Our History

The history of our organisation – the International Association of Infant Massage (IAIM) - is the story of infant massage itself, and how it came to be used by hundreds of thousands of families throughout the world.

A seed is planted...

In the early 1970’s a vibrant, adventurous and compassionate young woman by the name of Vimala McClure travelled to volunteer some of her time in a little orphanage in Northern India.

Vimala was overwhelmed by the harsh and unjust conditions that the children were living in. Her work in the orphanage was simply focused on survival. Many of the children had insufficient food and health care, most were given no education, and many had survived abuse and trauma.

Given the almost intolerable circumstances, Vimala was taken aback by the fact that many children were not only joyful but that they were content and had such deep sense of care and compassion for each other.

One day, while riding a rickshaw to the train station, Vimala noticed something that would change her life forever. A young mother, sitting amongst the filth and chaos of poverty, was gently massaging her baby. In her own words, Vimala describes:

A young mother sat in the dirt with her baby across her knees, lovingly massaging him and singing. As I watched her, I remember thinking, there is so much more to life than material wealth. She had so little, yet she could offer her baby this beautiful gift of love and security...I thought about all the children I had known [in the orphanage] and how loving, warm and playful they were in spite of their so-called disadvantages. They took care of each other and they accepted this responsibility without reservation. Perhaps, I thought, they are able to be so loving, so relaxed and natural because they have been loved like this as infants, and infants have been loved like this in India for thousands of years.

A deeper understanding...

When she returned to her home in America, Vimala began to study the science behind touch and discovered how important it is to the baby's emotional, social, psychological and even their physical development. Vimala began to learn as much as she could about touch and infant development.

In time, she had children of her own. When her baby son developed what (at the time) was called “colic” and began having episodes of uncontrolled and relentless crying, she began using the Indian and other forms of massage she had learned. Astonishingly, her little one stopped crying and settled almost immediately. Vimala began using the massage techniques as part of her daily care for her baby.

Word spreads...

Fairly soon, other parents in Vimala’s community began to hear of her work. They began to gather at her house to learn how to use touch and other forms of loving communication to help settle and soothe their own babies.

Parents began to talk about how incredible it was to share time with their babies in this way and word quickly spread. Parents described not only benefits for their babies, but how Vimala's approach helped them feel more relaxed and able to understand their babies’ needs.

Vimala was almost unable to keep up with demand. At this time she combined everything she had learned in India, in her own research in medical journals, and (most of all) from the babies in her classes and she wrote the first ever infant massage book “Infant Massage: A Handbook for Loving Parents” in 1977.

Empowering Others...

At this time Registered Nurse called Audrey Downes came to Vimala’s house to learn the massage sequences that Vimala had developed. Audrey was as passionate about infant massage as Vimala, and they formed a strong friendship. To help Vimala cope with the demand for her lessons, Audrey suggested that Vimala train other mothers and nurses how to teach the infant massage program to parents in their own communities. With Audrey’s sponsorship the first ever Infant Massage Instructor Training in the world was held in California in 1981. This was the birth of the International Association of Infant Massage (IAIM).

Since this time, the IAIM has grown and we now have active Chapters in over 52 countries accountable to an international board and headquarters based in Sweden.
We trained our first Australian Certified Infant Massage Instructors in 1994.

Supporting Babies, One Parent at a Time...

The IAIM is the only truly global infant massage organisation. In recent years many more books on infant massage have been published, and many groups have sprung up using parts of Vimala’s program in their work. Likewise, much of the research on infant massage since the 1970’s has been conducted using the IAIM standards and sequences. This is a testament to the incredible and universal nature of Vimala’s pioneering work, the exceptional standards that are maintained by the organisation, and the power of touch to change the lives of babies and families everywhere.

To this day, the IAIM remains the only organisation authorised to teach the full and comprehensive program originally developed by Vimala McClure.

Thousands of women, men, parents, grandparents and other carers attend our classes not only to learn baby massage, but to deepen the way that they communicate and bond with their babies.

The massage that we teach parents in our classes remains virtually the same as it was taught in Vimala’s lounge-room all those years ago. Any changes to the program that we make are based only on new research or evidence, or on new knowledge gained from literally thousands of our Certified Infant Massage Instructors who support, respect and empower parents from all walks of life, in all corners of the globe.