Baby massage

I think it is pretty widely accepted nowadays in western culture (judging by the hospital books) that babies get massaged. Indian culture, babies always have and as far as I know, always will get a massage, twice a day if they are lucky.

Naina about 8 days old getting one of her first massages

Traditionally, mustard oil is used in India. It is a thicker oil than olive oil and apparently makes the skin darker. Deepti was told off by a MCH Nurse that she shouldn't use mustard oil, because that was only for poor people in countries like India. Amazing how cultural biases come out pretty quick when a baby is on the scene.

Naina at first was no fan of Deepti and my massage technique. She would regularly scream and cry her way through her massage, partly because of our cold hands, and probably because we weren't doing it right.

My mum then appeared, having done baby massage or witnessed baby massage for her own kids and her family. Let the expert enter the room! Naina very quickly learnt that she was in the hands of a skilled professional, not rank amateurs.


Mum would get very excited by Naina's squeals and grunts of delight as she was massaged in certain areas. The legs were a favourite. Indian mum's and grandmum's are very concerned with how quickly the baby stretches their legs straight. When her legs were rubbed with oil in a downward manner, she'd straighten her legs out pretty much from week 3. This met with grandmotherly and great-grandmotherly approval. Naina also became ticklish (or seemingly, wriggly) when she was massaged under arms near her armpits.


The routine now is that in the morning, once Naina's had her feed, Deepti sits in front of the heater, on the ground and stretches her legs out straight. She then covers her legs and places a small towel as a head support for Naina. Then Naina lies between the groove of Deepti's legs and gets a good old massage. Starting with her front side, arms, legs, chest, a little bit on the face, scalp, then over on to her stomach lying across Deepti's legs (grunting away and passing gas) to have a thorough massage of the back. I'm always amazed how contented Naina is whilst this is happening. The massage takes about 20 to 30 minutes and it does a wonderful thing for Naina. She sleeps contentedly for an hour or so after the massage. And with Naina that's a good thing!