The Importance of Pregnancy and Infant Massage

Pregnancy is a time of both physical and emotional change for a woman’s body. Massage therapy during pregnancy can help relieve many of the discomforts experienced all through pregnancy. In addition to increasing relaxation and improving circulation, therapeutic massage addresses many of the aches and pains a woman experiences.

In a recently published article entitled “Pregnancy and Infant Massage Resource Center,” the experts at Massage Magazine write:

“Massage therapy relaxes the pregnant client, increases circulation, improves sleep, reduces pain and boosts mood—and it is growing in popularity among mothers-to-be throughout the U.S.”

The authors write that one research study conducted by Tiffany Field, Ph.D., and colleagues at the Touch Research Institute (TRI) in Miami, Florida, and published in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies in 2008 indicated that massage therapy reduced pain in pregnant women, alleviated prenatal depression in parents and improved couples’ relationships.

“Another TRI study published in Infant Behavior and Development in 2009 indicated massage therapy benefitted depressed pregnant women and newborns. In that study, pregnant women diagnosed with major depression received massage therapy from their significant others twice a week for 12 weeks,” Massage Mag writes.

And analysis showed that the women in question not only had reduced depression at the end of the 12 weeks, but also had lower levels of depression and cortisol in the postpartum period.

Now, with infant massage, it can help babies relax and sleep better and promotes good circulation and digestion, it also helps to relieve gas and colic. Best of all, massaging your baby is a wonderfully enjoyable way to build the loving connection between the two of you.

“The primary role of the massage therapist in infant massage is as instructor, teaching parents how to massage their babies. A parent class is usually 60 to 90 minutes in length, held once a week for five weeks, and taught to a half-dozen parents at a time,” the authors write.