http://www.connectedbabies.co.uk/

Connected Babies, Elstree (2026)

09/10/2026

Baby Loss Awareness Week is particularly close to my heart, having lost a baby in our fourth month of pregnancy. 🩷💙

It''s an experience that stays with you and inevitably shapes the way you see the world, especially when it comes to pregnancy, babies and parenthood.

In my work with infant massage, we talk a lot about the importance of nurturing touch and the connection it can help build between parents and their babies. But something we perhaps don't talk about enough is how valuable that experience can be for parents who have previously experienced pregnancy or baby loss.

Pregnancy and parenting after loss can be complicated. There's often so much joy and love, but that can sit alongside anxiety, fear and grief. For some parents, it can be difficult to fully relax into those early experiences with their baby, particularly when they've already experienced how fragile life can be.

I think this is one of the really beautiful things about infant massage. It offers an opportunity to slow down, spend time getting to know your baby and build confidence in your relationship together. There's no pressure to feel a particular way, or to have everything figured out. It's simply an opportunity to be together, to communicate through touch and to enjoy those moments of connection.

Of course, massage isn't going to take away the grief of losing a baby, and nor should we expect it to. For some parents, nurturing touch can offer a gentle way to rebuild confidence, experience closeness and find moments of calm with a baby born after loss. For others, that closeness might initially bring up difficult emotions, and that's OK too. There's no right way to navigate parenting after loss, and no timeline for feeling comfortable or connected. That's why I believe a baby-led, responsive approach to massage is so important, allowing both parent and baby to find their own rhythm, without pressure or expectation.

And I think it's important to acknowledge that connecting with another baby doesn't mean moving on from the one you've lost. That baby will always be part of your story.

I'd really love to open up a conversation here this Baby Loss Awareness Week, because I know there are so many experiences and stories that often go unspoken.

If you've experienced pregnancy or baby loss, and you feel comfortable sharing, I'd love to hear about your baby, or what helped you navigate pregnancy or parenting afterwards. Perhaps nurturing touch or baby massage played a part in your experience, or perhaps something entirely different helped you find moments of connection and comfort.

And if you're not ready to share, that's absolutely fine too. You're very welcome here. 🩷💙

Crystal x

07/10/2026

About last week 💚

What a joy to be in Northern Ireland and these wonderful women made it easy! Congratulations on completing your 4 day training as part of the process to become an IAIM instructor. Travelling from all across the country and from all of the trusts, these lovely ladies held and supported eachother, opened their hearts to the programme and made me feel truly welcome 🙏

An extra thanks to Helen Stevie of Helen Stevenson who helped me with organising and showed me the best of NI hospitality, helping me get around, sharing dinners, and taking me to mountains and waterfalls! My heart is full.

Added a cheeky weekend at the start with Mr Connected Babies too, to drive the coastal causeway and see the sights for my birthday! Can't wait to return in March.

Our next IAIM UK instructor training is in Central London this October with the fabulous Mary Beattie and we still have spaces for students and for parents and babies! DMs are open.

Truly blessed to do this work and share the IAIM programme 🤗

Crystal x

05/10/2026

Babies have big feelings too 💚

They just don’t have the words to tell us what’s going on yet. Instead, they communicate through their bodies, their movements, their expressions, their sounds - their engagement (yes) and disengagement (no) cues.

This is one of the things I love most about infant massage. It gives us a chance to slow down enough to really notice them, to learn how our baby's really think and feel. The goal is not to finish the massage. It's a communication.

Our babies are communicating with us all the time, and when parents begin to understand that language, massage becomes so much more than a series of strokes. It becomes a conversation, starting with the most important question of all - "may I massage you?" Consent is key.

Sometimes that conversation says, “yes, I like this.” Sometimes it says, “I’ve had enough.” And sometimes it says, “I just need you to hold me.”

That’s what we teach at Connected Babies, not simply how to massage a baby, but how to truly listen to one. 💚

Did infant massage help you to understand your baby better?

