Infant Massage
Touch is the first sense to develop, and learning to massage your baby is a wonderful way for you to meet their basic need for human contact and tender loving care. Baby massage serves to strengthen the loving bond between parent and baby by teaching easy-to-use massage strokes that encourages relaxation, supports their physical development, helps to ease specific complaints and enhances communication between both of you.
The Benefits of Infant Massage
There are numerous benefits of massaging your baby and include some of the following;
For baby
- Helping baby to feel attached, soothed, loved and valued.
- Increases levels of relaxation and promotes longer sleep
- Enhances communication
- Relief from wind, colic, constipation
- Reduces the discomfort of teething.
- Increases spatial awareness
- Improves joint mobility and coordination
- Improves muscle tone and reduces muscular tension
- Nourishes skin and improves skin conditions.
For you - Feeling closer to baby
- Gaining a deeper understanding of baby's wants and needs
- Providing special one-to-one time with baby
- Increases confidence in your ability to care for and nurture baby
- Learning a life-long parenting skill / support tool
- Can help to reduce the symptoms associated with post-partum blues and post-natal depression.
- Issues with breast feeding can be relieved as massage raises levels of the 'feel-good' hormone oxytocin in both you and your baby
- A wonderful way for partners, older siblings and grandparents to bond with the newest addition to the family.
Massage and Infants with Special Needs
Although massage is beneficial for all babies, it is a very useful support for a wide range of disabilities and conditions such as Down's syndrome, Cerebral palsy, Visual and Auditory impairment and for babies with delayed development.
If you are the guardian of an infant or child with special needs please contact Cardiff charity www.touchtrust.co.uk / 029 2063 5660 for a wealth of support, advice and understanding.
Specialised Massage & Reflexology
Holistic massage is a supportive, relaxing and rebalancing treatment that works to relieve muscular tension while encouraging your mind to slow down and your breathing to deepen. This type of massage is both soothing and nurturing, and creates a safe space for wellness on every level. This therapy can be combined with reflexology for increased well-being.
All massages’ are female-only.
Reflexology Lymphatic Drainage is an award winning reflexology technique that focuses on stimulating the lymphatic reflexes on the feet. The aim is to cause an effect on the lymphatic system in the body so that the symptoms associated with secondary lymphoedema and other inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, migraine and sinusitis can be effectively treated.
Spinal Reflexology is a powerful form of reflexology based on stimulating the spinal reflexes on the feet. Each individual vertebra will be treated to help identify any nerve roots that are out of balance. A nerve root exits through the vertebrae to reach specific organs and muscles. If a nerve root is imbalanced not only can it affect the functioning of the spine, it can also prevent specific organs and muscles from functioning correctly. This may be the reason why you are experiencing other health issues, and conversely, why other health issues may be causing your back pain.
