06/07/2025
Why I Offer 5-Week Courses (Not Quick Workshops or shorter sessions)
💜 In line with the IAIM approach
Recently, I was reminded exactly why I’ve chosen to offer 5-week baby massage courses, with each session lasting an hour and a half, even when it means turning down more “convenient” or financially helpful opportunities.
A mum came along to Week 1 with her baby boy, who was clearly uncomfortable and unsettled with trapped wind. As always, I reassured the group:
There’s no pressure to keep up with the strokes. Baby massage is baby-led. If your baby needs feeding, rocking, cuddling, or crying, that always comes first.
I also reminded everyone that crying is completely welcome. It’s how babies communicate, and there’s never any need to apologise, even if it feels like you should.
She spent the session responding to her baby while listening in. She went home and gently practised the colic routine and has been using it daily.
When she returned the following week for Session 2, her baby was so much more settled, dipping in and out of the massage, having a cuddle, a feed, and just being calmly present in the space.
And it really brought it home for me:
If she’d attended a one-off workshop, she might’ve left feeling like baby massage wasn’t right for her or her baby, that it didn’t “work.”
But with time, space, and a bit of breathing room, both of them were able to take what they needed and begin to enjoy it.
I feel very lucky to run my courses all day on Tuesdays from Beyond Midwives in Liverpool city centre. The space is calm and supportive, the perfect place to slow down, get to know your baby, and respond to their cues.
I see the difference it makes when babies and parents are given time to settle in, without any pressure to perform, produce, or “get it right.”
So if your baby cries, or you don’t manage any massage at all in Week 1, that’s okay.
You’re doing what your baby needs.
You’re showing up.
That’s enough.
