Baby massage - Early Years outreach approach
“She enjoyed herself while we did the massage and I did too!”
“She enjoys a better sleep and she’s much happier when she wakes up”
“I think it was brilliant and I liked it”
“I found it very useful and it’s a big thing for me to have done it.”
Baby massage has been a parenting tradition within many cultures such as India and Africa for years. Since being introduced in the western world over 30 years ago it is gaining popularity and recognition.
Baby massage is when a parent or primary carer lovingly follows a series of sequenced strokes on the area of the baby’s body using non-fragranced oil. This touch offers a wonderful experience of communication between baby and adult and improves and increases relaxation, interaction and movement.
As an outreach play development worker employed by Toybox in partnership with Newry City Surestart for the Travelling community, I delivered this five week programme to my families incorporating the aims and objectives of the Toybox project.
All parents were keen to hear about baby massage and improve parent-baby interactions; they welcomed the explanations I gave on the benefits of skin to skin touch between parent and baby. Before commencing the programme, I encouraged parents to share with me the learning they wanted to experience from the programme for themselves and their baby. One parent requested help for her baby’s constipation. These parents were delighted to hear that baby massage would address this issue and much more, such as improving bonding between parent and child, increasing parents’ awareness of baby’s cues, help with colic, and providing relaxation techniques for both parent and baby.
The success of the programme was attributed to my ability to meet where possible, the needs of all parents involved. I did this by listening to parents before the programme commenced and during it. I was therefore able to address with parents any concerns they had, offer advice and signpost them to other relevant support agencies. For some parents completing the programme in their home, a safe family environment, was important to them. I facilitated this while explaining the further benefits of being part of a larger group of parents and babies. Agreeing suitable times for the programme delivery meant weekly participation by families.
My weekly observations included parents growing into confident people who were laughing and enjoying this contact with their baby and relaxed babies enjoying both verbal and non-verbal contact. Parents informed me that they were doing massage with their babies every day and continued to enjoy the time together. One mother commented, “It doesn’t take long and she really enjoys it and so do I.” Before long they were suggesting their own songs to sing and engaging in playful interaction as they did the strokes. By week three some parents met up together in each other’s homes for me to deliver the programme to them.
Baby massage is a shared experience for families which provides fun and techniques which have a positive impact on the adults and babies involved in the programme. To sum it up, one parent described it as "something anyone can do with their baby and it can involve other family members."
1