When I designed the KIH Bed Pregnancy Cushion in 2011 so that I could lay prone during my third trimester of pregnancy I immediately embarked on research to ensure that this position was safe, not only for me, but for my unborn child. I had miscarried during my first pregnancy in this is not an experience I wanted to do everything in my power to avoid ever happening again. My research reassured me and so I enjoyed the use of the KIH Bed during my own pregnancy. I am sharing some research with you in this post.
When I decided to bring the KIH Bed to market, already satisfied with the pregnancy safety element, I then needed to ensure it complied with other health and safety aspects such as breathability, toxicity and fire, and so the KIH Bed underwent British Standards Safety Testing as carried out on cot mattresses and household furniture (BS7177, BS5852 and BSEN713). All the safety testing boxes ticked the KIH Bed was protected, mass produced and launched to market in 2013.
In the last five years the KIH Bed has been used and loved by professional practitioners such as Osteopaths, Chiropractors, Physiotherapists and Massage Therapists as well as by mums-to-be for private use in the home, with consistently excellent feedback from both practitioners and their clients.
Some therapists however are still nervous to lay their pregnant clients prone as traditional pregnancy massage training advises to lay a client on her left side. This post is to offer some insight and clarity into the sometimes confusing advice. The choice used to be to lay a client on her left, her right, or her back. The right hand side and the back cause concern with respect to pressure on the aorta and vena cavae.
'The researchers say that previous studies have found that sleeping on the back is associated with a disruption in normal breathing patterns. They also say that lying flat on the back during late pregnancy can reduce the mother’s cardiac output (the amount of blood pumped out from the heart with each heartbeat). This is because the major veins in the body that return blood to the heart (the vena cavae) are positioned just to the right side of the centre of the body. As such, it is possible that in heavily pregnant women, the pressure of the baby when lying flat or just to the right could interrupt the return of blood to the heart. This could reduce the mother’s cardiac output and, in turn, affect blood supply to the uterus and placenta.'
Equally where pregnancy massage couches did exist they were designed in such a way that put pressure on the uterine ligaments and lumbar area. The KIH Bed has been designed to support these. Normally past 13 weeks gestation the client would not be comfortable to lay on her front due to the discomfort but this would be the stage to use the 4" depth of the KIH Bed to release pressure and to support the lumbar vertebra. The KIH Beds 'sling' design soft cover will support the uterine ligaments at variable stages of pregnancy. The full depth of the KIH Bed is 8" offering full term support.
In 2017 a report was published on the PMC titled the ‘Influence of the prone position on a stretcher for pregnant women on maternal and fetal hemodynamic parameters and comfort in pregnancy’. Extensive research was carried out and part concludes that:
‘The prone position was considered safe and comfortable and could be advantageous for improving oxygen saturation and reducing the systolic blood pressure and respiratory rate.’ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5463251/ It is worth reading the full report and worth noting that the KIH Bed was designed to offer the same curvature to the spine and comfort to the client as the stretcher that was used in these experiments.
Just as training courses are updated when it comes to advances in technology it is time for pregnancy massage training to be updated based on equipment and clinical information that is now available, that was not available when the original training courses were developed.
I hope that this post is insightful and useful to those of you who have been in any doubt and further supports the work of those currently using the KIH Bed Pregnancy Cushion to fully support their clients throughout pregnancy.
Julie Hawkins, KIH Products Ltd. 21/06/2018
