If you've ever noticed your baby melt into your arms after a warm bath, you've already felt the power of touch. Infant massage takes that instinct further, supporting sleep, digestion, bonding, and even muscle tone. As a Houston in-home NICU OT and IBCLC, Stephanie shares why touch is one of her favorite therapeutic tools, and how it ties into a whole-body approach to infant care.

When a mother tells me that breastfeeding is painful, that her baby cannot seem to stay latched, that feeds take forever and leave everyone frustrated and exhausted, the first thing I do is not look at the latch. I look at the baby. Not just their mouth. Their whole body. The way they hold their neck. The tension in their shoulders and jaw. The quality of their suck pattern. Because in nearly a decade of supporting the most complex newborns in existence, I have learned something that the standard breastfeeding support system rarely acknowledges. The latch is almost never just about the latch.