Infant massage
During the gestation months, the baby is in continuous contact with the mother, wrapped in a warm environment, in which the sense of touch, which is one of the first senses to develop, becomes very important. For this reason, physical contact, cuddles and massages are very important once the baby has been born
Infant massage is an important means of communication between parents and babies. In addition, it provides benefits for the child, for parents and society, especially if it is done correctly and creates a routine that makes massage part of the baby’s day-to-day life.
At Natalbel, health professionals specialized in pregnant women and newborn babies give you guidelines and advice to perform infant massage and transmit all the benefits of it to the baby.
Benefits
Benefits of infant massage for babies
- Sensory stimulation: opportunity to perceive sensations through hearing, smell and vision.
- Regulates the sleep cycle: helping them sleep more peacefully and for longer periods.
- Promotes the acquisition of rhythms and routines.
- The massage calms the baby by reducing crying.
- Babies who are massaged daily gain more weight, especially premature babies. This helps
regulate and reinforce respiratory, circulatory, diuretic and gastrointestinal functions. - Relieves discomfort caused by colic, gas, constipation, diarrhoea, poor digestion, teething,
colds, colds, favouring nasal and chest decongestion. - Strengthens the immune system. Some studies link emotional insecurity stress with a decrease in the body’s inmune system, hence the relaxing action of massage and the fact of feeling loved and respected, boosts the child’s inmune system.
- It favours the maturation process of the brain and promotes better development of the nervous system. Massage favours the ability to receive stimuli, increases the perception threshold of these stimuli, helping to reduce hypersensitivity to touch.
- Improves the condition of the skin.
- Helps increase your baby’s self-esteem.
- Helps accrete and nurture the bonds between mother/father/baby. It intensifies the affective-verbal communication between them, expanding the attachment and affective bond. Facilitates mutual listening. Opens the baby to memorization and learning processes. Improves the ability to concentrate.
- It provides knowledge and awareness of one’s own body that makes them take care of and respect it and that others do. It helps babies become aware of their limits and their internal energy, developing more quickly the coordination of movements necessary for the development of motor functions, such as crawling and walking.
- It helps a lot to the child’s psychomotor skills.
- It helps the baby to relax, relieve tension and anxiety, making it possible to lower the stress level.
- Regulates the muscles, strains and tensions of the body.
- Through specific techniques, babies are helped to discover the tensions that occur in their body and to relax in response to the pleasure of caresses, providing well-being and balance to the baby, lowering anxiety levels.
Benefits of infant massage for parents
- It teaches parents to tolerate their child’s emotional expressions. Provides aids and resources in the event of uncontrolled breathlessness or tantrums.
- Giving the massage calms the parents, favours the relaxation of stress, also encourages parents and children to spend time together after their obligations and giving their children quality tme will benefit both parents and kids.
- It favours the maternal and paternal instinct: the desire to attend and take care of the baby, it favours the bonding, the desire to touch and caress it, facilitating the safety of the parents as such.
- Promotes the self-esteem and confidence of parents and babies
- It helps to establish the non-verbal effective communication between parents and the baby that will help them understand each other well for life and widens the affective bond between parents and babies. If it doesn’t exist, the massage creates it.
- Encourages parental insight, connection and involvement between parents and child.
- Strengthens mutual respect and listening, favouring that in the future they are respectful with others and demand this respect for themselves.
- Improves baby’s sleep patterns, helping parents sleep more peacefully and for longer.
- Helps mothers overcome postpartum depression.
- The father finds a favoured role.
Benefits for society
- It favours the human relationship since it creates safer, more confident and positive people, trained in attitudes and behaviours of respect and understanding of the world.
- Decreases violence and child abuse.
- Improves quality of life.
How can we help you?
If you want more information about Natalbel and discover everything we can do for you, do not hesitate to contact us through this form. We will be happy to help you
