Have you ever heard of Baby Massage and thought, “What the heck even is that?”. Or maybe the first thing that comes to mind is an image of your sweet baby with cucumbers on their eyes, wrapped in the softest towel, being pampered. Although it won’t look quite like that, baby massage is relaxing, calming, and pampering for your little one! You are already an incredible parent, why not add to the fun with baby massage? In this post, I’m going to be sharing four reasons why I think YOU will fall in love with baby massage!
#4 | Baby massage supports all things early learning!!
In the first three years, your baby’s brain grows to about 80% of its adult size. This means your baby is constantly learning, growing and developing new skills. Baby massage creates an ideal environment for your baby to learn. Massage supports myelination – a process needed in our brain to form important connections (aka learning). For example, as you foster love and respect through baby massage, you are creating a safe and fun environment for your baby to learn and grow! Similarly, baby massage also incorporates things like talking, stretching, singing, and smiling, which all help to develop early communication, language and motor skills. Why not give your baby the best start possible?
#3 | You deserve love and care, and baby massage has awesome benefits for parents too!
After your baby arrives, the focus is on them; you feed them, change them, clean them, hold them, and play with them. Becoming a parent is honestly one of the toughest jobs you can take. You may be dealing with postpartum hormones, depression, stress of a new baby, adjusting to breastfeeding, and more.
The awesome news is baby massage can actually boost mothers Prolactin and Oxytocin. Prolactin is an important hormone for breastfeeding and oxytocin is that feel good hormone that promotes nurturing and bonding with our babies!! Baby massage has also been shown to decrease cortisol and can help bring you more in tune with your baby, further reducing stress! Baby Massage has great benefits for dads too!! Through baby massage, you can create an environment of love, respect, and relaxation that will nurture not only your baby, but you too, creating positive and healthy attachment relationships! Carve out time to relax, breathe, sit, and have no other expectations but to have fun with your baby!
#2 | Fall in love with your baby
Everyone’s experience bonding with their baby looks totally different. For some, it takes time to feel connected with this brand new person who’s come into the world. For other’s, it feels easy. Parenting can easily feel like a comparison game (and mom guilt is too real). I want to remind you that your journey with your baby is just that, your journey. It doesn’t have to look any specific way. You have a unique baby, and you are a unique parent. You are already the best parent for your baby and doing an incredible job if I might add!!
Baby massage is a great way to create moments of time to bond and connect with your baby. The tools you learn help you observe your baby’s cues, create pockets of love and positive touch, and learn more about your baby. You are creating an environment of respect, love and communication that is an amazing basis for your relationship with your child moving forward. Your baby already loves you and thinks the world of you, let’s make space to keep falling in love with them as they grow!
#1 | Relief
The first weeks and months of parenthood are exhausting. You are physically healing from giving birth, adjusting to a new schedule and routine, and doing all of it with minimal sleep. Whether you are a new parent or adding more kids to the mix, you are finding your own rhythm of feeding, sleeping, cleaning… dare I say life. It is mentally fatiguing and physically exhausting.
Learning baby massage can provide a variety of benefits that can be helpful to pull from on your toughest most fussy days. For instance, using baby massage can naturally help to soothe teething discomfort, relieve gas pains, help constipation and colic pain, and promote sleep and rest. This is the number one reason on my list because in those first few weeks and months this is a HUGE benefit to any family. I hope you can experience the relief of baby massage for your family too!
Now that I’ve shared with you some of the reasons I think you’ll love baby massage, which one are you most looking forward to? In the first weeks and months the relief can be a huge support, but then as your baby becomes more social and engaging falling in love with their little personalities is so fun!!
If I haven’t quite convinced you yet I also hope you know what an incredible parent you are! There is no one like you, and no one better than you for your baby! There’s a million and one ways to be a good parent and this is just one of many tools out there, one of my personal favorites, but you’ve got to try it out and let me know what you think! I encourage you to experiment and see what happens when you incorporate massage into your routine of self love and baby love!!
