Q. Hi, I am having a difficult time finding research studies for the effects of massage therapy during pregnancy

Try the nursing journals database CINAHL.  If you look at the top of the screen you'll see a "CINAHL Headings" link.  Click on that.  The CINAHL Headings is the list of terms that this database uses as subject headings for articles within the database.

If I search on the term "Pregnancy" on of the terms that it suggests that I use is "Prenatal Care".  You can also search on "Massage" and see what tems it pulls up.

Now when you go back to the search page use Prenatal Care and search on it as an "Exact Subject Heading" (found in teh drop-down menu to the right of the search box).  Do the same with the terms that you find for Massage.

You can combine the searches by using the AND, OR, NOT drop-down menu between the search boxes.

What you are doing is pulling up all the articles in the database with those subject headings attached to them.  You can then narrow the search by adjusting the dates and choosing Scholarly Articles.

In a database try using pregnancy AND "massage therapy" AND benefits. I found an article in New Life Journal, Carolina Edition MASSAGE DURING PREGNANCY: Luxury or Part of a Holistic Prenatal Care Program? from 2004 in vol. 5 issue 3.

Also in Prevention magazine:The Pregnancy Must-Do You'll Love. vol 56 issue 8 2004. Some of the keywords and subjects are: Theraputics, Physiological; Massage therapy: Physical therapy.

Another article:Labor of love in Massage Therapy Journal  Fall 2009; vol. 48 issue 3 pgs.60-64. This looks like a scholarly article.

In trying Sage database or JSTOR I found too many results, but it does help to use the limiter United States to limit your search even more. Remember to put "massage therapy" in quotes.