In the womb babies spend their days in a safe, calmly moving place with fix temperature and listen to the heart beat of their mothers. They do not feel hunger, thirst, cold or fear, there is only safety and peace. But after birth they are exposed to several stimuli at once, the world is full of colors, movements, sounds, comfortable and uncomfortable feelings – Kata Szirtes-Szabó writes in her article.

As parents our job is to try to create safety in the chaos, to show our little baby that the world is a good place, where more joy can be found than inconveniences. The sensory abilities of babies and their ability to differentiate the senses they experience through their sensory organs are not fully developed, this is why they feel everything so intensely. Their whole world turns into pain and fear when they have stomach ache, a teeth coming or they just don’t feel safe or think they are alone. But at the same time touching and stroking them will make them feel comfortable again.
Baby massage is a perfect opportunity to communicate with our children by touches. Loving and gentle touching teaches them that touching is a good thing, they are in good hands, they are safe and loved and all these experiences contribute to the child’s positive self-image in the future. While massaging we will learn the baby’s signs, it will strengthen the bond between us, we will start to understand our baby, so this might be the first activity that we both find joyful and we can also experience bonding. Through touching and tactile stimuli the nervous system of the baby is developed, this is why massage has positive effects on the development of the baby.

Beneficial effects of baby massage:

• decreasing stress
• balanced development, gaining weight
• direct effect on the development of the brain
• more stable nervous system
• helping movement coordination
• reducing stomach ache and digestive problems
• reducing teething discomfort
• hormone changes in mothers, the amount of breast milk might grow
• calmer sleep, putting the baby to sleep might be easier
• the emotional bond, that starts at birth, will strengthen
• moms and dads will be more confident
• a perfect evening program for the whole family to experience bonding

Our baby massage course consists of 5 sessions and parents can learn the steps of the baby massage while massaging their babies within small groups. Everyone can learn the process; you don’t need any special abilities or prior knowledge, since parents will feel intuitively how to touch their children as they start connecting to each other. Our course will help you to learn the techniques and it also offers an opportunity for a leisure activity, for collecting positive experience and meeting with others.

Kata Szirtes-Szabó – special education teacher, baby massage instructor

The course in only available for the residents of the 5th District and it is free of charge.

This article is translated by Emese Murin.
Click here for the Hungarian version.