One Heck of a Tool
What if you knew how to reduce your baby’s bilirubin levels the first week of life (even if your milk is slowly coming in)?
How would it feel to help your baby sleep well without harsh sleep training?
How incredible would it be to have a “step by step” routine that helped you bond with baby + reduce both of your stress levels?
How amazing would it be to help your preterm infant gain weight faster and come home sooner?
Wouldn’t it be lovely if the baby's father had a simple way to increase father-baby bonding?
What if you could learn this for less than $100 and be able to offer it to your baby at any time at no additional cost?
Would that be worth your time and money? Of course! Let’s go!
Reducing Jaundice
Infant Massage has been shown in multiple studies to reduce bilirubin serums levels in infants. If you aren’t familiar, bilirubin is a yellow substance produced in the breakdown of red blood cells. What you need to know about it is that high bilirubin levels indicate jaundice, and newborn jaundice can be dangerous. Even with great technology, jaundice can be a stressful situation for parents. *
Sleep Improvements without Sleep Training
Infants need lots of sleep and lots of milk. Sometimes, as a caring parent these two needs seem in opposition. There are times your sweet, sweet baby doesn’t seem to sleep long. While most babies do need to wake up several times during the night four nourishment (which of course helps your milk supply), that doesn’t mean they have to experience restless sleep. 123 infants & mothers were studied while using massage as part of a bedtime routine and the results show The bedtime routine resulted in improvements in child and mother night wakings, maternal perceptions of -child sleep and mood, and improvements in maternal sleep quality.**
Infants and toddlers with sleep onset problems were given daily massages by their parents for 15 minutes prior to bedtime for one month. Based on parent diaries the massaged versus the control children (who were read bedtime stories) showed fewer sleep delay behaviors and had a shorter latency to sleep onset by the end of the study. Forty-five minute behavior observations by an independent observer also revealed more time awake, alert and active and more positive affect in the massaged children by the end of the study.
Infant Massage Improves Mother-Baby Attachment
Infant massage has been shown to significantly improve emotional availability between mother and baby. ***** Massage given to premature neonates by their mothers on a daily basis can promote and maintain emotional attachment between the mother and her infant. The findings of the present study can be used ******
Infant Massage Improve Father-Baby Interactions
Infants were given massages by their fathers for 15 minutes prior to their daily bedtime for one month. By the end of the study, the fathers who massaged their infants were more expressive and showed more enjoyment and more warmth during floor-play interactions with their infants.
Weight Gain
One of the most common measurements of healthy infant development is weight gain. There are so many studies on infant massage and weight gain, I won’t cite them all here. The improvement in weight gain has been heavily researched in preterm infants and infants staying in NICU. Infants given daily massage had 21% greater weight gain per day and infants in the control group. Essentially, massage has been shown to improval vagal nerve activity and gastric activity. The vagus nerve is responsible for digestion
heart rate
breathing
cardiovascular activity
reflex actions, such as coughing, sneezing, swallowing, and vomiting
Learn Infant Massage
Infant massage can improve baby’s health, improve baby’s sleep quality, promote mother and baby bonding, promote father-baby bonding, improve vagus nerve function, improve weight gain (and other measures of growth). So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to learn infant massage.
Here is your invitation, come to my next infant massage class
Sources
*Basiri-Moghadam M, Basiri-Moghadam K, Kianmehr M, Jani S. The effect of massage on neonatal jaundice in stable preterm newborn infants: a randomized controlled trial. J PakMed Assoc.2015;65:602-6.
**Mindell, J.A., Lee, C.I., Leichman, E.S. & Rotella, K.N. (2018). Massage-based bedtime routine: Impact on sleep and mood in infants and mothers. Sleep Medicine, 41, 51-57.
***Porreca, A., Parolin, M., Boh4, G., Freato, S. & Simonelli, A. (2017). Infant massage and quality of early mother-infant interactions: Are there assocaitions with maternal psychological wellbeing, marital quality, and social support? Frontiers in Psychology, 2017 Jan 17;7:2049. Doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.02049. eCollection 2017.
****Cullen, C., Field, T., Escalona, A. & Hartshorn, K. (2000). Father-infant interactions are enhanced by massage therapy. Early Child Development and Care, 164, 41-47.
******The Effects of Massage by Mothers on Mother-Infant Attachment. Mahnaz Shoghi, Soroor Sohrabi, Mahboobe Rasouli PMID: 29101776
Birth is a very special time in your life, but it's one day out of the entire childbearing year. You are meant to have a positive experience. You can navigate all the challenges and concerns during pregnancy, birth and beyond with grace and ease.
I support you with personalized coaching, pregnancy health, childbirth education, breastfeeding/formula feeding preparation as well as preparing for postpartum and even returning to work!
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