Water is a natural element that babies can relate too. Their bodies are literally born out of water, with the addition of having spent 10 months in a amniotic sac suspended in amniotic fluid.
Babies record everything they experience in their nervous system, muscles and digestive system. Unless they are provided with enough ‘pause’ they can become increasingly unsettled. The physical discomfort during the ‘Fourth Trimester’ comes from the experience of their birth and the experience of the first few days/weeks directly after being born. Birth is a compressive experience, for babies, coupled with the chaos and weight of the outside world. They can have physical pain that lingers from their birth which adds to difficulty in breastfeeding, settling and, digesting with comfort and ease. Babies can experience fearful sensation when put in new settings or introduction to new people or environments. The over stimulation babies experience during birth and in the first 3-4 months of life is tremendous, and also a normal process of arriving earth side. Its very common for babies to have digestive issues and be generally unsettled in the first 3-4 months after birth. Some babies are more unsettled than others. The only way babies can experience the world is viscerally, or thru the direct experience of what they feel in their body. Babies need lots of support to help them integrate the experience of birth and the experience arriving into this very different world, from the environment of which they came.
An infant float session offers them just the amount of support they need the most. By helping them to settle, to feel safe, with a greater sense of physical ease, they can better sort out the whole chaos of being born and whatever their experience of the outside world. Which leads them to rest better, digest better, sleep more deeply, feel good in their body and learn the valuable self-soothing skills that are so essential for babies to learn how to regulate their nervous system.
Floating a newborn provide an opportunity for newborns to experience the familiar suspension in fluid with in a supportive state of expansion. Stillness is gradually obtained. The therapist provides safety by first supporting their body in a contracted state by holding them close, limbs folded tightly towards their body as they experience the sensation of the warm water and orient to quiet space of the tub. After some time the baby will begin moving and stretching out into the water. Over time they completely uncurl their body, stretch out and begin to let go of their muscles entering into a restful state of ‘Being’. The therapist then facilitates deeper and deeper stillness. To experience a state of restful physical expansion in the physical body is to rest fully in a state of stillness. As the baby rests, the therapist facilitates gentle support to the cranium and sacrum. The baby will suspend in this deep stillness for quite some time, often discharging by occasionally shaking off whatever is driving the sympathetic nervous system. After the baby emerges out of their restful like sleep the therapist moves the baby to a warm massage table and proceeds to massage coconut oil into any muscles that are still holding on to, allowing them to re-settle into the earthly surrounding outside of the tub while facilitating adjustment to the cranium. Studies show that infant water therapy improves growth, helps with their motor skills, and facilities a sense of ease. Craniosacral therapy and infant massage helps newborns to gain body awareness while re-setting the nervous system in a way that teach babies how to self sooth later on.