Book review of "Shiatsu Therapy for Pregnancy"

Author: Bronwyn Whitlocke
Publisher: Spinifex Press

Shiatsu offers enormous benefit for the pregnant woman but is poorly understood and grossly undervalued. Unfortunately I don't think this book remedies the situation, as it does not provide enough information to encourage people unfamiliar with shiatsu to be able to use it for pregnancy support. Its main problem is that it is intended both for the therapist and the support person. In such a short book (200 pages but few words on each page), this means many sections are confusing.

The Australian author is a practising shiatsu therapist and traditional Chinese medicine herbalist/acupuncturist. She introduces some of the key concepts of shiatsu, a perspective on traditional Chinese medicine and suggests a routine for the support person to use. There are more detailed descriptions of shiatsu points for different conditions in pregnancy, birth and postnatally, along with exercise and dietary suggestions.

For the midwife much of this information is inadequately presented. For example, the descriptions of pressure points are insufficient for them to be located accurately. Little attempt has been made to translate the old-fashioned language of Traditional Chinese Medicine into a more accessible form. In the pregnancy section for e.g., "adverse rising of foetal energy" is used to describe conditions which include heartburn and ribflare.

After having introduced concepts such as the effects of different meridians, points, Jing, Blood, no mention is made in the suggested routine of what is being achieved by the different techniques demonstrated. This means it is very difficult for a midwife to be able to adapt it to specific conditions she may encounter. Only one suggested shiatsu routine is given to cover the whole pregnancy. I feel several different routines would have been more helpful and a routine for use in labour especially would have been invaluable.

I'd like to find something to commend this book to midwives - it is a tool in an area where there is little literature, but feel it is uninspiring, poorly written and presented and the content lacks depth.

Summary - A fairly basic book, introducing many eastern viewpoints on the use of shiatsu in pregnancy, but lacking sufficient information to enable a midwife to be able to implement shiatsu into her practice.

You can read a review of the same book, and others, from a shiatsu practitioner's perspective

*** See also the page on "Shiatsu for Midwives" by Suzanne Yates with Tricia Anderson published in August 2003 by Books for Midwives, Elsevier.