About IAIM

Gestation - by Vimala Schneider McClure

In 1976 I was expecting my first child. I spent most of my pregnancy reading and writing, and I decided that I wanted to write and to be involved in some aspect of parenting or childbirth education.

After my baby's Caesarean birth, I organised some other parents and childbirth educators who were interested in forming a support network for C-section parents. We formed an organisation with a training program for support counsellors and a series of workshops and prenatal classes. We faced considerable opposition from obstetricians when we began to lobby for fathers to be admitted in the Caesarean operating room.

Eventually we prevailed and a whole new suite was constructed at the community hospital for Caesarean deliveries. Two years from our first meeting, fathers were allowed to witness the births of their children and support their wives during Caesarean birth, and we were able to offer prenatal classes to help make the experience positive and joyful for all.

In the meantime, I practised the Indian massage on my baby every day, and was thoroughly delighted with the experience and its results. I began to put together all the information I had learned about infant growth and development, and all the applicable research on touching.

I incorporated Swedish strokes and some ideas from reflexology and yoga (I had been teaching yoga for ten years), experimenting with my baby and taking detailed note of his changes. I then put together a curriculum for a five-week course and began to teach in my home. For the next few years these activities along with raising my children (my daughter came along two years later) consumed all of my time.

I learned how to use the medical library, and with babies in tow would spend hours poring through journals to find data to validate what I was learning from the babies in my classes. My training in listening skills through the Caesarean birth group and La Leche League leadership training helped me immensely in being open enough to learn from every class and every baby.

I wrote Infant Massage in 1977, and began to receive invitations to speak at various functions. Eventually, several childbirth educators approached me and requested that I train them to teach my course. I wrote the first edition of the Instructor Manual and began to share my ideas and experiences with others.