Crystal x

P.s shout out to for this absolute banger, and for always speaking up for all babies!

03/10/2026

If you’re investing your time, money and trust in becoming an Infant Massage Instructor, you deserve to know exactly who and what you’re training with.

And I’m very happy for you to ask these questions of me too, because behind our training is far more than a course and a certificate.

There is an internationally established programme, with decades of experience behind it. There are defined pathways and standards for becoming an Instructor and for becoming a Trainer. There is a Code of Ethics, governance, complaints procedures and professional expectations.

There is ongoing CPD, stroke reviews, continuing education, updated research and opportunities to keep learning and growing long after your initial training ends.

I have policies covering equality, equity and inclusion, anti-racism, and accessibility, because these things shouldn't just be words we use when they're convenient.

And importantly, we recognise that infant massage did not begin with us. We have a responsibility to acknowledge and respect the rich cultural traditions of nurturing touch that existed for generations before infant massage became a formalised training programme in the West.

We don’t get everything perfect. No organisation does. Standards should continue to evolve as knowledge, evidence and understanding evolve too, but these structures matter.

When you choose an infant massage training provider, you’re not simply choosing who gives you a certificate, you’re choosing the education, ethics, standards and community that will sit behind the work you go on to do with parents and babies.

So please, ask us the difficult questions too. I welcome them. 💚

Save the carousel if you’re researching training, or send it to someone who is.

Crystal x

25/09/2026

Black Maternal Mental Health Week, coordinated by The Motherhood Group is an opportunity to listen, learn and reflect.

For those of us working with parents and babies, and teaching those who do, that also means recognising that experiences of pregnancy, birth, early parenthood and mental health support are not equal.

Black mothers and parents can face additional barriers to being heard, believed and supported, alongside racial inequalities within maternity and healthcare.

As professionals, inclusion is about more than the images we use or the words we choose.

It means continuing to examine our own practice,
listening to Black voices and lived experience, learning about racial bias and inequity,
being willing to notice where our knowledge has gaps, and recognising that this learning is never really “finished”.

So rather than speaking for a community I don't represent, I'd like to use this space to amplify the people who do.

Who should we be listening to and learning from?

Please tag Black professionals, educators, organisations, researchers, birthworkers and advocates doing important work around mental health, pregnancy, birth, parenting and the early years.

And if that's you, please feel very welcome to tag yourself and tell us about your work 💚

Let's fill the comments with resources and expertise worth following.

Crystal x

23/09/2026

Do you know what the most common feedback from our 4 day training is?

I wish it was longer!

We live in a society that often wants everything faster, shorter, cheaper... but you can't rush things that take time to grow.

This week I had to take a deep breath as one of my largest contracts wanted to discuss that they had been approached by another provider selling all of these points! I didn't need to disparage them, I knew that talking proudly about the quality of our training, and how all the topics in our core curriculum are essential, no matter what your background is, would be enough.

There is nothing I would remove, and we regularly train health and development professionals, because everything we teach is related back to the programme, back to massage, back to touch, and back to supporting parents and babies in a way that having an understanding of child development doesn't change.

A fully comprehensive, hands on and interactive training also means that our instructors are confident and prepared to deliver from the start. I can't say it enough times, we are so much more than strokes. Reducing it dilutes the impact.

Our membership isn't a hidden extra cost, it's a way to ensure regulation and quality in an unregulated field. It also supports a not for profit organisation and creates community.

Being part of a our global association means having your back. It means originality and integrity, growth pathways, professional frameworks, continued education, community and quality over profit.

I didn't need to say anymore.

Proud to be an IAIM trainer, and the processes involved in being licensed to deliver this work. If you're looking to train in baby massage, get in touch.

Crystal x

18/09/2026

✨ GIVEAWAY ✨

Because preparing for a baby isn’t just about preparing for birth.

We’ve teamed up to give one family two resources designed to support what comes next - the enormous transition into life with a baby.

