A reiki master in her late 30’s describes how she used the body-work technique to help conceive her first child

BY DANA L. YOUNG — Can practicing reiki help you if your goal is to become a mother? I had already been practicing reiki when I became pregnant in 2006. I’m in my late 30’s and had anticipated a long wait while trying to conceive. Imagine my surprise when I found out I was expecting after only two months!

I instinctively knew that reiki had helped me — and as a reiki practitioner, I have seen it help clients of mine conceive after trying fertility treatments without success.

Reiki clears blockages in our human energy field that cause imbalances in the way our body operates.

What is reiki? It’s a form of healing energy using light touch along the energy centers (chakras) in the body that helps induce deep relaxation, put your internal ‘feng shui’ in order, and promote a peak state of well-being.

Reiki is a form of bodywork that is especially beneficial for expectant and new mothers because it helps prepare women for the physical, emotional and spiritual changes necessary for a “centered” conception, pregnancy, labor and post-partum recovery experience.

Our chakras are concentrated energy centers in our bodies, and are considered the energetic hubs or nexi for the roles played by our major and minor organs. If your physical functioning is compromised due to injury, inflammation, or disease, your physical capacity is diminished. Similarly, if your energy centers are blocked, your body will manifest the blockage as a physical or emotional symptom like addiction.

Our reproductive systems, in particular, are very susceptible to the effects of stress, anxiety or changes in our hormone and endocrine levels.

There are a number of women who functionally can support a pregnancy, but still have difficulty conceiving. Reiki is supportive and helps prepare the body for conception on all levels. It can be safely used in conjunction with charting, IVF, IUI, and other methods.

For relieving the physical discomforts of pregnancy like morning sickness, reiki is especially useful. The hormones associated with pregnancy - human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and estrogen — contributes to gastric distress. Reiki’s inductive powers can help reduce the sensation of nausea, and provide soothing relief from ligament pain, as well as the back and hip pain typically experienced as pregnancy progresses.

I was one fortunate enough to feel my baby kicking already in the early states of my pregnancy — a rare thing to experience at week 15 or 16. However, because of that I also experienced regular — and often intense — Braxton-Hicks contractions.

One night in particular, I recall having a lot of contractions and both the baby and I were very agitated. It finally occurred to me to channel Reiki to myself. I placed one hand on my upper abdomen, where the solar plexus chakra is located, and the other over my womb in order to connect with my baby. Reiki’s soothing energy encourages the parasympathetic “rest and digest” response in the abdominal cavity where the solar plexus is located, calming the nerves and relaxing the body. Soon enough, the Braxton-Hicks stopped, the baby settled down and I was able to fall into a relaxing sleep.

Pregnancy is exciting and stressful for expectant mothers, but our culture generally does not often do a good job of supporting women during this time. Many women are juggling demands associated with careers, expectations from their families, changes in their relationships with their partners — and of course, in their bodies.

These factors can exacerbate fatigue, discomfort and mood swings. Reiki also helps expectant mothers to reduce stress and remain more grounded emotionally. A Reiki treatment is, first and foremost, time to honor yourself and your body during a time when you may no longer feel like it belongs to you. Reiki sessions can be so deeply relaxing that clients can often drift off into asleep — and as any pregnant woman knows, sleep is a valuable commodity!

Reiki is also especially helpful for post-partum recovery. Women’s bodies undergo tremendous change to support the new life growing inside them; it takes a while for the body’s organs and processes to return to a normal pre-pregnancy state. Even if you had a relatively easy labor and birth experience and aren’t feeling discomfort, there is still a lot of healing going on inside your body after your baby is born.

I had an emergency C-section, but was fortunate to receive reiki treatments from both my teacher and close friend while I was recovering. They helped me get strong and centered so that I could fully embrace motherhood and my beautiful little girl.

One of the things I valued so much about being a reiki practitioner during my pregnancy was the depth of connection I felt with my baby during that time. Consequently, I think that early connection also helped me become more attuned to her needs.

My daughter received reiki in utero often enough that, even now, there have been times where she seems to naturally draw the energy when she’s in my arms without me even having to actively channel it.

Maybe on some level, I intuit that she needs it and reiki just flows to her. I don’t think you have to be a reiki practitioner to experience that heightened awareness. My clients who receive reiki on a regular basis have developed deeper intuition and understanding about the relationship between their bodies and their energy fields, which help connect them more deeply to others and to Spirit.

Reiki honors the women we are: our bodies, our emotions and the spirit within that gives us strength and purpose. A good article that describing how reiki has been used in a clinical setting during pregnancy and to facilitate healing during post-partum is “Reiki and the Birth Experience.”

Dana is a Master practitioner in the Usui System of Natural Healing in Atlanta, Georgia. She received energy healing during a trip to India that cured a chronic inflammatory condition that had afflicted her for years. She is committed to helping others on their wellness journey, as she has been helped. Visit Dana at DragonflyReiki.

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