It is recommended to consider gentle whole body massage for healthy full-term newborns because of its potential benefits for growth and development.
Gentle whole body massage involves the use of the hands for tactile stimulation, slowly rubbing and stroking parts of the body or passive full range movement at the joints of the extremities.
It is a therapy that can be applied by parents and other caregivers and should be used as an important opportunity to promote stimulation and parent-infant interaction for early childhood development. Infants' reactions to whole body massage should be respected according to the principles of sensitive and respectful care.
The WHO Guideline Development Group (GDG) considered the effects of whole body massage to be large in terms of length, weight and head circumference, clinically significant and of crucial importance for newborns.
The results of a study that called for fathers to massage the infant for 15 minutes every night for three weeks, highlight benefits such as relieving infant stress (soothing effect), reducing maternal stress (caregiving), and increasing the father’s confidence and contribution to caregiving.
