Heal Trauma to Enhance Fertility

With Womb & Fertility Massage Therapy

Warning! Some content may be triggering.

Womb & Fertility Massage Therapy is so much more than a relaxing physical experience. It is medicine for the mind, body and soul. It is an embodiment practice of somatic therapy, as it can clear physical symptoms of trauma and support emotional release, uncovering and dissolving the shadows that create physical and energetic blockages which prevent us from living a fulfilling life and manifesting our creative potential.

We often think of massage as a nice treat to have for relaxation and do not consider its deep long lasting effects and how it opens the door to trauma healing and better health.

Let’s explore what trauma is, how it is stored in our body, its repercussions on our health, how it impacts fertility and how Womb & Fertility Massage Therapy can support trauma healing and enhance fertility. A lengthy blog but deeply informative, I hope!

Trauma, shadows & limiting beliefs

Trauma refers to our emotional and physiological response following an overwhelming event, single or recurrent, perceived as threatening or deeply distressing. It has adverse effects on our mental, physical, emotional and spiritual wellbeing impacting on every aspect of life.

Traumatic experiences, whether we have memory of them or not, influence our life on a subconscious level, fuelling our shadows and defining those limiting beliefs and patterns that often shape our life, even many years after the traumatic event occurred.

Traumatic events

Usually people think of trauma as physical assault, sexual abuse, childhood neglect, sudden loss of a loved one, accidents, relentless emotional abuse, natural disasters, war, community violence and invasive medical procedures. In this article I refer to trauma in a broader sense to also capture those events and emotional wounds that are often seen as minor.

You might have struggled going through big life changes and decisions like having an abortion, been victim of misogyny at work, reprimanded for not doing well at school, talked down by a narcissistic mother or partner, a witness to someone’s rage, bullied at school, been harassed in the street, labelled weak when showing vulnerability, experienced age inappropriate sexual acts and the list goes on.

Over time, repeated exposure to these minor traumas can cause as much emotional harm and symptoms as more complex traumatic situations. All events that are mentally and emotionally harmful deserve validation and resolution. This is also true for prenatal, perinatal, post natal trauma and for ancestral trauma of which we don’t have first hand experience.

The imprints of trauma

Environment, beliefs, thoughts and emotions can define the behaviour and physiology of a cell, altering its gene expression by making the gene either active or silence. This epigenetic adaptation already starts in utero. Research shows that during gestational exposure to threat, high levels of stress hormones could cross the placenta and reach the foetus, pre-programming her in how to detect or react to threat. This leaves a cellular memory and a limbic imprint which can alter neurological structures and disrupt the foetal central nervous system.

All of this can impact on the physical and mental health of the newborn, in childhood and later in life. Children whose mothers experienced high levels of stress during pregnancy are more likely to struggle with emotional regulation, behavioural problems, cognitive deficits, anxiety, depression, mood disorders, forming secure bonds and healthy relationships, and other mental health and physical conditions.

Increasing research also suggests that, if unresolved, traumatic imprints can be transmitted to future generations from both father and mother line for at least three generations. This is because all the eggs a woman carries are formed in her ovaries while she was a foetus in her mother's womb.

You, your mother, and your grandmother shared the same biological environment, the same blood chemistry. If your grandmother was under constant intense stress, her body would have been flooded with unhealthy levels of stress hormones, which could leave an imprint on your mother and you.

Our ancestors might have been victims of individual or collective adverse experiences in childhood or adulthood like neglect, abandonment, slavery, genocide, violence, racial discrimination, colonization, wars, famine, natural disasters etc. Their traumatic story can be deeply encoded in our psyche and cellular memory defining our views, behaviours, the way we relate to ourselves and others, and how we move through life in our quest for love, safety, stability, self-identity , emotional connection and intimacy.

The legacy of trauma can be attributed to epigenetic inheritance, encoded in our cells, but also to a system of learned behaviours, beliefs and narratives that characterize the environment where we grow and develop. We learn from what we experience and observe starting from our parents, from the stories they tell, from their recalled memories.

