke up in the middle of the night last night with severe anxiety because of this massage, and am praying that this child comes out in the next few weeks unharmed. I hope this case was isolated and she was just having a bad day, but the impact was so intense that I am now hesitant to schedule body work with any other practitioner for fear that this will happen to me again.
