Massage therapy is a healing practice used to improve overall health and well-being. In healthy infants, massage decreases stress levels, facilitates parent-child bonding and provides physical and psychological benefits, according to HealthyFamily.org. The intimate interaction between a parent and child creates a lifelong foundation for building trust, respect, communication and self esteem.
Origins
Infant massage dates back to ancient times. For centuries, Asian and Pacific Island cultures have incorporated massage as a basic component of a baby's routine and have handed down the practice of touch for generations.
Vimala Schneider McClure, a yoga practitioner who served in a Northern India orphanage, developed an infant massage training program and is credited with helping to introduce the technique to the western world in 1978. Massage is now becoming recognized in the United States as a beneficial therapy for infants.
Touch
Touch is considered to be physically and spiritually healthful. While a gentle touch is soothing for most people, babies need touch to thrive. Tiffany Field, Ph.D., director of Touch Research Institutes, notes that "touch is as important to infants and children as eating and sleeping," and "touch therapy triggers many physiological changes that help infants and children grow and develop." In her book, "Touch," Dr. Field explains that touch is critical for a child's growth, development and health.
Bonding
Children crave their parents' touch and the parent-child bond is strengthened through infant massage. The nurturing touch of infant massage offers a physical connection between parents and child. The quality time spent together can validate a parent's feelings of love and affection for their child and the bonding that occurs with massage enhances the entire bonding process.
Stress Relief
Newborns experience stress as a result of birth and the sudden change to their environment. Massage lowers the level of an infant's stress hormones, which improves immune function, and babies benefit from the relaxation provided by massage and the movement of their limbs and muscles.
"The Hands-On Mums," a July 2007 article in The Times (UK), cites research by the University of Warwick that says "massage may help babies under six months to sleep better, cry less and be less stressed."
Physical/Psychological Benefits
Infant massage may increase an infant's self-esteem and its sense of love, acceptance, respect and trust. According to Elaine Fogel Schneider, Ph.D., C.I.I.M., a nurturing touch enriches an infant's physiological, social-emotional and mind/body/spirit connections.
Kimberly Habib, a certified infant massage instructor at the Huggins Center in Melrose, Massachusetts, credits infant massage with easing and infant's digestive difficulties, such as gas and constipation. Relief from teething pain and emotional stress is another possible benefit of infant massage.
