Baby massage is gentle, rhythmic stroking of your baby's body with your hands. As part of your massage routine, you can also gently manipulate your baby's ankles, wrists and fingers.

There are lots of ways baby massage can benefit not just your baby, but you and your partner as well. Massage can be particularly good for premature babies, helping them to grow and thrive. But massage is good for full-term babies too. In fact, all small children can benefit from massage.

Massage may help your baby to:

• stay relaxed and not get upset
• cry less
• sleep better

One study showed that massage may reduce the number of illnesses your baby has, cutting down on the need for trips to see the doctor or nurse. We need more studies to be done to confirm this, though.

There's also a theory that touch and skin-to-skin contact help to stimulate your baby's brain development.