Always wash hands before handling baby. This is especially important during flu season to prevent transfer of germs, but should also be done year-round. Once clean, avoid touching your eyes, nose, and face in general while touching the baby. Keep loose hair tied back to keep it from falling on the baby (or simply in the way) as well.

Safely secure baby. He or she should lay on a comfortable and secure surface, such as a blanket on the floor.

Only warm oil with your hands. While you may enjoy an oil massage with microwaved oil, it may be too hot for baby. Instead, warm it gently by rubbing your hands together.

Avoid cuts, bruises or rashes. If the baby has a large rash or other skin condition present, it’s best to avoid massage until it has properly healed. If there is just a small cut, simply massage other areas of the body, avoiding the affected area.

Avoid sensitive areas. Eyes and mouth should not be massaged. Other areas that a baby may have a particular sensitivity to should also be avoided.

Avoid baby’s soft spot. Her head should be avoided entirely during massage to ensure safety. Her face and neck can be gently massaged, however.

Never use heavily scented oils or lotions with perfumes. Use naturally based oils, like vegetable or apricot oil.

A way to help strengthen the bond between parents and their children, baby massage often begins with the grandmother teaching the mother how to perform the massage on the infant. It then often continues through adolescence and adulthood.

With 9 out of 10 babies suffering trauma during birth, it’s very important to provide a comforting, nurturing environment in which they can feel safe and secure. Baby massage can help create such an environment. Once the feeling of being in utero–something babies have been accustomed to for over half a year within their mothers–is gone, they need a soothing touch to provide the lost comfort of the womb.

Babies born premature can especially benefit from baby massage. They often do not have the chance to touch their mothers after delivery, sometimes for days or even weeks. To help provide a feeling of safety and security, new parents can gently massage the babies once they are able to be safely touched.

Premature babies can also benefit through “kangaroo care,” or skin-to-skin contact with their mothers, by laying on their mothers’ chests and beneath a blanket. Like massage, the touch of a mother’s skin to the baby has many benefits in this way. Some studies show that it decreases mortality rates, helps with oxygenation levels, aids in baby weight gain and has many other positive attributes.

Baby massage has many more benefits than simply providing security and a bonding experience; that said, the two would still be enough to support the practice. Babies who receive massage are often more emotionally secure, making them more well-adjusted as adults.

Physically, massage has many other benefits. Massaging baby’s stomach can aid digestion. Massage helps the baby’s waste system excrete waste in a more efficient manner, and provides stronger circulation in the baby.

Massage can also make baby more physically flexible, more immune to diseases, have less frequent infections and colds, and more calm overall.

There are many infant massage classes out there for parents. Here are just a few of them.The Liddle Kidz Foundation, a program recognized worldwide, includes Infant Massage Teacher Certification, Pediatric Massage Therapist Certification, and group, as well as individual, massage classes for parents.

The program is dedicated to helping caregivers learn the benefits of nurturing touch, and how to use that touch in their families or practices. Parent classes include massage oil, handouts and weekly training sessions.

The International Institute of Infant Massage offers a program in Infant Touch and Massage Instruction. It is particularly useful to professionals who will be using massage to provide in-home care, community-based instruction, or a hospital practice. The instruction is in a family-based approach, ensuring that instructors can cater individual needs on a family by family basis.

The International Loving Touch Foundation, one of the first infant massage programs ever established, is a source of training, courses and resources for baby massage. Their main method of instruction is the 2 and 3-Day Evidence-Based Practice course, which results in certification as an Infant Massage Instructor. Parents are encouraged to become certified through this process in able to reap the benefits of massage with their own babies.