Join us on one of the following dates:

• Thursday, May 22, 10 – 11:30 am
• Thursday, June 12, 10 – 11:30 am
• Thursday, July 10, 10 – 11:30 am
• Thursday, September 11, 10 – 11:30 am

Come learn to massage your baby! Have fun while adding another skill to ease discomforts and to strengthen your relationship with your baby.

Best for pre-crawling babies and their caregivers.

To Register

Attendance is free! Please register since we can only accommodate 10 little ones and their grown-ups. To register, email obgynmidwiferyprograms@cooleydickinson.org and use the subject “Infant Massage: (the date of the class you want to attend).”

What you’ll need:

• your baby (or a doll if you are pregnant or your child is very wiggly)
• a blanket or towel to lay your baby on
• a slippery, unscented oil (grape seed, almond, or apricot oils work wonderfully. Olive and coconut are a little thicker, but fine too.)

The person who will give the massage should be comfortably dressed, willing and able to sit on the floor. You may want to bring a pillow to sit on. Babies who are crawling may have a hard time enjoying being stationary for the whole massage, but you are welcome to bring some quiet toys for them.

Please enter via the main doors of the hospital and walk towards the stairs. Either walk up the stairs, turning left, or take the Stork Elevators on your right, to the upper level. The Childbirth Conference room is across the atrium from the Stork elevator on the upper level. 

What to expect:

Maria Curtin-McKenna, MSW, LCSW, will demonstrate specific strokes, and participants will massage their own infant or doll. There will be time for questions and comments.

Maria has been working with parents and babies for over 35 years, teaching topics such as childbirth, newborn care, becoming a parent, and baby massage to hundreds of families. She is certified in the Brazelton NBAS and Newborn Observation Programs and as an Infant Massage Educator. Maria currently works as an Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Consultant for Head Start in Western Mass. She loves showing parents how to massage their babies.