Pregnancy Without the Pause: Part I

Seven safe pregnancy spa treatments

When I fell pregnant, I was prepared for the nine-month moratorium on sushi, margaritas and unpasteurised cheese. Modern pregnancy, as everyone knows, comes with a long list of dietary no-nos. What I didn't realise is that the list of spa prohibitions is just as punishing. Hot baths were a daily de-stressor, and the news that I'd have to give them up, along with saunas, steams and a handful of spa treatments, dismayed me. Frankly, it's hard to imagine a more welcome time for any spa treatment than when your lower back and shoulders are aching from your newly recalibrated centre of gravity, your feet feel as fat as flippers, and your supposed pregnancy glow is mottled with new freckles.

What I longed for was a menu of coddling, calming and--yes--cosmetic spa treatments that I could enjoy with a doctor's blessing. So I laboured with experts Heidi Moon, the owner of Manhattan's Spabébé; Stacy Denney, founder of California's Barefoot and Pregnant spa and Joel Evans, M.D., author of The Whole Pregnancy Handbook, to cherry-pick this list of safe pregnancy spa treatments. And it includes some surprises--baths, reflexology and even first-trimester massage.

Many prohibitions have been repealed as old-fashioned or because specialist pregnancy spas have emerged with solid staff training, says Moon. Of course, spa-going during pregnancy still requires caution--that's why I've also listed five spa-going no-nos--and it's verboten for at-risk pregnancies. (Sorry.) But there's now real expertise at spas about what's okay and not okay for pregnant women, says Dr. Evans.

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