Benefits of a holistic approach for pregnancy and childhood
A holistic approach to health can have huge benefits for you and your family helping to promote wellbeing through the treatment of the body, mind and spirit.
We have listed some of the many benefits of attending our classes, workshops and enjoying our treatments.
Baby Massage
What is it and how can it help?
Massage is a wonderful and special gift that you can share with your baby. Baby massage is an ancient art used in many diverse cultures to help with a variety of physical and emotional needs and to promote relaxation. Babies crave skin contact. Touch is your baby’s most developed sense at birth and through it you can communicate love, security and trust to your baby immediately. Everyone has the ability to touch and massage another. You do not need any qualifications to massage your baby. Baby massage is simply a method that helps to reinforce the natural power of touch.
Baby massage will allow you to understand your baby’s subtle non verbal language and develop your ability to listen to your baby through the creation of a special intimate time together. When you massage your baby you lay down the foundations of trust and security which will help you to build a happy and confident relationship with your baby for the future.
Specfic benefits for you and your baby include:
Baby Massage is great fun to learn and a brilliant way to meet other parents and spend special time with your baby.
See what happens at a class;
For a brilliant look at the benefits of baby massage class visit::
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_4580000/newsid_4585600/4585610.stm?bw=bb&mp=rmBaby Yoga
What is it and how does it help?
Baby Yoga is based on the principles of adult yoga; breathing, stretching and relaxation. Baby Yoga classes help to get babies to stretch and move and to discover their abilities and bodies. Parents also practice gentle yoga stretches too which can help the body recover after birth. Yoga helps balance the body and mind and can help boost circulation and digestion, strengthen joints and muscles, and encourage removal of waste and toxins in the body.
Baby Yoga is a fantastic way to support your baby’s development by improving muscle strength and tone, co ordination, and balance. It is also a wonderful way to bond with your baby and have fun together. It encourages instinctive parenting and promotes many well- used techniques for calming, soothing and reassuring baby. A session of baby yoga stimulates all baby’s body systems and helps to integrate all of baby's senses. Baby Yoga sessions use fun rhymes and songs to help you learn the simple movements and to help relax baby.
For a look at an example of a baby yoga and toddler yoga class in action, click on the link below:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_4700000/newsid_4704600/4704652.stm?bw=bb&mp=rmFor an interesting insight into baby yoga visit Radio Four's Home truths programme :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/hometruths/20040112_baby_yoga.shtmlYoga for children
Children are naturally flexible and enjoying moving and stretching. Yoga is a brilliant way to tone the body providing gentle exercise which is accessible to all. It can help to develop body and spatial awareness and balance the functions of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Muscle co-ordination, balance and strength can also be improved. Yoga is also non competitive which allows all children to take part and develop at their own pace. It teaches children the benefits of relaxation and how to concentrate and focus the mind. It can help to relieve any stress children may feel as a result of pressures at school, home or in the playground. In many cases yoga has been found to be particular useful for special needs children including asthmatic children, children with cerebral palsy, and children diagnosed with ADS.
Pregnancy Massage and massage in labour
What is it and how does it help?
Massage is an ancient art based on our instinctive need to touch, soothe, calm and promote wellbeing. Massage offers a great way to relax during pregnancy, and can help to ease aches and pains which often centre around the lower back area as postural changes take place in the body. Massage can also help reduce swelling and water retention, improve the removal of toxins in the body, and boost circulation. Massage and aromatherapy massage can also help improve the condition of the skin and reduce the possibility of stretch marks appearing. Using safe aromatherapy oils during pregnancy increases the beneficial effects of massage as essential oils can help to aid relaxation, uplift the spirit and boost energy levels.
Massage in labour can also be an effective form of pain relief, security and comfort. It also helps you and your birth partner work together to encourage a natural and relaxed birth.Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy or the use of aromatics has existed for centuries. It involves the application of essential oils to boost health and wellbeing. Essential oils are extracted from a variety of different natural sources such as plants, flowers, fruit, bark and roots. They are considered to be vegetable hormones containing the “life force” of the plant. Aromatherapy works on our sense of smell and by absorption into the bloodstream. Odours travel to the roof of the nose, where olfactory receptors transport odours straight to a part of the brain called the limbic system. This area is connected with instinct, mood and emotion, and it's thought that aromatherapy may stimulate the release of chemicals which in turn play a part in unlocking emotions .
Aromatherapy is very gentle to use during pregnancy and can help to enhance your general health and wellbeing. Blends are bespoke to help balance your body.
Babies and children can benefit from essential oils blended either in massage oils or in a vaporiser. You can buy pre blended aromatherapy products or have an individual consultation with an aromatherapist. A bespoke aromatherapy blend for babies and children can be a brilliant way to extend and further the benefits of massage.
Life Coaching is designed to help support you in reaching your goals in life. Life offers up all kinds of possiblities for us and we all have great potential to succeed. Life coaching can help you to shape your actions and behaviour to achieve your objectives and your dreams. It can also help you to get more out of your life through action planning, positive thinking and management of your time.
You could use coaching to help you;
Life coaching will help you achieve your goals. You may want to have a series of private one to one sessions or join a baby coaching group to learn together and share ideas.
