Pregnancy Massage: Amazing Advantages

The advantages of massage during pregnancy, labor, and after birth truly are amazing -- for you and your baby. 

Massage during pregnancy and labor can help:

• Reduce back pain, bring better sleep, and improve overall mood.

• Enable fewer complications for the mother while in labor and facilitates fewer postnatal complications for the infant.

• Strengthen the immune system, decrease blood pressure, and increase blood supply to the developing infant.

• Reduce maternal anxiety, decrease stress hormone levels, increase milk production, and enhance placental function.

• Decrease postpartum depression, irritability, and exhaustion thereby improving mother-infant bonding.

• Decrease labor time by 25 to 50%.

• Reduce C-Section rate by 50%.

• Decrease medication usage by 30%.

• Decrease forceps usage by 30%.

• Decrease Epidural usage by 60%.

How You Can Benefit Now

At New Life Chiropractic, Terri Syperreck, C.M.T., makes working with pregnant moms and infants a specialty.  Not only is she a Certified Massage Therapist, she is also certified in Prenatal and Postpartum Massage, an extensive post-graduate course in prenatal and postpartum massage which addresses high risk care, healing, labor support, and overall nurturing and bonding for mother and child.  Make an appointment today and enjoy this special time in your life.

The Gift of Infant Massage: Loving Touch to Grow On

Diana Roberts Moore, L.M.P., Information for People, Inc.

As a parent, loving relative or caregiver of an infant, you want to see your child flourish.  Touch is as important as food for healthy mental and physical development--a fact clearly supported by both ancient tradition and contemporary research.  Massage is attentive, pleasurable touch that can promote your baby's well-being while increasing your ability to respond to his or her needs.

Bonding with Your Baby

Bonding, that unique and close attachment between you and your child is enhanced with the observant and sensitive care of massage.  The elements of bonding are inherent in infant massage: eye contact, skin contact, smiles, soothing sounds, smell, and loving communication.  Responding to your baby's smiles, frowns, and squirms in this comforting way can reinforce the trust between the two of you, a trust which can provide the foundation of your relationship for years to come.

For fathers, massage offers a special opportunity to develop ease and intimacy with their children.  This holds true for grandparents or other relatives, professional caregivers, and anyone wishing to develop closeness with babies in their care and to help them thrive.

Research Tells the Story

The positive effects of infant massage have been well researched in studies such as those sponsored by UNICEF and the University of Miami School of Medicine.  Among the results of the major studies are:

• Children and infants who were massaged showed improved sleeping patterns, diminished anxious behavior and significantly reduced stress indicators such as heart rate and stress hormone levels.

• Premature babies who were regularly massaged gained weight faster, performed better on developmental tasks, acquired mental and motor skills earlier, and were more relaxed than non-massaged babies.  Early touch also benefited the developing nervous systems of these infants.

• In India, where infant massage has passed down through generations, studies showed that babies massaged by their mothers developed both mentally and physically well beyond normal expectations given their malnourished condition.

Institutionalized infants who received extra touch developed visual attentiveness earlier than babies who didn't.  Visually impaired babies whose parents touched them early and often were able to reach toward sounds sooner than other babies.  

Nurturing Your Older Child

It's never too late to make massage a part of your child's life.  Massage can calm children during emotional upsets and relieve the discomforts of illness.  It can also help ease the pain of tension headaches and muscle aches or cramps.  Children diagnosed with attention deficit disorder (ADD) or hyperactivity who receive massage often concentrate better, cry less, and sleep better.

Over time, receiving massage can help a child create a more positive body image and enhance emotional security.  It can help teach them the importance of self-nurturing and preventative health care at an early age.

If Your Baby Has Special Needs

If you are the parent of an infant with special needs, your child may communicate her or his needs differently than other babies.  Giving a focused massage allows you to learn more about your baby's unique signals.  Massage may also help your baby cope with the physical stresses or disabilities she or he may have to live with.

For drug-exposed infants, massage relieves tension and pain, helping these babies shift their attention from physical discomfort to pleasurable experience.  Their weight gain also increases with daily massage.

Parent to Parent

When you ask parents why they massage their infants, here's what they talk about:

• Sleep. Babies who are massaged sleep better, and are calmer and more alert when awake.

• Physical Comfort.  Massage stimulates digestion and elimination.  It can also reduce the discomfort of teething and colds, and help calm fussy babies.

• Relaxation. Both normal discomforts and your baby's need to constantly respond to new experiences can lead to muscle tension and unease.  Massage can help your baby let of tension and relax.

Giving Massage Benefits You, Too

Giving massage can build your understanding of your baby's cues and your confidence in caring for him or her.  You may feel more satisfied both with the quality of time you spend with your infant and with your increased ability to help your child relax in times of stress.  You may even find your own tension eased as you perform the gentle movements with your infant.

The Gift of Infant Massage

The brief time we have with our children is precious.  Learning to massage your baby is an enjoyable way to enhance your infant's development, deepen loving communication between you and your child, and provide an opportunity for you and your baby to develop relaxation skills that can last a lifetime.

How You Can Learn

At New Life Chiropractic, Terri Syperreck, C.M.T., is our Infant Massage Specialist.  She is certified as an infant massage instructor and makes working with pregnant moms and infants a specialty.  She has completed an extensive post-graduate course in prenatal and postpartum massage which addresses high risk care, healing, labor support, and overall nurturing and bonding for mother and child.  Make an appointment today and give the gift of infant massage.