Baby Massage

You will be given a detailed printed guidebook detailing the massage strokes learned each week, a information on the benefits of baby massage, we also provide you with a bottle of oil to use in the class, you take it away in between sessions to practice at home and bring it to each class. 

Bring your baby with you first and foremost!

You’ll also need a small baby blanket and a towel, as well as any usual baby equipment needed.  Please also bring a cushion if you feel you need it to sit on, all our venues have hard flooring.

We will provide a wipe clean massage mat you can use to lie your baby on under your towel.

Please dress in comfortable clothes, which is probably not a skirt as we will be sitting on the floor for most of the session. If you find this uncomfortable then of course we can show you other positions to sit in to massage your baby.

Take a look through the various pictures posted on this site which give you an idea of what the sessions look like.

We will progress at the babies pace and the baby will always come first so whether your baby needs feeding, changing or whether they are unsettled, you can just join back in when you are both ready. All parents are in the same situation and understand that babies don’t work to a timetable.

If your baby is asleep when you arrive please feel free to leave them in the buggy/sling or carseat whilst we chat.  Then if/when you are happy to do so you can wake them and begin the massage strokes.  Please remember that the strokes you learn during the sessions are only a part of the course, the more you practice at home the more you will start to see the benefits.  Therefore if one week you don’t get to do much massage you will still have been shown the stokes and you can put in the practice at home.  The instructor will always try to bring a spare demo doll with them if you need to use it.

It is advised that a baby’s tummy is not massaged within approx 45 minutes of a big feed, obviously they may need feeding before/during the session which is fine, but you will need to leave the tummy strokes until another time, or practice on a doll. The rest of the body can still be massaged.

At the first session, we will spend the first 20mins getting to know each other and your instructor will explain full the details of each week.

At the subsequent sessions we always start with a round the room, how has your week been.  It is lovely to hear the about how you have been practicing your massage but equally it is a good opportunity to talk to other parents, mostly mums about all sorts of parenting subjects eg. Sleep, Crying, Weaning etc. Remember everyone is going through the same thing as you at the same time and lots of our clients find this a rewarding part of the course and make new friends they keep in touch with long after the course finish.  We often find ourselves talking about all sorts of subjects which can be really helpful for parents to swap stories and experiences. 

If you have any other questions please get in touch info@the-gentle-touch.com and we can add to the FAQs.

The group courses are for babies aged between 6 weeks and 6 months approximately.

The younger they are the more they need to sleep and feed during the class, it’s great to learn the skills of massage at a young age, but it may be that a parent doesn’t get to join in during the sessions, and they practice at home or build it up over time. 

It depends on what your baby is like on the day during the class, sometimes older ones also need to sleep or feed through a class too not just the tiny ones!

It’s also about how ready a mum/parent/carer is to commit to leaving the house at a set time, before 6 weeks it can seem like a lot to have a deadline each week to get out, but everyone is different with what they can manage during the early days. 

At the upper age range they can be a lot more wriggly so it can be trickier to massage them when  they are wanting to roll, sit and crawl.  We always manage it by adapting the strokes but this course does focus on non movers.