Vimala: My Early Years Part 4 of 7

My baby didn’t seem to “like” being massaged in the beginning. Especially when I massaged his tummy, he would fuss and begin to cry and kick my hands away with his feet. I thought surely there must be something I could do to help him; I refused to think he didn’t like me! So it was back to research for me. There were several aspects to the massage that correlated with those of attachment: gastro-intestinal benefits (by massaging a certain way, gastro-intestinal problems would disappear, as the massage helped his organs develop fully), eye-to-eye contact (during the massage, my face was just at the right place for this benefit), respiratory function (again, helping the lungs develop maturity) skin-to-skin benefits (in every species, skin-to-skin contact in the first several months is essential), and the soft, high-pitched sound of my voice (shown in studies to be crucial in the bonding process)

I concentrated on the gastro-intestinal benefits and came up with a routine, which I tried on my colicky baby, and the colic was resolved within two weeks. This routine includes special strokes to move fecal matter through the colon, and yoga postures that have been specifically developed (2000 years) to “wake up” the movement of the gastro-intestinal organs.

I continued to massage my baby, even though he often cried through parts of it. I sang to him, talked to him, took breaks by holding him upright over my shoulder and rocking. I made sure he was as close to me as possible. For me, it was the Indian posture, with my legs out front as I sat on the floor. I padded the area with thick, warm blankets, and I turned the thermostat up so that, even if I was a little too warm, my baby was just right.