All cultures have special traditions they hold dear, particularly when it comes to raising children. But one tradition is separating younger generations of Indian parents from older ones.
The great bath, as it is known, is a detailed ritual that elders believe helps babies build muscle tone, improves their skin and protects them against disease.
Generally performed by a ‘maalishwali’ or baby masseuse, often hired by families to provide daily bathing and massage for both baby and mother in the days following the birth, the bath involves a variety of stages, from an oil massage and powdered dal body scrub to a good soaking and soaping; to the final stage, where the baby is ‘smoked’ dry over warm embers containing caraway seeds and incense, something older Indians believe wards off colds and Flu.
While many families are happy to stick to tradition, for others the sound of a wailing baby being ‘exercised’ and oiled is too much to handle. Doctors agree that baby massage can help with muscle tone, but debate whether the rest of the ritual has any lasting benefits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIB6y2hYiaI
In this video, a modern Indian mum demonstrates how she uses the traditional techniques at her baby’s bath time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vFZbL5Qp1s
Baby massage has only really taken off in the Western world in the last 20 years but the tradition is as old as time and was even featured in a piece of film made in India in 1906…
