So, baby massage? I hear you ask. What can a baby really get from massage? I mean, after all they don’t have life stress, do they? Being a baby must be one of the happiest times in our lives. If a baby needs massage, your parenting skills may be put under the spotlight, and there is no way you will entertain that. Or there is a chance you will be sat in a room for an hour filled with essence of burned joss sticks and told that, if it wasn’t for social distancing, you would be embracing your inner being and group hugging it out. Isn’t baby massage a whacky idea from people who have travelled to Eastern realms and want to start a more commune way of parenting?
I’m going to be brutally honest with you. Some of these questions and thoughts did go through my head with my first 2 children. I felt far to stiff upper lip and British about my parenting to entertain even looking into it.
It wasn’t until my 3rd baby, and a hefty dollop of Post-natal depression and psychosis that I was introduced to infant massage. I was in the worst place any mum could be. After having 2 babies who I brought home, I now realise that any problems I had with them, were quick to fix. Yes, I suffered from some nasty baby blues but it was short lived. I had a few rough days but Mother Nature can be just as kind as she can be evil. She let me off lightly. Anyway, I knew what I was striving for with my 3rd baby. I knew how wonderful being a mum can be. I wanted that rush of indescribable love. So infant massage was recommended. “Yes, I’ll take anything you suggest” I cried. No room for the stiff upper lip attitudes here!
What happened has set me on a journey I had no idea I even wanted to take. It was through infant massage that I not only got to know my son but saw him as my own baby. The rush of love was immense. It sort of crept up on me and then, BAM!! I was hypnotically in love. I also noticed that after giving a massage I felt good, strangely good. After weeks of feeling like I lived in a parallel universe, and in fear that this was always going to be my normal, I actually started to feel human. I found it hard to believe that all this wonder had happened from learning a few strokes. I set out to investigate what exactly had improved my situation and if infant massage had, in fact, played a bigger part.
I read as many research papers and articles I could find about curing post-natal depression and infant massage, both together and separately. I talked to my instructor and watched you tube videos. What I found was bigger than anything I has expected. I had absolutely no idea there were so many things happening in a massage for both baby and parent. I hadn’t even given a thought to the fact that nurturing touch is a language all of its own, and every aspect of it says the same thing.. I love you. I blinded myself with the science behind it and needed no further convincing. I had the living proof of what love with infant massage can do.
So, that was it, I found my calling. I always wondered what it was to have a calling, now I know. After researching training programs, I chose the best. There was absolutely no way I was going to take an online course, that after a few hours you could say you knew how to teach infant massage. I wondered how could I support parents and babies if I didn’t have access to the best training myself? I wanted to put myself through months of study to make sure that every parent and baby got the very best care from me. Infant massage gave me so much and I felt I owed it to Infant massage to do it justice.
And now I’m here, having completed my training and qualified just before the first lockdown hit, ready and able to offer my very soul of infant massage to you. I am immensely proud to call myself a CIMI, that’s Certified instructor of infant massage with the International Association of Infant Massage (IAIM) have ongoing study days with world renowned experts in their field and be part of this amazing family. I can also guarantee there is never, ever a hint of joss stick in a class!