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 What is baby massage?
Baby massage is gentle, rhythmic stroking of your baby's body with your hands. As part of your massage routine, you can also gently manipulate your baby's ankles, wrists and fingers.
The soothing strokes of your hands stimulate the production of the feel-good hormone oxytocin in you, your baby and even your partner if he's watching. Oxytocin is the hormone that gives you that warm, loving feeling when you hold your baby close to breast feed her. What are the benefits of baby massage? Sleep better Cry less Sooth pain now that can't be bad? There are lots of ways baby massage can benefit not just your baby, but you and your partner as well. Massage can be particularly good for premature babies (Field et al 2010, Vickers et al 2004), helping them to grow and thrive. But massage is good for full-term babies too. In fact, all small children can benefit from massage. One study showed that massage may reduce the number of illnesses your baby has, cutting down on the need for trips to see the doctor or nurse. We need more studies to be done to confirm this, though (Underdown et al 2006).
There's also a theory that touch and skin-to-skin contact help to stimulate your baby's brain development (Winkley 1999).
You may find giving your baby a massage lifts your mood and helps you to feel more empowered as a parent. The time you set aside for a massage can be your special time together.
As you massage your baby, it comes naturally to chat to her and make plenty of eye contact with her (Underdown et al 2006). This is one reason why massage can help mums with postnatal depression (Field 2010). Find out about the other benefits of baby massage for mums with depression and their babies.
Baby massage can be great for dads, too. Some dads may miss out on a lot of the hands-on care of their babies, especially if they are at work and their baby is breastfed. A regular massage with dad can become a routine, perhaps at bedtime, that helps to bring them closer (Magill-Evans et al 2006). our trained therapist will learn you all the tecnics you need one to one tuition or in classes . Ask for Rachel £ 35 per lesson. |
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