Aside from the pleasure of baby massage, there are numerous health benefits
For baby:
The tummy massage relieves wind, colic and constipation
The chest massage helps clear the lungs and improve respiration
The leg and arm massage improves muscle tone and circulation
The facial strokes are very soothing and relaxing
When you massage your baby regularly, you promote deeper sounder sleep
For you:
I
ncreased bonding with your baby through pleasurable touch
Greater confidence in handling your baby, learning to understand your baby’s body language
Strengthens your ability to help your child relax in times of stress
The social aspect of meeting other mothers
Class is very relaxing and nurturing and significantly help mums who have postnatal depression
Birthlight pioneered what is now known as ‘baby yoga’ as an inclusive set of practices to enhance playful interaction and communication between parent and baby and to promote their healthy development. Baby Yoga perfectly compliments baby massage and expands the benefits of touch with those of movement and relaxation.
“Birthlight baby yoga offers a comprehensive stimulation of the senses together with movement and rhythm that babies need in order to best integrate experience and learn. Birthlight baby yoga offers an all in one practice for parents and babies including massage, holds, stretching, singing and rhymes, game playing and relaxation. Birthlight Babies learn lots of shortcuts to ease their transition to developmental milestones (rolling sitting crawling standing walking), but mostly because this is done through loving interaction and fun, it helps their brain to grow lots of happy neuron networks at the time of most intense growth in human life." (Francoise Freedman)
Baby yoga helps to attune to your baby’s needs and to calm or stimulate them as appropriate with a sense of security and wellbeing. It is beneficial for all babies, you don’t need to practice yoga or even know anything about yoga to get started with your baby. From Birth babies respond positively to the stimulation of movement and touch together. Baby Yoga includes a wide range of different practices that can be combined to suit the needs of each baby or toddler through their individual development:
Gentle body strokes:
Yoga moves adapted to babies: (mini twists, mini stretches, upper and lower body movements, diagonal movements)
A blend of postnatal yoga and baby yoga for new mothers:
Playful moves with rhymes:
Joint parent/baby relaxation: (walking relaxation, instant relaxation, relaxation to sleep, feeding relaxation)
Transitional practices: (head control, sitting, crawling, standing, early steps, first jumps and balances)
Baby yoga offers quality physical stimulation that has become essential in an urban sedentary lifestyle. For every hour that babies spend strapped in cars seats or home seats, 5 minutes of Baby Yoga provide stretching as a start to a healthy lifestyle. Baby yoga can be practiced instantly anywhere at any time and always generates a joyful interaction. Baby Yoga as pioneered by birthlight is not just the adaptation of yoga poses to babies! From the start we have integrated Positive Touch, Dry Massage, Sound and Singing, Walks and Dances as well as ‘Kitchen Yoga’, moves that new mums can do through their days at home or outside. Birthlight pioneered what is now known as ‘baby yoga’ as an inclusive set of practices to enhance playful interaction and communication between parent and baby and to promote their healthy development. SMART Toddler Yoga classes- standing for Stretch, Move And Relax Together - are special for bringing adults and children together in a holistic, yoga-based experience. SMART offers a structured base for parents to exercise and have fun with their children, promoting strength, flexibility, balance and relaxation to contrast with energetic activity. SMART enhances physical well being and stimulates language, listening and developmental skills, but also nourishes the spirit and strengthens family bonds. During the transition to independent movement when toddlers’ physical contact with their parents is often diminished, SMART supports loving and playful contact and provides a positive shared experience to carry young families through what can be a challenging time as they tackle tantrums and boundary testing. Parents are re-connected with their own inner child, their creativity and intuition. SMART is a continuation of the Birthlight Baby Yoga approach using playful yoga for mobile babies, toddlers and preschool children, using songs and rhymes alongside plenty of movement and stretching. The movements are designed to help infants make the transition from babyhood to independent movement, and are therefore easily adaptable to infants of all stages between the ages
of 12 months to 4 years. Birthlight SMART classes are most for children from 12 months to 4 years with their parents or adult carers. The songs and rhymes used in class play a vital part in language development and the shared aspect of the practice helps with social skills and communication. I keep my classes to 30-45 minutes, to capture children’s imagination and attention, we practice playful yoga through story-telling, singing and rhymes, class starts with a welcome song, then activity for both parents/carers and children, we finish with joint relaxation, were I play a 2 minute chant, after relaxation we have bubbles and our good bye song.