Because epigenetic is responsive to the environment, change is reversible. The trauma imprints on body and mind can be shifted. By uncovering and healing your emotional wounds, you can overcome those limiting beliefs which might distort your self-worth, your role in the world and how you experience your journey to parenthood. You can break the cycle. So not only you improve the quality of your life, and clear those imprints and energetic blockages that prevent you from manifesting your deepest desires, but you also avoid passing it on to your future generations.

Reflections

Imagine a woman is taught that her role is to be at home raising children and to be submissive to her husband, that women are sluts if not following strict sexual morals, she feels ‘less than’, that it’s easier to survive and be accepted by pleasing others around her. She might pass on the same views to her daughter by modelling those roles and beliefs, and expecting her daughter to follow her teachings. These views are rooted in trauma and energetically imprinted in her cells.

Which story do you carry which is not yours? What kind of experience did your mother and grandmothers have in relation to menstruation, childbirth, pleasure, relationships, freedom to speak up? Was there enough food? How is war trauma still lingering on? Are your aware of traumatic events experienced within your maternal and paternal family lineages? Do you feel safe in the world? What created your sense of shame or guilt? Are these preventing you from fully enjoying life and creating your family? Are you ready to bring to light the shadows that have been unconsciously shaping your life?

You might subconsciously have a fear to give birth, believe that you will not be a good mother, or not want a daughter or a boy.

What is the origin of these fears and limiting beliefs that might adversely impact on your reproductive health? Do miscarriages, complicated pregnancy and childbirth cases run in the family? How were women treated? What was parent-child relationship like? Do you feel safe and supported along your fertility journey? If not, follow the thread of this fear, where is the root? Did it start before you were even born?

Autonomic nervous system

We cannot ignore our autonomic nervous system when trying to understand trauma and its effects on our life and fertility health. Trauma happens as a collection of physiological responses which are initiated in the limbic system which, broadly speaking, is the emotional part of the brain, including the hippocampus (associated with memory) and the amygdala (involved in detecting emotions including threat). This system shapes the way we understand the world, our temperament and our autonomic reactions. When facing a physical or psychological threat, the amygdala detects the danger and sends signals to the hippothalamus which activates the autonomic nervous system (ANS) preparing us for fight, flight or freeze response.

The ANS regulates involuntary physiologic processes including heart rate, blood flow, breathing, digestion, sexual arousal and procreation. It comprises two antagonistic systems: the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous systems (PSNS) which work in harmony to maintain overall homeostasis. The SNS is responsible for the fight or flight response to keep us safe from danger, it is activated when facing a life-threatening situation and it is also triggered by anxiety and stress. The PSNS controls our body when at rest and is responsible for calming the sympathetic responses back down after a stressful event, and it also controls our freeze or faint response.

The ANS is a network of nerves, the longest of which is the vagus nerve, which runs from the brain, through the face, thorax and abdomen connecting to all our internal organs including our reproductive organs. The vagus nerve is a major part of the PSNS and plays a key role in the communication between reproductive organs and brain.

So, when the amygdala detects fear or threat, it alerts the ANS which sets our stress response into motion, by triggering a sympathetic physiological hyperarousal characterized by accelerated heart rate, rapid breathing, increased blood pressure and sugar levels, muscle contraction and release of adrenaline, cortisol and other stress hormones used to fuel the body’s fight or flight response.

All this requires a boost of energy production, strength and blood flow to muscles, arms and legs in readiness for action, to fight or flee. When none of these actions takes place our body will turn into a freeze or collapse response, both controlled by the PSNS. The freeze response is a state of hypervigilant immobility in readiness for action, but when the fight or flee actions are not an option, the freeze state could be followed by the collapse response which is a ‘flop’ state characterized by hypoarousal with a decrease of heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature and muscle tone. This state can lead to dissociation, inability to speak and fainting. This reaction has the ability to reduce pain and cause the mind to shut down in protection of itself.

