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Baby Massage and Baby Chatting Groups
Research has shown that support for new mothers especially in the early stages of
parenting, can help them strengthen their attachment with their babies. Attachment is a Psycho-Physical Experience. In the first few months after the baby’s birth you will be highly sensitive and preoccupied
with the bodily and psychic experience of your baby. This enables you to intuit the different meanings of your baby’s communications and adapt yourself to him/ her. Baby massage uses this interest to encourage
mothers to extend their understanding and communication with their babies. This is why it is useful to start baby massage early on.
Secure attachment
There is an established link between secure attachment and sensitive care-giving (Ainsworth, 1969). Infants
learn to rely on and expect an interactive pattern with their mothers. If the mother provides sensitive mirroring and containment of feelings the baby internalises the idea that others understand him and are able to
help with difficult feelings. This will effect the development of a baby’s brain and ultimately impact on his/ her abilities to interact with others.
 Nonverbal communication
Components of nonverbal communication include touch, smell, taste
, eye contact, sound of mum’s voice. The skin is the largest sensory organ of the body. Touch provides many things such as stimulation, relaxation, contact, information, comfort, love, excitement, pleasure
and pain.
A ‘procedural memory’, is based on how things are done repeatedly.
To find out how to touch baby appropriately and sensitively is one of the important objectives of a baby massage.
Research
Massaged infants were first more alert, cried less and their sleep was enhanced. They gained
more weight, appeared less stressed, were more easy to soothe and more interactive and sociable (Field, 2000, (Field, Dempsey &Shuman, 1984). Mothers, who massaged their babies
felt less anxious, less helpless, more confident (Scaffidi & Field 1996).
Aims of therapeutic Baby Massage Groups
- To create a consistent, safe and therapeutic ‘holding’ space for mothers.
- To reduce mothers’ anxiety.
- To encourage sensitive caregiving – create a positive feedback loop
- To increase mothers’ confidence in her abilities to mother.
- To give practical tools to soothe and / or to stimulate baby – to feel empowered
- To create an emotional space for mothers to express their feelings about motherhood,
to provide validation for the importance of their role as mothers.
- To use the group as a source of support
Holding and stroking
In initial sessions mothers are encouraged to hold their babies, experiment with new
positions and to stroke them. Mothers are also encouraged to seek eye contact, play games, they are taught ways of gently, yet playfully manipulate babies’ arms and legs.
Using the voice
Mothers are shown ways to chat to their babies in ‘motherese’ and to sing. Babies love to listen
to their mother’s voice. Sometimes it is difficult talk affectionately to your baby. There can be many different reasons for this. And you may want to explore those. But nursery rhymes can
help to overcome inhibitions. They provide a frame, rhythm and words, so are safe to help you experiment with the sound of your voice.
Benefits
Research says that massage is relaxing not only for the person receiving, but also for the
person giving it. In a relaxed atmosphere it is easier to open up and also share some difficult experiences and feelings.
Owning and sharing hopes and concerns
Themes, which arise from the group discussions are initiated by participants, mothers and babies, rather than dictated by the facilitator. This gives women an opportunity to own the
contents of the discussion and experience them as relevant to their current life situations. Mothers talk about adjusting to their changing babies as they become more independent.
They can admit that they sometimes feel angry with their baby and that they long for support…. The group functions as a benign container for the expression of anxieties, mixed
feelings, self doubt, as well as the sharing of joy.
Expressing and containing feelings
The group helps women to acknowledge feelings of ambivalence about their babies and
motherhood, and to normalise their experiences. Mothers’ emotional needs are mirrored. If the facilitator and the group can help to scaffold a mother’s experience, she will be
more able to tolerate and explain her baby’s emotions.
Baby massage can become a psycho-educational experience, which helps to increase the
sensitivity of parents towards their babies. The support, holding, attuning and modelling within the group creates opportunities for mothers and babies to interact. When their
confidence increases mums become more spontaneous in their interactions with baby
Summary
New mothers meet weekly to learn baby massage and to talk about their experience of motherhood.
The groups aim to provide a safe space for sharing some of the difficult feelings new mothers
struggle with. The massage activity is a portal to help mothers feel less anxious, strengthen their relationship with their babies, build bonds in the group with other mothers and with the
facilitator. All these attachments help to create a matrix of support and acceptance, which in turn strengthen mothers’ inner sense of themselves as good enough, competent parents, who
are able to provide for their babies.
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