Lymphatic Breast Massage
The Lymphatic Breast massage can be included in the full or half body massages. Breasts are of various shapes and sizes. No 2 pairs are the same. Essentially they’re mounds of connective, fatty tissue with varying degrees of sensitivity to touch, topped off with nipples, the tip of a series of milk ducts which, in women, secrete milk to feed the children. They’re built above the chest wall and rib cage, over the pectorals. Men have milk ducts and nipples too, but they’re pretty much just meaningless decoration though some men find them sensitive to touch.
NeuroLymphatic breast massage is more than just massaging your breasts. Your breasts will be specifically moved in a way that mimics how lymph moves in the body. I will use a pumping movement where I move the breast using some light pressure and then release the breast gently, allowing it to return to it’s normal position. Each move and return counts as one pump. Using the lymphatic breast massage model, the most important idea is to keep the lymphatic fluid moving in this area.
A good breast massage should be gentle and nurturing. The gentle stimulation of the breasts and chest area may release some emotional feelings. During the massage many people experience joy, peace or sometimes a release of previously repressed emotions from past events (positive or negative, including possibly crying) followed by a more deep relaxation. This emotional release is also a very normal, human part of the massage experience. For most women who choose to have their breasts massaged, the enjoyment of the massage is natural and very relaxing.
Breasts are body parts with their own health needs. At some point in time, most women will experience breast congestion, breast pain, discomforts of diagnostic or surgical procedures and anxieties about lumps or other changes in their breast tissues. Pregnancy and breast feeding also have their set of associated breast tissue needs. Unfortunately, many women experience physical and psychological trauma related to their breasts. Then there is breast cancer, a condition impacting directly on the lives of many women and indirectly on all of us.
Conditions and occurrences affecting breasts lead women to seek medical help or to self medicate. Statistics indicate many women complain of breast pain to their doctors. At the same time, most sources reporting these stats believe women under report breast problems. Presumably for similar reasons to those which lead us to be uncomfortable about breast massage.
The fact that breasts are strongly associated with sexual touching and attractiveness does not mean they cannot, or should not, receive health care. In fact, this symbolism adds a set of psycho emotional concerns many women need help with in order to feel more at ease about doing routine self examination and being able to seek the therapies they need in a matter of fact way.
Massage therapy is an effective treatment for breasts as they particularly need good circulation and tissue mobilisation for optimum health. Poor circulation can produce various uncomfortable symptoms. Breast scarring (surgically and traumatically induced), which is more common than we often realise, can cause painful syndromes and obstruct blood and lymph flow. Some believe there may be a correlation between chronic poor breast drainage and susceptibility to cancer malignancy. Massage techniques and hydrotherapy may in fact turn out to be some of the most effective modalities for addressing such problems and promoting breast health.
Many women need more help becoming comfortable with breast self examination than they receive in their doctors’ offices. Some have traumatic histories and need assistance achieving a sense of normalcy about their breasts and the types of touch involved in seeing to their care.
Someone who receives regular breast massage may find that the massage therapist may be more successful in picking up early stage breast tissue changes that might need medical follow up than she would. Given the time spent, the regular massage intervals, the privacy of the circumstances and the physical skill of the practitioner, massage therapists really have something to offer.
Can we justify letting our concerns cause us to completely overlook the legitimate needs of breasts? Is it right that breast health care is not getting the attention from our profession that it should? Should women have to suffer from pain and other symptoms that could be alleviated if we were comfortable addressing them in the way we would be for other body tissues? Is there any way massage therapists can help in the fight against breast cancer?
These are important questions and it is in everyone’s best interest to give them serious thought. Breast massage will not be right for every client or every therapist. Are we wrestling in a principled way with the dilemmas involved or are we putting our heads in the sand?