In all of these possible responses massive energy has been generated for fight or flight, energy that needs to run its course and be discharged to enable the body to self-regulate and return to a state of feeling safe.

In all of these responses the stress hormones are high and the reproductive system is shut down!

Trapped energy

The feelings of fear and threat, and the fight-flight-freeze response are healthy survival measures that our body automatically takes to keep us safe when facing danger or dealing with overwhelming or stressful situations. Our stress response is the same whether we are running away from a ferocious wild animal or whether we are working hard to meet a looming work deadline, or going for another round of IVF after a failed cycle. The feelings and responses become problematic when our body fails to return to a state of safety, calm and relaxation activated by the PSNS, even when it is safe to do so. In other words, the energy generated during the survival response doesn’t run its full course and instead of being discharged, it gets trapped in our bodies and in our mind.

It has been observed that wild animals are constantly under threat of death, yet show no symptoms of trauma. This is because they can complete their trauma response process from start to finish as they naturally shake off and release tension after a life-threatening event. Also humans have this primal ability. However, our social conditioning overrides this natural process to release tension and recalibrate the nervous system, instead training us to suppress our feelings and our regulatory needs. From a very young age, we are told not to cry, not to scream, to shut up and to hold it.

Energy stored in our body translates in recurrent unhealthy beliefs attached to the traumatic moment, it manifests as behavioural patterns, physical sensations, discomforts and illnesses. This trapped energy can have a different quality and expression.

For example those stuck in the fight response might feel constantly alert, confrontational, suffer from panic attacks and display bursts of anger. Someone stuck in the pattern of flight response, might be constantly avoiding challenging or difficult situations, changing job and partners in response to their fear of rejection and betrayal, keeping themselves busy, using work, sex, hobbies, or even alcohol and substances to suppress feelings of fear or panic. Those who have experienced trauma through the lenses of a freeze or collapse response might hide their emotions, experience disconnection from their body and the world around them, preferring to be alone and they might feel lifeless, numb, spaced out and have little energy.

Trauma energy stuck in our body means that it stays alive within us manifesting as sensations and emotions until resolved. It can adversely impact on fertility because it is creating a physical and emotional environment which is not in harmony with the desire to have a baby, and not aligned with the physiological demands for reproduction. Hence, infertility might be the manifestation of blocked energy and of subconscious programming. More below about how it impacts fertility.

Reflections

You might have spent years trying to avoid pregnancy, because too young, not ready, focussed on your career, afraid of body shape changes, of giving birth, of losing your lifestyle and so on. All of these reasons are rooted in fear and trauma, and you might still be running on a programme that says ‘don’t get pregnant’ and instructs your body to ‘avoid pregnancy’. This programme is encoded in your cells. Verbally expressing your desire to have a baby is not enough to change the underlying cause. You need to release the blocked, trauma-based energy from within the body.

Do you feel grounded and whole or spaced out and fragmented? Can you voice your needs? Do you have a healthy work-life balance? Can you reinstate a sense of safety and self-regulate when feeling distressed? Are you able to set healthy boundaries? What view do you hold of your body? Do you feel seen, loved and self-worthy? What energy has become frozen in your body? Where do you feel it? Do you suffer from chronic pain anywhere? Can you picture yourself with your future family?

Your womb stores trauma

Our womb is an energetic centre of consciousness and creativity. Just like other parts of the body, also the womb can hold physical, emotional and energetic imprints of unresolved trauma from this lifetime and from ancestral lines.

Endometriosis, PCOS, pelvic pain, fibroids, menstrual disorders, sexual dysfunction, difficulty forming intimate healthy relationships and infertility can be the result of trauma stored in the womb from sexual abuse, miscarriage, abortion, difficult childbirth or any other form of trauma and feelings of shame, fear and guilt that become embedded in our womb.

When there is trauma in the womb, the muscles and tissues can become tense and contracted, blood flow is restricted, leading to menstrual cramps, painful sex and other physical discomforts. Without flow, the womb is deprived of oxygen and nutrients and becomes unnourished and toxic. This is not a healthy and fertile ground!

