Baby Massage

What are the Benefits of Infant Massage

For babies, children, parents and carers

* Makes baby feel loved
* Promotes better sleep
* Facilitates body awareness
* Boosts immune system
* Sensory stimulation
* Improves skin condition
* Improves blood circulation
* Helps digestion
* Balances respiration
* Relief for teething pains
* Helps waste elimination
* Helps you learn about your baby (Their needs and desires)
* Relaxes parents
* Helps build parents’ and baby’s self-esteem
* Pleasurable experience
* Stimulates production of oxytocin (Oxytocin is a hormone which can be produced by both male and female persons during massage. It is useful as a pain reliever and has a calming effect on the person.)

*Bonding is : love, security, connection, acceptance, peace, caring, happiness, interaction, empathy, unity, warmth, joy, communication and familiarity.

*Bonding may be experienced through eye contact, touch, smell, taste and listening.

*”Bonding is a unique relationship between two people. It is specific and endures through time.”

Bonding has been defined as a “unique relationship between two people that is specific and endures through time”.

Touch is a very powerful element in human bonding, as are communication, both verbal and non-verbal, and prolonged eye contact. Infant massage encompasses and supports all these vital aspects of bonding. Delayed bonding may occur due to situations such as premature birth, recovery from caesarean, medical complications, adoption, lack of physical and emotional support and post natal depression. In these cases Infant Massage can begin to recreate the elements of bonding.

Fathers can especially benefit from infant massage. It gives them time to connect and interact with their child on a deeper level than day to day contact provides. Fathers are always welcome in infant massage classes and some instructors even hold a special Father’s class during their course. Please contact your chosen instructor for further information regarding these classes.

Infant Massage is also beneficial to Special Needs Children and older children and facilitates deeper understanding, integration and connection with their parents and caregivers.

History

In the early 1970’s Vimala Schneider McClure was introduced to baby massage in an Indian orphanage. Through a desire to share her new found knowledge and to regulate the art, in 1981 she established the International Association of Infant Massage (IAIM.) A curriculum was devised to enable those with some medical training to bring this expertise into their jobs e.g. health visitors, midwives, social workers, nurses and some complementary therapists.

Victoria Robertson

Qualified baby massage teacher > http://aim2heal.eu/treatments/