One winner will receive:

🌿 The Beyond Birth Guide from Sophie Burch - a practical, compassionate guide to navigating the postnatal period, supporting emotional wellbeing and helping families feel more prepared, informed and supported as they adjust to life beyond birth.

🌿 Connection Cards from Crystal Miles - simple, meaningful prompts and activities designed to nurture connection with your baby, support bonding and bring a little more intention into those everyday moments together.

Different resources. One shared belief:

Parents deserve support beyond the birth, and connection matters.

This giveaway is perfect for:
💚 Expectant parents
🩷 Families with a new baby
🤍 Or professionals working in the birth, postnatal and baby world who would love these resources for themselves or the families they support.

To enter:
✨ Follow Crystal Miles and Sophie Burch
✨ Like this post
✨ Tag someone who would love this too

Each tag counts as an entry. Share to your Stories for an extra entry. 💫

Giveaway closes 1st October. One winner will be chosen at random and contacted directly by one of these two accounts.

UK entries only. This giveaway is not affiliated with or endorsed by Instagram.

Good luck!

And if you know an expectant family who might need a little more support for the journey after birth, send this their way.

16/09/2026

How does a baby actually come to know their own body?

We tend to take body awareness for granted. If somebody touches you, you don't have to stop and work out where the sensation came from.

Your brain combines information from touch with information about the position of your body.
For babies, these abilities are still developing.
Research into infant body representation suggests that across infancy, babies become increasingly sophisticated at combining tactile, proprioceptive and visual information to represent their body and locate touch.

This made me think about what is actually happening during baby massage.
There is pressure on the skin, limbs are held and moved, joints change position, babies move in response. Sometimes they watch what is happening or you tell them. It's an incredibly rich multisensory experience.

Importantly, we don't have evidence that allows us to say “baby massage develops your baby's body map”. That's a leap I'm not willing to make, but we do know that touch and proprioception contribute to the developing representation of the body, and that makes what the infant brain is doing with tactile experiences fascinating in its own right.

We don't need to turn every massage stroke into a promised outcome. Sometimes understanding just how much information a baby's developing nervous system is processing is extraordinary enough.

Massage your babies! Your touch helps their brains 💚

Did you know body awareness is another benefit?

Crystal x

Research starting points:

Bremner (2016) — Developing body representations in early life: combining somatosensation and vision to perceive the interface between the body and the world.

Bremner & Spence (2017) — The Development of Tactile Perception.

de Klerk, Filippetti & Rigato (2021) — The development of body representations: an associative learning account.

14/09/2026

New research exploring baby massage AND mother-baby yoga!

I always love seeing new research in this area, but also think it’s important to look beyond the headline and understand what a study actually found. Here's the run-down...

This small 2025 randomised crossover study involved 36 mothers and their babies, divided into two groups.

One group practised mother-baby yoga for four weeks followed by four weeks of baby massage. The other started with baby massage and then moved on to mother-baby yoga.

Researchers looked at mother-infant attachment, infant weight and sleep.

The authors reported positive effects from both interventions when looking at changes within the groups. They also found differences in attachment between the groups after the second intervention and differences in infant weight at both follow-ups.

Interestingly, when it came to sleep, there were no significant differences between the two groups in night waking, night-time sleep or total daily sleep at any of the measurement points.

So this isn't evidence that massage is “better” than yoga, or that we should be doing them in a particular order, and with just 36 mother-baby pairs, this is a small study, so the findings need to be interpreted with appropriate caution, but I find it particularly interesting because we incorporate both infant massage and gentle yoga/movement into our programmes.

Perhaps the most interesting conversation isn't always which technique gives which benefit, but how opportunities for touch, movement, interaction and shared time can support the developing parent-baby relationship. 💚

Crystal x

📚 Research:
Bilgiç, F. Ş., Tunç, R., & Amanak, K. (2025). The Effects of Mother Baby Yoga and Baby Massage on Attachment, Weight, and Sleep: A Randomized Crossover Study. The Family Journal.
DOI: 10.1177/10664807251360783

Connected Babies

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