Through the vagus nerve, our womb, ovaries and cervix are connected to our brain. So when the womb is holding onto emotional toxicity, and perceives an unsafe situation, she can send signals through the vagus nerve to the brain, thus triggering the fight, flight or freeze response. If we want to rewire our perception to threat, heal trauma and calm our nervous system, by working on our bodily sensations, then the womb represents a portal to healing. Through her door we can enter our journey to the root cause of our trauma and dissolve what no longer serves us.

Healing the womb is a critical step in reclaiming life, future and fertility health. When our womb is energetically and physically healthy, this will manifest through overall wellbeing, joy and a deep sense of grounding and belonging within our physical body and on Earth. We are gifted with a sense of safety, embodiment and the power to move forward and create a fulfilling life. This will in turn increase the chance of conception and a healthy pregnancy.

Reflections

Do you suffer from gynaecological conditions? What’s your menstrual bleeding like? What views do you hold of your reproductive organs? What kind of energy do you store in your womb? Do you feel connected to her? Is your womb a safe and nourishing environment for calling in a baby? Do you feel safe, honoured and loved in your sexual relationships? Have you agreed to undesired intercourse? Have you received unwanted touch causing your pelvic floor to contract in protection? Have you been sexually abused? Can you relax your pelvic floor and abdominal muscles? What are their felt sensations?

Triggers & symptoms

Even if we don’t remember the specific details of an overwhelming experience, or we might have forgotten it, our bodies do remember. So when certain situations trigger us, consciously or subconsciously, our nervous system will engage in a chain of physiological reactions to cope with the perceived threatening situation as if it was real. Even if we logically know that a situation is safe or that a thought is unreal, our coping and survival mechanisms are activated because of the memory and energy stored in our body and mind.

Triggers can overwhelm the body and mind making us feel exhausted and debilitated. When we are constantly triggered, we are continuously engaged in a survival response that can lead to adverse emotional, mental and physical symptoms like flashbacks, racing hearts, anxiety, dissociation , depression, lack of self-esteem and sense of self, addictive coping behaviours, abusive relationships, social withdrawal, gastrointestinal problems, migraines, chronic pain, chest pain, fatigue, insomnia, high/low blood pressure, high cholesterol, breathlessness, poor attention, poor memory, cardiovascular problems, hormonal imbalance and so on.

All of these symptoms and conditions not only indicate lack of optimal health but they feed into more physical and mental stress exposure, creating a self-perpetuating cycle. We get stuck in a loop where stress, triggers and trauma feed into each other removing any opportunity for the relaxation response to happen.

In our modern society we are overwhelmed with stressors more than ever. We live in a chronic stress culture where to be busy, productive and overachieving are signs of success. A culture that doesn’t allow enough time, space or permission to process trauma and heal. This makes it hard for our nervous system to return to a calm and relaxed state and the longer we survive in the stress mode, the more normal it feels to be tense, on-edge, tired and dysregulated.

Trauma creates infertility. Infertility creates trauma.

As previously explained, when the nervous system is dysregulated, high levels of stress hormones and glucose are produced in order to provide energy and prepare the body for self defence action. Meanwhile digestive, reproductive and immune systems are suppressed and blood flow to these areas diminishes. More blood is directed to the muscles and body parts needed for fight or flight. Without sufficient blood and energy flow, our reproductive organs become unnourished, stagnated and weak.

Elevated stress hormones create hormonal imbalances which can cause havoc in our body, disrupting the menstrual cycle, leading to anovulation, PCOS, endometriosis and infertility. Various studies suggest that continuous exposure to stress and past trauma can cause amenorrhea, premenstrual pain, ovarian dysfunction and reproductive losses from miscarriages, to still birth and implantation failure.

In other words, when we are under stress and emotionally dysregulated, our reproductive functions are inhibited because our reproductive organs are dispensable.

