title: Teaching Chilean mothers to massage their full-term infants: effects on maternal breast-feeding and infant weight gain at age 2 and 4 months.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of massage on infant weight gain and exclusive maternal breast-feeding of an intervention that involved teaching mothers to massage their full-term infants. The sample included 100 healthy newborn infants who were receiving primary healthcare at 3 health centers in a low-income neighborhood of Santiago, Chile. The control group included 65 infants and the massage group included 35 infants. During their second well-child clinic visit, clinic nurses provided instruction to massage-group mothers about how to massage their infants, based on the methods of the Baby's First Massage program (http://www.babysfirstmassage.com/Scripts/default.asp). Mothers were encouraged to massage their infants for 10 to 15 minutes at least once a day, starting when their infants were 15 days old. There was no difference in the mean weights of the infants between the massage and control groups at baseline, but at age 2 months, massage group infants weighed significantly more than control-group infants. There were no weight differences between the 2 groups at age 4 months. There were no differences between the 2 groups on the incidence of exclusive maternal breast-feeding at age 2 or 4 months. The findings suggest that teaching mothers to massage their newborn infants may have a beneficial effect on the infant's early weight gain. There is a need for additional studies to evaluate the effect of maternal massage on other health and welfare outcomes for both mothers and infants.
authors.affiliation: Universidad Católica de Chile Escuela de Enfermería, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago de Chile, Vicuña Mackenna, Chile. mcampose@uc.cl
authors.forename: Maria Sylvia Campos
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Serrano
authors.forename: Francisca Márquez
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Doren
authors.forename: Lynda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wilson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001942:Breast Feeding / Q000523:psychology; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002677:Chile; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008405:Massage / Q000193:education* / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D009769:Object Attachment; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011204:Poverty Areas; D014505:Urban Population; D015430:Weight Gain