• Extensive hands-on training

• Lecture & Participatory Discussion

• 1.5 hour supervised pregnancy massage clinic

• Individualized attention and evaluation of your application of Prenatal Massage Training techniques

• Handouts to use for your clients

• Client Intake Forms

• Written exam

• Prenatal Bodywork Certification upon successful completion

Foundations

• Benefits & Precautions of Prenatal Massage

• Physiological changes and High Risk symptoms that impact your bodywork

• Postural Assessment and Realignment Possibilities

• Debunking all the MYTHS!

• Optimal Side lying, Prone, and Semi-Reclining Positions and Secure Draping

• Side lying Techniques that create length /space/ breath/unity

• BodyMechanics for your comfort and optimal client experience

• Assessing your client's needs

• Adaptations for your style of working

• Marketing Approaches and Networking

• Belly Massage & Diaphragm Release

• Client Intake and the Medical Release

• Specific Trimester concerns

• Pelvic Alignment Techniques, Sacro-Iliac Joint and Pelvic Floor Release

• Energy Assessment & Acupressure Flow

• Breast Massage for Pregnancy

• Birth Preparation Bodywork

Specific Zones of Attentions

Relief from Pelvic, Hip, Low Back pain

Certified Touch For Birth™ Practitioners learn integrative pelvic bodywork to support pelvic rebalancing, pelvic floor release, and pelvic mobility, relieving hip and pelvic pain, low back pain, and sciatica.

Stretching and Opening

Touch For Birth™ emphasizes principles of unity, length and space to help ease gravitational aches and strains of pregnancy. A Certified Touch for Birth™ Practitioner may use stretching and muscle resistance techniques to help increase comfort and relieve stressed muscles.

Ribs, Intercostals & Diaphram

As the body grows, there is more compression toward the diaphragm, the ribs expand and pregnant people may have more difficulty with deep breathing. Touch For Birth™ techniques can relax the small muscles between the ribs, expand the side body, and release the diaphragm for easier breathing.

Specialities: A Certified Pregnancy Massage Therapist may offer external muscle techniques that help relieve pelvic floor discomfort or pressure, hip pain, or round ligament strain. Gentle belly touch may support an emotional connection for a client after multiple miscarriages or previous traumatic birth experience.

We are Safety-based vs Fear-based: Certified Prenatal Massage Practitioners learn the rationale for massage cautions and contraindications and do not perpetuate myths and rumors about the dangers of pregnancy massage. They learn contraindications of certain acupressure points, and also learn that massage over those very same areas does not pose a risk or danger. Unless a client has a specific risk factor that precludes certain types of bodywork (typically in high risk pregnancies) you’ll receive massage to your whole body, at the pressure you prefer, without concern of causing problems.

Taught by a Licensed Midwife who has lived and breathed the work, privilege and honor of supporting people through their conception, pregnancy, birth and postpartum journeys.

As a value of centering community care and hands-on learning, our training includes a pregnancy massage clinic day, where the prenatal massage students get to practice our learned skills on pregnant volunteers in the community! This continues to be a highlight for participants!

Physiologic trust — I believe in the body's innate intelligence. Pregnancy, birth, and postpartum are not medical events to be managed but natural processes to be supported. My role is to hold space for what your body already knows how to do.

The fourth trimester as sacred — I see postpartum not as recovery from birth but as its own distinct and profound season — one that deserves as much preparation, attention, and reverence as pregnancy itself.

The “Postpartum” period is 7+ years — I see the “postpartum” not as a 6-week window, or a “4th Trimester”, but as a minimum of a 7 year process. During this time the body is still adapting to the hormonal changes of lactation-to-cessation and care-giver’s sleep irregularities that impact the hormonal system. Our bodies are wise, they are not time linear.

Nourishment as medicine — Whether that's food, touch, rest, or community, I believe that true healing is rooted in being deeply fed — physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Whole-person, whole-family care — I don't see symptoms in isolation. I see the birthing person within the context of their relationships, their history, their culture, and their community.

Equity and access — I hold the belief that quality body care is not a luxury. The Community Care Fund and openness to trade reflect my ongoing commitment to making this work accessible across income, background, and circumstance.

Reciprocity with the earth — I am genuinely enthusiastic for the exchanges of reciprocity as it reflects a practice of nourishing and being nourished where food, body, land, and healing are all connected.

Clinical rigor with a warm heart — I bring 15 years of hands-on experience and licensure as a midwife and soon IBCLC, I hold that expertise alongside deep tenderness and humility. I am a forever student of the cycle of life and being nourished and nourishing others along the journey.

The 32-hr Prenatal Massage Training is $875 per individual participant.

This course has evolved from Leslie Stager's MotherTouch/TouchforBirth ® programs and reflects Cara's own teaching style, clinical midwifery experience, massage practitioner experience and curriculum development.

Leslie wholeheartedly endorses and recommends Cara's training, curriculum investment and is proud to support her continued contribution to the field of prenatal bodywork.

I invite your to explore more of Leslie’s work, offerings and legacy at https://lesliestager.com.

A Blessing and Permission Note from Leslie Stager:

“When I created Touch For Birth®, my hope was not only to educate practitioners but to inspire future teachers who would continue advancing the field. Cara embodies that vision. She has built upon the foundation of my work with integrity, skill, and dedication, creating a program that reflects both her own expertise and the principles that first brought us together. 

I am honored to endorse Cara as an educator and confidently recommend her training.”

-Leslie Stager