Whilst emotional dysregulation, caused by past trauma and high stress, can interfere with a woman’s ability to get pregnant, the opposite is also true.

Infertility trauma also exists!

Women experiencing infertility might go through monthly cycles of loss, tests, invasive examinations, IVF trials, miscarriages, feelings of grief, hopelessness, sadness, anger, shame, guilt, jealousy, blame and isolation. All of which can lead to extreme exhaustion and emotional turmoil, keeping the body and mind stuck in a stress response of fight, flight or freeze, feeding a vicious cycle. Infertility can cause trauma. If this is you, seek help. Every woman on a fertility journey should feel empowered and experience it as an opportunity for healing and growth.

Reflections

Do you feel your journey is unmanageable? Have you adopted unhealthy coping behaviours? Suffering with poor concentration and fatigue? Are you constantly on-edge, snappy, irritable? Do you have conflicting views about having a child, maybe you doubt your ability to be a good mother, you fear how a baby might change your lifestyle, travelling plans and career? What are your true views on assisted reproduction? Are your friends and family supporting your choices? Do you feel met in your needs like crying, talking, let it all out or are you simply trying to contain it all and look in control? Do you feel shame, ‘less than’ and judged? Feeling violated during pelvic examinations and other medical procedures? How do you feel around pregnant women and babies? Are you avoiding social interaction? Feeling lonely and isolated? Where in the body do you hold your emotions?

Gateway to healing

Because trauma remains alive in the body, if we want to heal, we can’t escape our sensations, our physical conditions and emotional patterns which sabotage us and hold us back. Our body is our gateway to healing, so healing becomes a physiological process. From within our body we search, identify, befriend, validate and then transmute the energy that has been trapped, we rewind the effects of trauma and stress, reframe our past, present and future.

Our body holds trauma but also the wisdom to heal if we are able to pause and listen using the primal language of movement, touch, breath, imagery and sensation. All of which are embedded in Womb & Fertility Massage Therapy.

How Womb & Fertility Massage helps

Because trauma lives in the tissues, healing starts in the body through awareness of physical sensations. And massage is a wonderful and effective way to initiate this physiological process!

Womb & Fertility Massage validates your losses, your traumas, your emotions in a nurturing and safe space where you are invited to just be yourself, to observe your sensations, to explore what arises and integrate your feelings with self-compassion and love. So much more than a physical massage!

It is a therapy for women who want to dive deep into their soul, evolve, grow, embrace their wholeness and their full creative potential. For women who want to journey through their sacred womb portal!

Calms the nervous system

The sense of safety, trust and nurturing combined with the soothing effect of the massage techniques bring deep relaxation to your mind and body. Through relaxation we repair the nervous system, we allow it to take a pause from stress, from a state of arousal or trauma induced numbness.

During a session of Womb & Fertility Massage, by massaging the abdomen we access, tone and stimulate healthy function of the vagus nerve, which carries signals between the gut, reproductive organs and brain. A healthy vagal nerve helps to rebalance the sympathetic and parasympathetic response, to regulate inflammation in the body, immune responses and to balance hormonal levels which are all key aspects to fertility health.

Restores safety & movement

By bringing the nervous system into relaxation we are also teaching our body that it is safe to do so, promoting a new habit for calm and self-regulation. We retrain those parts and tissues, where tension and trauma were held, that it is ok to let go of the fight, flight or freeze response, and release the energy that was trapped inside. When we release this energy, we clear the blockage, the contraction and more space is created within. Where there is space there can be movement and where there is movement there is transformation and shift on all levels, physical, emotional and energetic.

Bodily sensations (tingling, tickles, warmth, cold, tension, pain, stiffness, shaking, etc), which are manifestations of emotions and trauma imprints, start to melt away creating freedom and possibilities for change.

Your body starts to enjoy softness, juiciness of movements and pleasurable sensations, flow of energy, blood, oxygen, nutrients and feel-good hormones.

