A clean, healthy baby doesn’t need massage, medically —Expert

The arrival of a new baby is always something special and a reason to celebrate. Most cultures around the world have special rituals to welcome the newborn into the family and the community, and in Nigeria, a baby’s first traditional bath is sacred and very important.

Babies are traditionally given their first bath by their grandmother. This usually consists of intense scrubbing with palm oil and the natural hard sponge. Some bath babies in herbal concoctions. Some bend the babies arms backwards, hold babies upside down, massage babies’ heads and toss in the air. The umbilical cord of some babies is pressed with a hot lantern and other forms of decoctions.

These newborn rituals though generationally are fraught with so many risks, but now scientists are discovering that daily baby massage, one of these newborn rituals, followed by a warm bath may save many children’s lives. Studies have shown that oil massage, when practiced properly, can increase children’s weight, prevent bacterial infections, and reduce infant mortality by up to 50 percent.

In 2008, Professor Gary Darmstadt at the Stanford University School of Medicine and his collaborators in a study of 497 premature babies who received daily massages in a hospital in Bangladesh showed that this ancient practice could save babies’ lives.  It caused a 40 percent reduction in the risk of infection, and a 25 to 50 percent reduction in the risk of death.

Through separate experiments, the medical team found that regular massage helps build the baby’s microbiome – the layer of bacteria found on the skin and in the gut. The microbiome plays a very important role in boosting immunity, by acting as an effective barrier that can prevent infection.

For example, the study said that malnourished children who were massaged with oils had a more diverse microbiome. The oils improved the skin’s function as a barrier to infection, which makes it more difficult for bacteria to penetrate the skin, enter the bloodstream and cause life-threatening infections.

In premature babies, the skin barrier doesn’t work well, so these babies experience water loss through the skin. Water evaporates from the body very quickly, so the body temperature drops. And when the body temperature drops too low, it can threaten the life of the child.  Also, the infant loses a lot of energy because of hypothermia, which is energy that could have been directed to growth and other aspects of bodily functions.

Other researchers have found similar benefits. One study suggests that massage stimulates the vagus nerve, a long nerve that connects the brain to the abdomen, which leads to better digestion and nutrient absorption, which in turn can help children gain weight.

Mrs Hannah Nwanchukwu, a 60-year-old retired teacher, recollected massaging her granddaughter. “Massage is good, it relaxes the baby. We call it Angor-Lor in Ijaw language and we use different substances. It makes the baby look rounded and healthy, not thin and ugly. People don’t like carrying thin, dry looking babies,” she stated.

Mrs Adeola Mohammed, a 67-year grandmother, said

“This is my third grandchild. I massage her whenever I am bathing her. I press her neck, arms and spine, and throw her up and shake her sometimes so that she does not grow up having fears. I even press babies cheeks inwards to form dimples and stretch the legs so she does not develop a bowed leg.”

However, Dr Idowu Ayede, a consultant neonatologist at the University College Hospital, Ibadan said these practices though generationally and are culturally believed to make the baby very strong and grow healthy comes with many risks and are better discouraged.

According to her, “The usual pulling, the stretching of the legs or the arms and molding of the head is not encouraged for several reasons. Number one, those legs, the head and every part of the body, while growing in the womb, without anybody moving or stretching them grew normally. So they will definitely continue to grow without these. In the extremes of situations, there can be a fracture or a dislocated joint. When there are bruises, it exposes them also to infections.

“Medically speaking, those limbs can be injured, there could be subtle injuries, the ligament may be torn, muscles may be injured and the molding of the head can actually squeeze the soft skull of the baby. The interior and posterior parts of the skull are still open, so you can actually crack the skull. The brain is actually very close to the skull in a newborn. So by the time you are molding, you can actually cause damage to the brain; you can actually directly affect the structures on the brain.”

Dr Ayede declared that the idea of shaking a baby that is held upside down can cause a shift, particularly in the brain, and damage to the small blood vessels inside the brain.

“You cannot do that to a preterm baby because the vessels are very small, immature and can easily be traumatized and easily bleed into the brains. Also, it is advised that a preterm baby shouldn’t be given a bath until after 24 hours of delivery.,” she added.

Indeed, these generational and cultural practices have landed many babies in the hospital due to these; mothers should nicely educate their grandmothers or encourage them to follow them when they go for antenatal care, so they can be educated about the negative effect of these traditional practices. A simple clean bath is enough for a healthy skin and a healthy baby.