My Experience of Baby Massage

When Cara (first-born) and I arrived home from the hospital, home life was manic to say the least! What with hubby and I not knowing whether it was day or night, coping with the demands of a newborn, the pain I was still suffering in various unnamed places and the baby blues, I knew I had to do something to help us and the baby cope with our new everyday life. I started to research Baby Massage, its benefits and whether there was a course coming up in my locality. Luckily, there was one starting just 5 miles away and so I jumped at the chance to do it.


It was a 4-week course, just 2 hours per week and it was all practical learning (no theory). I learned that baby massage has the following benefits for baby:

• It helps to relieve discomfort or pain from gas, colic, and constipation. Cara’s colic had just begun and while it seemed to ease it a little, it didn’t cure it. I was advised however, that baby massage doesn’t cure colic. I don’t believe now that anything cures colic and while there are various products out there claiming to ease the symptoms, it is just a condition that baby endures until their digestive system is mature enough to handle feeding.

• It increases Alertness/Heightened Awareness. I did notice that while performing massage on Cara that she stopped whatever she was doing or thinking about and focussed solely on the massage, looking or smiling at me all the time. This was a lovely time when everything around us was irrelevant and all that mattered was this nice time together. It may sound silly but this is my lingering memory of the experience.

• Reduces Stress Hormones. Apparently, this is true for all types of massage and is especially important where babies who endured  difficult births are concerned.

• Promoters of infant massage claim that massage promotes bonding between parents and babies. In all of of the hustle, bustle and exhaustion of new parenthood, I sometimes forgot to just slow down and appreciate my new baby.  Massage certainly validated those feelings of love  which I knew I had for my new baby.