Your unhealthy and limiting thoughts are shed, inviting in possibilities which are better aligned with a newly found sense of self, of wholeness and purpose.

Your womb space is cleared, honoured and nourished, becoming a warm, safe and welcoming place for your baby soul.

In this state of relaxation, inner space and movement, you embark on a somatic exploration of the stories hidden behind the bodily sensations, by gently following their thread until you reach the root of the trauma, bringing the unconscious to your consciousness.

Unveils the shadows

Womb & Fertility Massage becomes shadow work. As you unravel the stories, from this life and ancestral lineages, you spiral through a transformational journey of self-discovery. You bring to light and consciousness those hidden parts, the shadows, which have restricted you in your life, by subconsciously impacting on your nervous system, on your physical and emotional health, on your sense of self and on your fertility.

As you stare at your hidden wounds, repressed parts of yourself, you give them a voice, you integrate and validate their existence. When you do so, they lose their power, stop taking so much space in you and no longer drive you through unwanted and unhealthy paths. You break the old patterns, the layers of armour that have been holding you small, you free yourself from a recurring trauma response and embrace new consciousness, new opportunities to live and be in ways which are more authentic, thus restoring freedom and wholeness.

Feminine awakening

As you clear energy blockages and traumatic memories from your body, you create space for movement, flow and transformation. It is in this space that you rediscover what it feels to be fully connected with your body, with your womb and your Divine Feminine reawakens. In a patriarchal society that has left women (& men!) physically, emotionally and spiritually drained, our energies have become unbalanced with a tendency to pursue masculine qualities. This unbalance creates internal conflicts, unhealthy dynamics and stops us from living authentically.

By clearing away the energy of our shadows and limiting beliefs we allow the light of the feminine energy to shine through and reclaim balance with the masculine energy. Through the ceremonial aspect of Womb & Fertility Massage you are awakened to the divine essence of your feminine being. She will emerge making you feel whole, sacred and empowered to be unapologetically authentic.

This matters when you are on a fertility journey. It matters because it allows you to live a more harmonious life, where you have fewer internal conflicts. It means you are in touch with your needs, your dreams, you can dance with your natural flow, you are free to flourish, to create in so many forms, to follow your intuition, express emotions and vulnerability, and at the same time you feel valued, nurtured and supported, you feel power, you have a clear purpose, you feel whole and grounded. This makes you physically healthy and emotionally balanced, which in turn enhances your fertility wellness.

Opportunity for healing & growth

Your journey to fertility becomes an opportunity to heal past trauma which may be affecting your current health and how you are living every step of the journey.

Your fertility journey should not be lived as a medical experience made of tests and drugs, though these are an integral part of it. Your journey is also an opportunity for self-development, for breaking free from past and current traumas, to outgrow the self-defeating and destructive habits, the armouring that has taken root inside you. Doing so releases the toxins, the physical tension, the memories, the underlying emotions and stuck energy. You have an opportunity to reclaim your power to create, to be fertile, to be a sovereign being above all else!

The process is challenging and as you tap into your physical and energetic memories, self-compassion and love are key while you heal and learn new ways to navigate through your journey.

Your experience is unique

Your experience of Womb & Fertility Massage will be different from everyone else. You may relax deeply into the work without the need to voice and verbalize what is going on. Let’s not forget that trauma is pre-verbal, we might have a narrative but words can rarely capture the essence of the lived experience. Or you might feel the need to verbally voice your experience as you move through sensations, thoughts and memories. Your experience is unique to you.

Please note....

I am not suggesting that massage alone can treat trauma or infertility. Anyone who suffers from complex mental health problems should seek treatment from mental health experts, but massage received from a trauma-informed therapist can support the healing process and be part of an integrative trauma recovery strategy. In the same way, being on a fertility journey is about bringing in many resources that will help you to enhance your physical, mental and emotional health which in turn will increase your chance to have a healthy pregnancy and baby.

Get in touch if you think I can help you on your fertility path!

Sending you love & light on your journey

Betty