What is Baby Massage?

Baby massage is a long-standing parenting tradition in many cultures, such as Indian and African, and has been practised in the UK since the late 1990s. Baby massage help your baby feel securely attached, feel loved and also help them relief from colic or gas discomfort.

Before babies are able to understand language, we often communicate and comfort them through touch. If a baby cries, for example, parents will hold, cuddle or stroke them. Baby massage is part of this natural impulse.

What is the benefit of baby massage?

Becoming more confident in handling their child and better at recognising their needs.

Improved positive interaction with their baby.

A great way for partners, family members and carers to bond with baby.

Improved sleep for their baby.

Massage can soothe your baby and help her to sleep. Massage has many added benefits for your baby, including improving weight gain, aiding digestion, improving circulation, and easing teething pain. Massage is a great way for you and your partner to bond with your baby, and you may find it relaxing, too!

Massage is also beneficial to your baby's growth and physical bonding, she says. “Massage helps foster healthy self-esteem and neurological development.” ... Baby massage can also be a good way for new dads to gain confidence and sensitivity to an infant's cues, or simply enjoy some special one-on-one time.

The benefits of skin-to-skin

The Benefits of Skin-to-Skin

Babies need lots of skin-to-skin time with mom and dad in the hospital and at home. Skin-to-skin time:

•Calms you and baby.

•Helps baby cry less.

•Releases hormones that relieve stress and stabilize baby's temperature, breathing rate, heart rate, and blood sugar.

•Releases a hormone that lowers mom's stress and promotes healing.

•Helps your colostrum (the first milk that is full of nutrients that protect baby) to flow more easily.

•Boosts baby's immune system and protects against illness and disease.

•Builds a strong brain through the smells, textures, and sounds the baby experiences while he's on mom or dad's chest.

•Helps baby gain weight faster.

•Helps mom breastfeed longer by building her milk supply and making her bond with baby stronger.

•Lowers mom's risk of postpartum mood disorder.

•Creates connections between mom, dad, and baby that last a lifetime.

•Gives mum a chance to rest or take a break.

Secure Attachments

In addition to the cognitive benefits, skin-to-skin contact lets children know that they’re safe and protected, building trust between child and parent. Through the physical contact with adults, strong attachments can be created, thus providing a stable foundation for future relationships. Oxytocin, known as the “bonding” hormone, is released during times of close physical contact such as breastfeeding. Parent-child interactions may help foster the neurodevelopment of brain regions producing oxytocin, thus enhancing children’s future socio-emotional development. Mothers’ ability to identify their baby solely through touch immediately following delivery indicates their unique reliance on the tactile sense. Touch can benefit both mothers and infants alike, forming a bonding connection between parent and child. Infants of depressed mothers who massage their infants show improvement in growth and development while the mothers’ depression levels decrease. Physical contact can also lower cortisol levels for both mothers and children, thereby leading to improved immune system functioning. By continually providing nurturing touch, parents can help facilitate enhanced social, emotional, and physical development at young age.

colic relief and baby massage.

It’s possible that massage may help your baby’s colic. Babies do tend to cry less and be less fretful when they’re being massaged.

Massage can also help your baby’s digestion, moving trapped wind and poo through his system. This may help to make him feel more comfortable.

Massaging your baby with gently rhythmic motions can also help to soothe you and bond with your baby, at a time when you may be feeling overwhelmed by his crying.

Compared to other treatments for colic, baby massage is free and enjoyable. So it's worth giving it a try.

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Can baby massage help to overcome PND? (Postnatal Depression)

Baby massage can be a lovely way to care for and bond with your baby. However, there is little evidence that it helps women to recover from postnatal depression (PND).

It’s important to seek help if you think you have PND, as you may need treatments such as talking therapies or medication to get better. If your depression is mild, your GP may suggest some self-help strategies to try at home. This is likely to include eating a healthy diet, and getting plenty of rest and exercise, rather than baby massage.

If you have PND you may struggle to take any pleasure from looking after your baby. Everyday tasks, such as feeding and bedtime routines, may feel like a real trial for you.

Some mums find baby massage gives them more confidence in caring for their baby. It can help your baby to sleep well, when included in a bedtime routine, and has been linked to better sleep and mood for mums too.

Having PND can make it harder for you to communicate with your baby. For example, your baby may gurgle and then leave space for you to respond. But if you’re feeling depressed or anxious, it’s easy to miss your baby’s cues. You may be feeling distant from your baby or think that you’re not quite in tune with what she needs.

Massaging your baby may help you to bridge this communication gap and allow you to focus on her. You can practice being ‘in the moment’ with your baby, observing her and yourself without judgement. Some people call this awareness "mindfulness". It can improve your mental wellbeing by helping you notice signs of depression.

Massaging your baby stimulates the release of your body’s natural feel-good chemical, oxytocin. When oxytocin floods your body, it helps you and your baby to form a close bond.

Making eye contact with your baby, and chatting to her, may come more easily when you’re massaging her. This close physical contact may help you to be sensitive to your baby’s needs, and your baby may start to respond more to you, too.

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What is Baby Massage?

colic relief and baby massage.

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Can baby massage help to overcome PND? (Postnatal Depression)

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