Infant Massage

Infant Massage

THE CALCUTTA MOTHER lays her infant on his stomach on the mother's outstretched legs, and the body parts are individually stretched. Warm water and soap are applied to the lower extremities for massage, followed by the arms, back, abdomen, neck, and face. The massage looks extremely rigorous (almost rough), so it is not surprising that the infant (following swaddling) then sleeps for prolonged periods. The Indian infant massage is a daily routine that begins in the first days of life. Some have related the precocious motor development of these infants to their daily massage. Infant massage therapists are not surprised, as they maintain that the massage provides both stimulation and relaxation. It stimulates respiration, circulation, digestion and elimination. They claim that infants who are massaged sleep more soundly and that the massage relieves gas and colic and helps the healing process during illness by easing congestion and pain.

Infant massage is a common child care practice in many parts of the world, most especially Africa and Asia. For example, infants are massaged for several months of their life in Nigeria, Uganda, India, Bali, Fiji, New Guinea, New Zealand (among the Maori), Venezuela, and the Soviet Union (Auckett, 1981). In most of these countries the infant is given a massage with oil following the daily bath and prior to sleep time.

Infant Massage in the Western World

In Eurocentric cultures, infant massage is only recently being discovered and researched. In the United States, for example, massage therapy schools are beginning to teach infant massage, infant massage therapists have founded a national organization of approximately 4,000 therapists, and those therapists in turn are setting up institutes to teach parents infant massage. The techniques they use are based primarily on the teachings of two massage therapists who trained in India (Amelia Auckett who published a book on infant massage in 1981 [1] and Vimala Schneider McClure who published a similar book on infant massage in 1989 [5]).

Although these infant massage training groups are located now in most parts of the United States, very little research has been conducted on the use of infant massage with healthy infants. Working with healthy infants, infant massage training groups report that massage:

1. facilitates the parent-infant bonding process in...