With our son’s expected due date coming up on June 6th, I thought I’d share with you a little bit about how reiki has been a big part of the pregnancy. For starters I would say that it was after a reiki session last summer that we conceived him.

Once a month my partner Joei and I get together with a friend and practice Shu Chu Reiki on each other. (Shu Chu Reiki is the Japanese term for multiple practitioners giving reiki to one person at the same time.) For several months Joei would ask for reproductive health in hopes that she and I would conceive a child. We had already talked about trying to get pregnant and were open to the possibility if we were lucky enough to win that jackpot, however it wasn’t until the reiki trade in August 2017 that I realized I was still a little hesitant. She had been all in for almost a year, and although I said I was, I was still afraid of taking that next step in life and becoming a father. During that day of reiki I truly felt her intention and desire to go through the challenging and traumatic experience of pregnancy and delivery and most importantly that she wanted to do this with me.

I felt honored to be the guy she wanted to have a child with and from that point on I was all in. Months later after learning the due date and doing a little back-calculation I discovered that we must have conceived shortly after that day.

Once we found out we were expecting, we agreed to weekly reiki sessions for her throughout the pregnancy to help with the development of the baby, to maintain her health, and to strengthen the bond between the three of us. Every Sunday night we would set up the healing room in our house and I would give her a 30 minute reiki session. I don’t know if it is her constitution or if it is the reiki, but whatever it is the pregnancy has been quite smooth.

Aside from some nausea during the first trimester, she hasn’t had any trouble or complaints about the pregnancy. Even as recently as a month ago while at a one-year-old’s birthday party, she had so much energy was dancing so much while the DJ was spinning the tunes that her friends were afraid she was going cause her body to go into labor and welcome our son into the world five weeks early.

I truly think the reiki has helped her and the baby over the last 9 months more than we can measure. The reiki sessions during the first 6 months were mostly aimed towards the growing fetus. My hands would be drawn to her belly and once they connected they wouldn’t leave until the end of the session. That gave us both peace of mind knowing that our baby was getting all that reiki to help him grow and develop.

As the pregnancy progressed and the anxieties of impending parenthood started to increase in the third trimester, my hands were guided to work more on her head and shoulders rather than on her belly. The sessions were more to keep her calm and connected to sensations of peace than they were in the first and second trimesters when it was focused on the womb.

I also started to notice that the baby was responding to the reiki touch. The first night I noticed was when Joei put my hand on her belly to feel the baby moving, and after 2 or 3 minutes the movement stopped. When I noticed this and said something to her she told me that’s what happens whenever I put my hands on her belly. He seems to calm down and/or go to sleep whenever I would rest my hands on him. I cannot wait to find out how he responds to being held in my arms. :-)

And of course I’m not the only one to notice how beneficial reiki can be during pregnancy as there are numerous articles available to read about other people’s experience with it too. I’ll put some links below for you to check out.

Many of the articles quote the results of a pilot study conducted at the Hartford Hospital in Hartford, CT that states there was a 94% reduction in anxiety during pregnancy for patients receiving reiki treatments in the hospital’s patient support program, however I have been unsuccessful in finding that particular study online. I contacted Hartford Hospital to see if they can verify those results, and I will update this article upon hearing back from them.

Next step is to see how reiki will work during the upcoming labor and delivery.

The Tower Reiki Circle and Qigong Classes are tentative this month as we don’t know when Joei will go into labor, and I plan on taking two weeks off from weSPARK, Tower, and Aum and Garden when that happens. I will also be taking 4 weeks off from seeing clients in the healing room in my home and will update the calendar on my website to reflect that, and the next Reiki Class I will teach will be a level 2 towards the end of July.

Until next time: Happy June and enjoy the upcoming Summer Solstice!

Reiki and Pregnancy Articles:

Reiki: The Energy Doula. This article originally appeared in Midwifery Today Issue 92 (Winter 2009/10), page 16. http://www.blissfulbirths.net/?page=Reiki%20Articles

Reiki during Pregnancy: Healing Energy for Mother and Baby. https://iarp.org/reiki-during-pregnancy-2/

Reiki and Pregnancy. http://www.reiki.org/reikinews/pregnancy.html

Reiki and the Birth Experience. http://www.thehealingpages.com/reiki-and-the-birth-experience