New Directions for my blog
After a long hiatus from my blog, and a five-month maternity leave from my practice I return to my work with new focus. My new blog focus is on babies through the lens of bodywork and the mind-body connection. For the time being, most posts will be explicitly and simply about babies, since I am deep in the midst of babyland as I mother my vivacious 5-month-old twins. I don’t have anything new to say, instead, I hope my viewpoint can reach people as nuggets of info on options, possibilities and reasons to consider how we treat and raise our babies, from prenatal and beyond.
What do babies and bodywork have to do with each other?
Bodywork Helps Babies Before they are Born
Babies benefit from bodywork before they’re even born. When women receive massage when pregnant, they have better relationships with their babies after birth, seen in how often they touch their babies. Babies thrive when frequently touched and held.
Bodywork and Better Pregnancies
Bodywork can help a woman be more comfortable throughout their pregnancy, can help not only with pregnancy symptoms, but help prepare the body for labor, deal with the great demands her rapidly changing body as it accommodates a growing baby, adjust and open the pelvic space so the baby can move into optimal positioning for birth.
Bodywork Helps Babies Thrive
Babies themselves benefit directly from bodywork, whether it’s a daily 15-minute massage from a parent, or receiving more specific, therapy-oriented bodywork such as craniosacral therapy from a practitioner.
Thriving continued: Bodywork and Breastfeeding
Babies need to eat. There is no better source of nourishment for babies than breastmilk. Everything should be done to help support a mother to accomplish breastfeeding her little one(s). Bodywork is a very helpful tool to the mother-baby pair with breastfeeding: if a baby is having difficulty latching, if nursing is painful for the mother, or if the baby can only nurse on one side, then bodywork is certainly indicated.
Bodywork helps babies beyond the treatment space: it also has to do with how we hold, care for, engage with and play with our babies. But more on that in future blogs.
sources:
Field, Tiffany phD. Touch. Massachussets Institute of Technology. 2001.
https://www6.miami.edu/touch-research/AdultMassage.html
Mentoring and workshops with Carol Gray. www.carolgraycst.com
Workshops with Leslie Stager. www.Touchforbirth.com
Gail Tully’s website Spinning Babies, www.spinningbabies.com
