Hi, I’m Hanako Gotoh, owner of Little Flower Birth Year. I blend massage therapy, Doula services and birth coaching in order to educate and guide the first time expecting parent and their partner in creating a deeper bond through the power of Skinship.

I am both a certified massage therapist specializing in prenatal and infant massage and a certified Massage Doula.  I’m also the mother of two beautiful children.

I was a young first-time mom, having my daughter just a month after my 22nd birthday. Being that we were a very young couple, my partner and I didn’t have the communication skills to handle this news gracefully. I began putting myself on an isolated island called “I’m pregnant and no one understands what I’m going through” while my partner began working 80 hours a week to provide for us.

While my belief of being alone in the pregnancy was false, I didn’t know any better, and our relationship began to suffer because I didn’t know how to communicate my fears or express where I needed help and support. I was afraid of being alone in my fears. I was afraid of what kind of role my partner would play in the pregnancy, postpartum, and parenting. I was afraid of a lot and the self-isolation compounded it all quickly.

When we made the decision to have our second child, I began to think about all the things I wanted to be different during the pregnancy and birth, because I’d since learned the importance of asking for support. I now knew what I didn’t know the first time around and I was able to ask my partner to actively participate by touching both me and my belly more throughout the pregnancy. I asked to be heard without judgment when I sounded crazy or fearful. I asked for their help in creating a space that was loving, nurturing, and welcoming for both our daughter and new child.

A year after I gave birth to my son, I decided I wanted a career for myself. I knew I wanted to do something in the medical field, but becoming a doctor wasn’t for me. I wanted something that would be my own. My pregnancy and birth experiences had me constantly wondering, “I wish I would have had a support person… who would that have been?”

At the time, one of my girlfriends was pregnant and isolated from her family. I offered her some healing touch and conversation throughout her pregnancy. I was able to inspire her to keep communication open with her partner. This created a much deeper bond for them and a far less painful birth experience for her.

Shortly thereafter, I discovered an intense, year-long program at a local massage therapy school and knew that a career in the healing arts would really light my soul on fire. While studying, I learned about Doula services and birth coaching when I asked if there was such a thing as a “support person” for pregnant women. I found a home study program that incorporated both massage and Doula services, which to me was the best of both worlds!

After studying, I began working with three practice clients: my former neighbor, that neighbor’s friend, and my good friend Jenny (her second pregnancy). Truth be told, I’ve never felt anything come as naturally as when I was actively participating in their pregnancies and mothering. I witnessed first-hand how essential touch was in crafting deep relationships between family members, establishing parenting patterns, and creating the special kind of new identity and communication that comes only from touch – from that skin-to-skin relationship which is profound and powerful and hard to quantify. I had found the work I’m here to do.

I’m truly humbled to be involved in each of my client’s unique process of creating a family. I believe the power of Skinship is essential in creating better communication, safe spaces, and deeper bonding between family members.

I absolutely love to learn about mothering, the human body, and the changes both men and women go through during pregnancy. I love to absorb evidence-based research on cesareans, epidurals, partner support, and perinatal mood disorders. And mostly, I love educating my clients by bringing awareness to the things they don’t know but need to know and teaching them how to advocate for their birth plan before, during, and after labor. Click here to learn more about working with me.

So, what exactly is Skinship?

The practice of Skinship in Japanese culture begins with one’s awareness and is focused around presence with one’s self. This personal level of intimacy then begins to spiral outward to include a deeper, more intimate presence and connection with the other people in your life-your partner, children, family, and friends. Skinship enables us to enter a more empathic, intuitive, meditative, and reflective state, making it easier to be emotionally available and vulnerable as we strive to deepen our ability to bond with one another.

My parents both individually taught me the power of Skinship in their own way. The messages that Skinship communicates nonverbally are: I see You. I acknowledge You. You are valuable to me. This simple act of touch, as well as the quality of that touch, personally taught me that I’m valuable and important.

Want to learn more about me?

Here are some fun facts:

1. I like to read urban fantasy.
2. I hate exercising, but I tell my clients to exercise all the time.
3. My husband is a chef and doesn’t cook for me… I’m a massage therapist but I don’t like giving him a massage.
4. When I look at bodies I don’t see weight or height, I look at how that body is moving and where there is pain.
5. I suffer from A.D—ooh my gosh something shiny! Since I can’t afford to buy shiny things I switched to shiny people.
6. I still feel like my humor is the dirty juvenile kind… does that mean I didn’t grow up?
7. My favorite thing about learning how to drive was going to ice driving school where we purposely drifted to crash our cars. Most fun thing ever.
8. I’m PADI certified but I only went once.