Written by Shirin Fardi, childbirth educator. Last reviewed August 2026.
After the first trimester, most of what a spa offers is fine. Massage, facials, nails, a swim in a pool at ordinary temperature.
The exceptions are the hot ones. Saunas, steam rooms, jacuzzis and hot tubs raise your core temperature, and ACOG advises against them in early pregnancy.
So the safety answer is mostly yes, with a short list of exceptions and one conversation with the spa before you book.
The question underneath it is a different one. A spa can be perfectly safe for you without being built for you.
Everyone asks how you are. Nobody is actually looking after you.
A spa is the one thing in the diary that is just for you. Someone else runs the room. You decide nothing for two hours. Your phone goes in a locker and stays there.
That instinct is worth acting on, and it is worth acting on early, while getting yourself somewhere is still easy.
Rest in pregnancy is not indulgent and it does not need a reason.
Ask a spa whether a treatment is safe in pregnancy and you tend to get one of two answers. A blanket no until twelve weeks. Or a cheerful yes with nothing behind it.
Neither helps when you are the one deciding.
Most spa menus are written for a body that is not pregnant, and then edited. That is why the answers come out vague.
It is not that you are asking too much.
Massage, if the therapist is trained in pregnancy massage and you are positioned on your side rather than flat on your back.
Facials.
Manicures and pedicures.
Swimming, in a pool at ordinary temperature.
Most good spas will ask how many weeks you are before they book you in. If nobody asks, that tells you something.
Heat. That is the whole list.
You already run warmer in pregnancy. In a sauna, steam room, jacuzzi or hot tub your body cannot shed that heat by sweating, so your core temperature climbs. ACOG advises against saunas and hot tubs in early pregnancy for exactly this reason, and the same mechanism is why fainting is more likely.
One thing this is not about: warm weather.
The risk here is deliberately raising your core temperature by sitting in hot water or hot air. A hot country is a different thing. In Seville or Lisbon in August you are in shade when you want it, in water at ordinary temperature, drinking constantly, and free to go inside whenever you like.
Sun is worth planning around. It is not on the avoid list, and nothing here is a reason to skip a summer in Spain. If you are choosing where to go, our guide to the best babymoon destinations in Europe covers seasons and flight times.
Four questions, and they fit in one message.
Is the therapist trained specifically in pregnancy massage, or is this a standard treatment adapted on the day?
What temperature does the hydro pool run at?
Can I be positioned on my side?
Will anyone check how many weeks I am before the treatment starts?
The answers matter less than how they arrive. A spa that has thought about pregnant guests replies immediately and specifically. A spa that has not will tell you it is fine.
A spa is built for a body that is not pregnant, then adapted for one that is. That adaptation is usually done well, and it is genuinely restful. It is also where the offer ends.
The therapist cannot tell you what happens in the second stage of labour. The woman on the next lounger is not pregnant and the conversation stays polite. Nobody in the building can answer the question you have actually been carrying, which is some version of whether you are ready.
For a lot of women a massage and a quiet afternoon is exactly the right size of thing. If what you want is a break, book the spa.
If what you want is to arrive at your due date less frightened, that is a different purchase.
You arrive on your own. Everyone does.
The first evening is the whole group at one table, all pregnant, most within a few weeks of you, none of whom you have met. There is a sharing circle before dinner. Almost everyone says afterwards that this was the part they were most worried about and the part that stayed.
The days settle into a shape. A light breakfast at eight, a movement class at a quarter to nine, brunch at half ten. Knowledge classes through the rest of the day, seven hours of them across the week, on the physiology of birth, on what the hormones are doing, on every scenario rather than the one we would pick for you. Four meals a day cooked for pregnancy by a private chef, none of which you plan, shop for or decide. A one-hour prenatal massage. Three to five hours a day with nothing in them, which turns out to be the point.
By the last morning the thing that has changed is not that you are rested, although you are. It is that birth has become something you have talked about out loud, in detail, with people who know how it goes.
