Six reasons to do baby massage
How beneficial is baby massage? Infant massage brings a multitude of benefits to parent and child. It is an experience that helps strengthen vital bonds, while providing stimulation and relief for babies. Baby massage is suitable for babies from birth, so it is an ideal first class to attend with your new-born, just as soon as you feel ready to come to a class. Here are half a dozen key benefits of baby massage:
Massage also reduces levels of stress hormones such as cortisol and noradrenaline. Furthermore, over time, regular massage can actually help baby with their ability to self-regulate and cope better in stressful situations, regulating their behavioural states and remaining calm.
You will also learn touch relaxation, a technique which helps with physical and psychological tension.
Baby massage helps increase connections between the neurons in the brain and promotes the growth of the myelin sheath around those neurons, as well as aiding sensory integration and body/mind awareness. Also, as we learn to recognise and respond to baby’s cues, baby’s language development is stimulated which leads to improved learning ability.
When you really know your baby and can read their cues you will feel more confident in caring for them. Being involved in a positive activity with baby provides quality time with them and a chance to discover their uniqueness. Massaging your baby decreases stress hormones and increases levels of relaxation hormones such as oxytocin and prolactin. If you are breastfeeding, you might also find that milk production is stimulated. Baby massage will help you to feel more relaxed and can improve your sleep too. In addition, attending a baby massage course is a great way to get out and about and meet other parents with babies of a similar age, with whom you can share the experience, perhaps even making lifelong friends for you and baby. And perhaps most important of all, studies have shown that baby massage decreases incidences of post-natal depression.
Our IAIM baby massage courses run every half term. Email [email protected] to book your place.
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Clare StraughanMam of 3, CIMI, Wellbeing for Mothers and Babies Instructor, Birthlight Baby and Toddler Yoga Instructor, Calm for Kids Children's Yoga Instructor, TeenYoga Instructor and Breastfeeding Peer Supporter. Archives
April 2023
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