Perinatal Massage

I am now able to massage prego women! Yep that's right I have skills. I took a 15 hour course last week and now have the certificate to allow me to work on women during pregnancy, labor and postpartum. The class was way out in Glendale! (Another story of my freeway driving for the first time and the crazy tire blow out to come at the end of this post.... stay tuned.)
It was a great class. I can't wait to use the things I learned and help women to be relaxed and comfortable during pregnancy and labor. When I become a doula this will be a great skill to have as well.  I learned a lot about contraindications, complications, risk factors of pregnancy, comfort techniques for labor, restoring musculature and postural integrity postpartum. Most of the facts about pregnancy and things that happen to your body during gestation and labor I already knew because of my Bradley class but it was a nice refresher and good to see how it pertains to massage.

So the freeway fiasco:
I have driven on the 60 many times, pretty much everyday, but I had never driven on any of the others like the 101 or 202 or i10, i17 (so many freeways in arizona!) The idea of driving 60 to 65 miles an hour on a 6 lane road with many many other cars right next to me weaving in and out of each other kind of scares me. I always knew that someday, probably soon, I would need to start driving on the other freeways and be comfortable doing so. That day came last week. The class was out on Bell road and 50th St, that's 50 minutes from my house. I was scared so the night before the class Sean went on a road trip with me on the 202 so I could get the feel of driving on a new freeway with someone. It was alright. Sean gave me directions of how to get to the class and I repeated them over and over that night. "Get on the 60 drive to the end where it turns into the i10, drive forever til I get to the i17 drive forever til I get to Bell road, exit and drive til I see the building."  The next day I drove out there and did just fine. I wasn't freaked out or anything. I was surprised how easy it was. Thanks to my sweet husband for being so patient with me and letting me repeat it over and over so I was confident and didn't get lost.  The second day of the class wasn't so smooth. I was on the 60 and right as I got past the exit for the 101 my car started shaking violently, there was a loud sound, smoke was coming from the back. I quickly pushed the button for my hazards and tried to make my way safely as I could to the shoulder. People on the freeway are rude sometimes though! Here I was with a car on fire in the back and my hazards on and yet people were still not letting me over!! I almost hit someone trying to get over. Luckily I got over and no one was hurt. I shut off the car and sat there crying for a couple minutes. I couldn't get all the way into the shoulder because my car wouldn't start up again, so every time a car passed by  my car would shake. I called Sean and he lovingly calmed me down. I called my teacher to let her know what happened and that I would be late. She said it was fine and to just be save and let her know when I was on the way. Sean came and sat with me til a friend Alex and Blake, came and got me. They took me to my class and Sean changed the tire to a donut and took it to my moms house so he could go to school and fix it afterward. I ended up being and hour and a half late to the class. My teacher was nice enough to just show a video that I had already seen so I didnt miss anything. Turns out that my tire had blown and caught on fire. Also my rotors are bad and need to be fixed. I'm so grateful I have an amazing handy husband that knows how to fix those things so we won't need to spend and arm and a leg to get it done. :)

My tire that blew and caught on fire. Intense huh?!