Infant massage and benefits for the mother-child relationship.

Many studies have revealed the importance, during the first years of life of the baby, of the relationship with the mother. All forms of caregiving, including taking in arm, stroking, touching and being touched contribute to this relationship. The technique of infant massage is often used to prevent somatic problems and other difficulties that might arise during the first months after delivery. More and more often it is used to enhance the discovering, the understanding, the improvement and the strengthening of the relationship between the mother and the newborn. This technique is also useful for preventing the forms of psychopathology that can potentially affect both the mother and the child during the postpartum period. In the present work, we consider the possibility of a qualitative improvement of the relationship between mother and child through the technique of infant massage. The project was carried in different sanitary districts in the territory of Padua and Rovereto, Italy. It involved 25 mother-child couples, with children aged between two and ten months, that participated to an infant massage course. The objective was to assess the quality of mother-child interactions at the beginning of the course and the potential changes related to it through the use of the EAS. Measurements were carried during three stages: at the beginning of the course, after two lessons, and during a follow up organized one month after the end of the course. Each lesson lasted about an hour and a half. The results showed significant differences within couples, between the first and the last intervention, highlighting improvements in the way the mother and the child related with each other. Thus, the massage technique can be considered as a useful method to support the delicate period that dyads experience after delivery.