The Benefits of Infant Massage in a Child Abuse Prevention Program

Written by Melissa Miller, LMFT

Program Director

Project SAFE

Program Background

Project SAFE is a Prenatal through Five focused child abuse and neglect prevention home visitation program. This program, also known as Partnerships for Families (PFF), was first developed through a First 5 LA Initiative in 2006, where an agency in each service area of Los Angeles County administers the program in various ways to meet the diverse and ever-changing needs of the communities.

The initiative, which was only intended to be a 5-year grant, continued under First 5 LA until 2017, when the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) began overseeing the contracts. The main goal of Project SAFE is to or prevent the occurrence, or re-occurrence, of child maltreatment.

One of the most important ways to increase child safety is to improve parent-child relationships. Parents will learn about child development, bonding and attachment, positive parenting strategies, appropriate communication, and self-management skills.

Each family in Project SAFE is assigned a Master’s level In- Home Therapist who is either Licensed or Pre-Licensed as a Clinical Social Worker or Marriage and Family Therapist. Therapists will address the parents’ trauma(s) that are impacting their parenting and relationships with their children.

Benefits of Infant Massage

There are many benefits of Infant Massage (IM) for both the baby and the caregiver. They can be categorized into four main areas: Interaction, Stimulation, Relief, and Relaxation.

Interaction – IM promotes bonding, secure attachment, communication skills, respect, nurturing, and empathy.

Stimulation – The various IM strokes have benefits on the following systems: circulatory, digestive, hormonal, immune, lymphatic, nervous, respiratory, vestibular, language, and muscular.

Relief – There are several IM strokes that will aide in the relief of gas/colic, constipation, excess mucus, teething, tension, and sensitivity to touch.

Relaxation – When IM is incorporated into a family’s routine, there are improved sleep patterns, normalized muscle tone, increased flexibility, improved self-regulation, reduced stress (lowered stress hormones and increased anti-stress hormones).

Though these benefits appear to be focused on the baby and their parent, the benefits may extend to the whole family and for the society at large, as these children and adults will enter their communities with increased respect and empathy for themselves and others.

Use of Infant Massage in Project SAFE Program

Since 2013, all Project SAFE therapists have been trained in Infant Massage and utilize it as an intervention with all expectant and newly postpartum parents. The various benefits of IM are especially powerful in a child abuse prevention program for the following reasons:

Trauma – The majority of the parents served in Project SAFE have experienced some sort of trauma, if not multiple traumas, in their lifetime, including sexual assault as a child or an adult, neglect and/or physical abuse as a child, domestic violence, gang violence, and immigration trauma. These experiences have left the parents with an unawareness of safe physical touch and a lack of control over their bodies. The principle of IM that includes beginning the practice with asking the child for permission teaches parents to empower their children to have control over their bodies. Many parents are also uncomfortable with touch, as they did not receive loving affection from their parents and are unfamiliar with appropriate contact.

Attunement – The families in Project SAFE suffer from many hardships. They have many internal and external stressors that consume their daily lives. Given the demands and struggles of their daily lives and their difficulty with their own self-management skills, they are less likely to be attuned to the needs of their children. One of the first steps of IM is to recognize the baby’s cues. By helping to bring awareness to their babies’ cues before, during, and after IM practice, they will increase overall attunement to their children’s needs. Bonding & Attachment – As previously mentioned, many parents in the Project SAFE program suffered their own abuse as a child as well as domestic violence with their partners. These traumas can negatively impact bonding between a parent and a child. Parents may not know how to play with their child, how to be affection, or how to say loving words to their child. In the event of domestic violence, the child may be a representative of the perpetrator, impeding the parent from connecting with that child. In Project SAFE, parents work on strengthening relationships with their children. When pregnant and newly postpartum parents are in Project SAFE, they have the unique opportunity to start working on that relationship very early on – maybe even before the baby is born.

Regulation – Many individuals struggle with managing their emotions. The parents served in Project SAFE may also struggle with mental health issues that impact their ability to regulate themselves. IM provides both the parent and the baby with an opportunity to relax together and co-regulate, where IM will help to decrease stress hormones and increase anti-stress hormones. Co-regulation is vital for a positive parent-child relationship. When a child is dysregulated, the parent’s response impacts how the child learns to cope. When the parent can stay regulated during a stressful moment, the child will, in turn, learn how to regulate appropriately. This skill is highly important in the context of child abuse prevention, as child maltreatment most often occurs during stressful moments when a parent has limited skills and resources to manage themselves.

Safety – When the discussion on appropriate oils to use during IM arises, this provides therapists with the opportunity to explore safety. The topic of safe oils to use during IM brings awareness to parents on the safety or dangers of products they use on their babies. The topic of oils for IM is a nonthreatening way to open the door for further conversation on product safety.

Parental Mastery – Many of the parents served in Project SAFE lack confidence in their parenting skills. They often feel judged for decisions and choices made during their histories and simply being in services related to parenting, may make parents feel incompetent. By teaching IM, parents are learning a skill to help babies regulate and soothe. When a parent is successfully able to soothe or provide relief to their baby, their confidence quickly increases and so does their self-esteem as a parent and an individual. Family Impact – As previously mentioned, the whole family may benefit from IM instruction. When parents and babies are more regulated and have improved routines, the whole family will feel less stress, sleep better, and interact more positively. This is highly important in Project SAFE, where the families often have multiple children and family members living in a small space. In addition, IM may be adapted for older children, which is also helpful when parents want to provide attention and comfort to their children of all ages.

Father Involvement – In Project SAFE, whenever IM will be taught, fathers are always invited to participate. In social services, it is common that father involvement is low due to work schedules, cultural factors, and overall father absence. In regards to the perinatal period, fathers are often pushed to the side and the mother’s needs are prioritized. Fathers often feel helpless or useless during the pregnancy, during childbirth, and the postpartum period, especially when breastfeeding is involved, so by teaching IM to fathers, they can be more involved and have a role in taking care of the baby.

Infant Massage in the Community

In addition to utilizing Infant Massage as an intervention on an individual basis with Project SAFE families, the program also offers Infant Massage classes in the community.

In this format, parents will learn and experience all of the benefits of IM, with the added benefit of social connections. A protective factor that increases child safety is Social Connectedness. Parents are more likely to engage in unsafe parenting when they are more isolated.

Conducting IM in a class format allows parents to meet other parents and build relationships that will hopefully continue beyond the course. Plus, when parents are in a group, they learn from each other as well as with the facilitator. Parents are better able to normalize their experiences when they are able to interact with other parents. Parents will feel less isolated if they do not feel as if they are alone in their challenging parenting experiences as well.

Infant Massage has tremendous benefits for babies and parents, and since this is especially evident in underserved communities, Project SAFE has prioritized program funds to train other service providers in the community, including home visitors and mental health clinicians from various organizations. With more providers trained, there is a broader reach and more families are able to benefit from Infant Massage.