The training curriculum for Infant Massage USA was developed by Vimala McClure, author of Infant Massage: A Handbook for Loving Parents.
A comprehensive, evidence-based, interactive, and personal, this bestselling training manual offers our 15-point curriculum, along with guides and visuals. Students also have the opportunity to participate in supervised parent-infant sessions under the supervision of their trainer. The training includes developing parent-infant relationships and strategies to support bonding and healthy attachment. Additionally, students learn methods to support their work with families, their infants born prematurely, and/or with additional needs through protocols, adaptations, and techniques based on theoretical work.
The book is a wonderful guide for parents who want to nurture their baby through touch. First published in 1979 and revised several times, the book has withstood the tests of time and is still a bestseller in this field.
Photographs illustrate the massage taught by Infant Massage USA and the International Association of Infant Massage, a worldwide organization in Sweden. The book has a great section for fathers, a helpful chapter on massage and the ill child, good information on building the bond between you and your child, and an inspiring section of nursery rhymes and lullabies to accompany your massage. You can learn infant massage directly from the book or use it with your infant massage class.
With the fourth edition, Vimala has updated this classic with a variety of new techniques and helpful information:
- Specific routines tailored to help relieve colic, fever, and chest and nasal congestion
- Easy-to-follow instructions and photographs demonstrating each step
- New information on the benefits of skin-to-skin contact
- Instructions for premature infants and babies with special needs
- Lullabies, rhymes, and games to enhance the massage experience
- A special chapter dedicated to fathers
- Compassionate advice for foster and adoptive parents
About Vimala McClure
Credited with bringing the ancient art of Infant Massage to the West, Vimala is the founder of the nonprofit International Association of Infant Massage, with chapters in more than 30 countries and thousands of instructors worldwide.
Her ground-breaking book, Infant Massage, a Handbook for Loving Parents (Bantam) was first published in 1978 and has sold over a quarter of a million copies. It is about to be released in a third edition, with several new chapters and all new photographs. In the meantime, Vimala has spent time working at Mother Theresa’s baby hospital in Calcutta.
She has written several other books, including “ The Tao of Motherhood,” an inspirational book for new parents, and her newest book, “ The Path of Parenting: Twelve Principles to Guide Your Journey” (New World Library). Vimala has been a tireless advocate of parent-infant bonding and educator as to its importance in family life and its impact on individuals later in life. Her new book, which is considered my many to be the “Millennium Dr. Spock,” covers parenting issues from conception to adulthood. Her essay, “Parenting in the New Millennium,” is included in the recently released anthology, “The Fabric of the Future: Women Visionaries Illuminate the Path to Tomorrow.”
Where it all began: In 1973, Vimala McClure lived and worked at an orphanage in India, where she was exposed to the daily practice of offering massage to all community members, from the youngest to the oldest. When she fell ill with malaria, the women of the village helped massage her back to health. On her departure from the country, she noticed a young woman sitting by the side of the road in a shanty town, lovingly massaging her infant on her lap. Spurred on by this vivid memory, she decided to bring this beautiful tradition of infant massage back to America.
In her book Infant Massage – A Handbook For Loving Parents, she combined the massage routine she had witnessed in India with Swedish massage, reflexology, and yoga. For several years, she taught parents the art of infant massage out of her home until she developed a training program and began to train instructors to teach the program in 1978. Following the success of the program, Vimala then founded the International Association of Infant Massage in 1986 alongside Audrey Downes, a pediatric nurse in California at the time.