Emma & Baby Leo: Find out how IAIM Baby Massage helped me to re-centre with my baby and establish a calm connection in an environment away from the stresses and strains of everyday life.

Introducing Sunflower family, Emma and Baby Leo!

Emma and baby Leo joined two Sunflower Baby Massage five-week courses, starting when Leo was three months old.  Emma shares her beautiful story of how the warm interactions of Baby Massage not only relaxed and calmed Leo during a challenging time, but also empowered her as parent to know what is best for Leo and his treatment. 

Quality time dedicated to Leo

​I chose baby massage as part of my parenting practise because I wanted to spend quality time dedicated to Leo, where we would both be completely engaged with one another.  Leo is the youngest of my three children and so trying to carve out time solely dedicated to him was always going to be challenging.  I felt that he and I needed this time just for us, for strengthening our bond, and to build a calming connection between us.

Emma and Baby Leo

A calming and restorative experience 

​The massage course not only provided this opportunity, but it also gave me a sense of being ‘away from it all’ in a ‘safe’ bubble, alongside other parents who were also going through those new baby days with me.  What I had not appreciated was just how relaxed I would also feel, which of course, had an impact on Leo, both during the massage and afterwards.  So as well as developing and enhancing the connection between us, through nurturing touch, it was also a really calming, restorative experience for us both.  

How massage offered comfort to Leo

​Leo also suffered with (initially undiagnosed) allergies and was so uncomfortable, as he was suffering with eczema from head to toe.  The massage really calmed him down and enabled him to relax – he was tense and uncomfortable all the time with his skin – so this was a way I could help him through nurture.  To see how much he relaxed into the massage each week was incredible!  

Empowered to know what is best for my baby

​It made me feel so much better to be able to do something that helped him feel so much better.  The look of grateful relief on his face after every massage was very rewarding and it empowered me to know that I did know what was best for my baby.  As such I was able to push for diagnosis and ultimately we were referred to the correct specialists, his allergies were diagnosed and we were given the right creams to get his eczema under control.  The benefits of massage are therefore so wide reaching, spanning the physical, mental and emotional, and go much further than just the massage room itself.

The importance of feeling understood

​Our IAIM baby massage practitioner deeply understood all of this, which she communicated gently throughout the course.  It was clear that she was an expert in her field and that she cares deeply about the benefits massage can bring to both parent and child.   Her nature meant that she was easy to talk to and, as a Mum herself, was able to understand how it feels to be in your shoes as a parent.  She was patient and considered, and really took the time to think about your needs as a parent – even bringing dairy, egg and soya free brownies for me so I could have a little treat (as I was on a very controlled diet while my son’s allergies were being identified!)  Little extras like that can make such a difference when you are coping with the early sleep-deprived days of new motherhood!

So much more than 'just massage'...

"It’s really important to stress just what a powerful experience baby massage actually is.  It’s so much more than  ‘just massage’ – it’s a very special, unique way to re-centre with your child and establish a calm connection in an environment away from the stresses and strains of everyday life.  I just can’t recommend it highly enough.”

Love these two photos, what a difference five-weeks can make!

Baby, Leo at the final class of his first five-week course.

and again, at the final class of his second five-week course!

A special Thank you!

Huge thanks to Emma and Baby Leo for taking the time to share their Infant Massage journey so beautifully with us, as part of Infant Mental Health Awareness Week 2018. I absolutely loved sharing the wonders of this gentle parenting practice with them and is so heart warming to hear how much this special time connecting together has benefited both Emma and Leo. Big Thanks extends to the lovely Sarah Egerton at the International Association of Infant Massage for putting this wonderful case study together.  
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Brought to you by the International Association of Infant Massage and Emma Lindell, Infant Massage Lead for Dorset Parent Infant Partnership and owner of Sunflower Baby Massage
​www.iaimbabymassage.co.uk
www.dorpip.org.uk
​www.sunflowerbabymassage.org.uk
It's Infant Mental Health Awareness Week
​10th - 16th of June 2018

​Join the conversation using #IMHAW18
@IAIM  Baby Massage @UK_IAIM
@Dorset Parent Infant Partnership @Dor_pip
@Sunflower Baby Massage @Sunflower_BM