How To Improve Your Baby’s Brain Development With Massage by Jess Ngaheu

My son, Hawaiki, had a very traumatic premature birth. He was born with no heart rate, no oxygen and brain damage.

My mama instinct kicked in and I did what I knew how to do - massage. The improvement in his brain development was phenomenal.

The power of touch cannot be underestimated.

There are just so many benefits of baby massage:

• enhances emotional and social development

• strengthens and regulates all the body’s systems

• helps with digestion, gas and colic

• helps with relaxation, lowers blood pressure and heart rate

• helps with sleep, crying and settling

• enhances the bond between mama and baby.

However, the benefits of baby massage on brain development just blew me away. As a baby massage therapist, I knew this from my studies but to experience it first-hand with my own son really was something really extraordinary.

In the very first week of his life, Hawaiki was in an incubator, fighting for his life. He was not able to be held or cuddled at all for the first few days earthside. On day five, he had an MRI of his brain which showed brain damage.

I still remember that day like it was yesterday.

Another MRI at six weeks old showed some white matter damage that the medical team could not identify. The myelination on his brain had not developed at all. It was the same as when he was first born. But myelination should be growing and developing day by day.

Myelin is a fatty coating on the axon of each of our neurons, enabling nerve cells to transmit information and allows the complex brain processes to function properly.

Deep within me, I knew I had to do more to help him.

So I started using baby massage and movement every day for just ten minutes. I wanted to stimulate his senses to try and kickstart his brain development.

Six weeks later he had another MRI of the brain and the white matter had improved and his brain had improved and increased development.

Stimulating his senses with massage, movement and touch, had helped with the process of building the myelination in his brain.

How amazing!!

I can never take away or cure the brain damage that he suffered during his birth. But the consistent touch and massage has helped him in so many ways. The beautiful bonding from the time spent massaging Hawaiki has also helped me heal from the birth trauma.

I still massage my son regularly to keep him stimulated and developing to his highest potential.

There are many studies that show a lack of sensory input, touch, and human interaction can impact on babies brain development often resulting in behavioural, social, and emotional problems later in life.

A recent study on the effect of a mother’s touch during infancy suggests that the brain cells of a baby can degenerate and die when the baby is not exposed to touch.

There are just so many reasons why touch and baby massage are beneficial for babies and mamas too. Having experienced the phenomenal change in my son’s MRI scans from massage, I am now a passionate advocate for all forms of skin-to-skin contact, touch, and stimulation with massage for babies.

Find your local baby massage class or learn how to do it online. It’s incredibly rewarding and the special bonding created with your baby will last a lifetime.

Jess Ngaheu is a mum of two and Maternal Bodywork Specialist with a thriving business on the Gold Coast in Queensland. Jess is expertly trained and highly experienced in pregnancy, labour, postnatal and baby massage therapy as well as many other holistic therapies and modalities. Using her knowledge and experience combined with her intuitive healing gifts and a deep, heartfelt desire to nurture women, Jess offers truly sacred and holistic experiences for all mamas and their babes at Maternal Grounding.

Website: maternalgrounding.com.au
Instagram: @maternalgrounding
Facebook: facebook.com/maternalgrounding