Midwives are on call around the clock and two mom'z team members are onsite for the whole retreat. There is a hospital with a prenatal care unit forty minutes away. For five days you are held by people whose entire job is pregnancy.
Retreats run from 14 to 34 weeks, currently near Barcelona, near Lisbon and in Somerset. Airport transfers are included. Flights are not. If you want the longer explanation, we have written about what a pregnancy retreat is and how to choose one.
If you are looking at a spa because you want a few days of being properly looked after, and you also want to arrive at birth feeling prepared, that is what the Solo Babymoon is built for.
“The massage and all the activities were also wonderful ...”
A perfect time to slow down, embrace a new role, connect with your baby, and enjoy excellent food, company, and views. Loved it and keep buzzing about it to all my friends.
Anastasia, United Kingdom
“Space to process, connect, and feel a bit more prepared ...”
I arrived hoping for rest. What stood out was how the retreat balanced emotional support with practical guidance. The sessions did not just focus on textbook advice, they created space for honest conversations about fears and expectations. I would recommend it to anyone who wants more than just information.
Karoline, Denmark
Since 2023 we have run more than fifty retreats for close to a thousand women. Every retreat has been rated five stars, and you can read what mothers actually say in their own words.
The retreats are led by Shirin Fardi and Amber Sawyer. Shirin is a childbirth educator and prenatal yoga teacher. Amber is a certified doula, birth educator, yoga instructor and midwife assistant.
If that sounds closer to what you are after than an afternoon at a spa, the retreat dates are open.
→ See dates and how to hold a place
These are not competing versions of the same thing, and it is worth being straight about which one you actually want.
A spa day gives you a few hours, close to home, at a fraction of the effort. It asks nothing of you. If your week has been relentless and you want it to stop for an afternoon, that is the right answer and this page is not trying to talk you out of it.
Five days gives you the rest and adds the preparation, the professionals and the other women. It costs you a flight, a diary gap and the nerve to go alone.
That last one is the real obstacle, and it is worth naming.
Most women who enquire say some version of the same thing, which is that they are not sure about going somewhere alone while pregnant. It is a fair worry, and the honest answer is that nothing is done to force the group together. Anyone who has decided to prioritise herself this deliberately during pregnancy tends to be aligned with everyone else who has made the same decision. Some women leave with one or two close friends. Some leave in touch with the entire group. Nobody is left out.
Groups are never larger than fifteen, which is the size that makes that work. Retreats run every month of the year, in Spain, Portugal and the UK, so if a date does not suit there is usually another one that does.
This is the treatment most often declined, because the heat is applied directly and held in place. Most spas will substitute a standard pregnancy massage. Ask when you book rather than on the day.
The mechanism is the same in both. Your body cannot lose heat by sweating, so your core temperature rises. Jacuzzis and hot tubs work the same way.
ACOG advises against saunas and hot tubs early in pregnancy in particular, noting that some studies associate their use at that stage with birth defects. Many spas decline heat treatments entirely before twelve weeks, and several decline massage too.
Not usually for a spa. Airlines are a different matter and often ask for one later in pregnancy, which is worth knowing if you are combining a spa with a trip.
Barcelona and Lisbon both have saltwater pools, and neither is heated, which suits pregnancy better than a warm one does. In the UK there is a natural lake on the property.
Yes, a one-hour prenatal massage, included in the retreat rate along with everything else except your flight.
No, and that is deliberate. The Solo Babymoon is your holiday, without partners, children or family, so the week belongs to you and to the other women doing the same thing. If your friend is also pregnant she is very welcome to come as a participant, and the two of you can share a room. What works well for couples is travelling out together and spending a few days either side.
Yes. Nothing is mandatory and there are three to five hours of free time every day, which is when most people schedule calls. Wi-Fi reaches the rooms in Barcelona and throughout the property in the UK. In Lisbon it is in the common areas only, and the rooms are kept for a digital detox.
This article is general information and not a substitute for medical advice. Speak to your midwife or doctor about your own pregnancy.
If you have read this far because the spa was never quite the thing you were looking for, the retreats run monthly, in Spain, Portugal and the UK.
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