Infant Massage and Adoption/Fostering
How you must know by now, I love the idea of infant massage and all the benefits it brings to both the baby and the family! Benefits of Infant Massage.
Let me tell you how I became a Certified Instructor of Infant Massage through Infant Massage USA…My husband and I were foster parents to an infant who had experienced trauma both in utero, post-birth, and then of course, the separation from his mother. I visited this sweet little boy almost everyday in the NICU before we brought him home to stay and care for him.
Leaving the hospital, I thought “I’ve got this.” OH NO! I did not have this…
His struggles continued to present themselves daily and being who I am as a pediatric physical therapist, I tried all my tricks in my “therapy” bag and then some. I sought out advice from colleagues, read books, watched videos; the whole nine yards! But I could not console this child during his extreme fussy/irritability periods. COLIC is traumatizing and baby’s should not have to “deal” with it. It was taxing on all of us; until I learned about infant massage.
I started massaging my sweet friend after bath-time and boy did he love it! He made great eye contact, he giggled and smiled, and it was such a great feeling to see his response to this new touch and calming technique. Our bond grew and with consistency, his fussy periods started to decrease.
This led to my IM certification in 2017 and I have been helping families and babies ever since. I have combined what I have learned from IM and built on it. I now have a collection of strategies to help extremely unhappy/fussy/irritable babies because it breaks my heart hearing and seeing families experience what we went through, and a lot of times, much worse.
I am extremely passionate about infant massage for ALL types of families: Adoption, Fostering, Grandparent Guardianship, and Biological. Creating the new-relationship when a baby enters the family can be magical. Infant massage allows one to interact with baby in a new, comforting way, giving parents the confidence to learn and understand this new little human who just became a permanent “roommate.”
My trainer, Jody Wright, actually expressed her love of infant massage and adoption on the IMUSA blog site. Learn about her experience HERE.
Let infant massage be a part of your family. Give your baby this experience of intimacy and connection that makes your bond even stronger!
If interested in infant massage, I offer both in-person and virtual settings to meet the needs of my families. Jump over to my INFANT MASSAGE PAGE to see what's coming up. If you want to stay connected, sign up to be informed when a new class is created or email me with your interest.