NICU Massage Therapists

NICU massage therapists have a special job--providing caring touch to the premature and ill babies in the neonatal intensive care unit.

This is a new career for massage therapists and there are very few of them.

Preemies need to feel warm, caring touch. The nurses are so busy trying to tend to the medical needs of the newborns and chart their progress so little time is left for them to touch and hold them. The parents may not always be able to be there for their babies.

Some may have other children at home that they must care for and some must go back to their jobs. Some babies can be in intensive care for many weeks, even months before they are well enough to go home.

Preemies who are held and touched heal faster and grow and mature more rapidly than those who do not receive enough touch.

My first son (a preemie) was in intensive care for six weeks and back then (1987) there were no hospital based massage therapists. My husband and I spent as much time each day as we could with him. Still, it was not enough. Many babies were alone for the entire blocks of time I was with Andrew.

NICU is an intimidating place with so many wires, monitors, and IV's hooked up to tiny people on warming beds and in incubators. Alarms go off continuously as babies move and the nurses are constantly on the go, tending to each little patient. So extra hands on staff are a welcome addition for the nurses as well as for the babies.

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