Southampton Hospital has a Massage Therapy Depart. located in the Dept. of Rehabilitation. We are staff of 9 therapists located in 3 locations. Southampton Hospital is a small community hospital located on the East End of Long Island NY. We began massaging patients in 1995 both in and out-patient. Presently we massage only out-patients. We have many massage programs for patients all from cancer, HIV/AIDS, sports injuries, geriatric, pregnancy, lymphedema, etc. All of our programs were developed from a NEED IN THE COMMUNITY.

In 1997 we were given a grant from The Balm Foundation to massage new mothers in the OB/GYN Depart., post delivery of her baby, while she was in the hospital. This was a great opportunity to educate families about the benefits of massage. During the next year, many mothers began to ask us about infant massage classes. Two of us became certified to teach infant massage classes. We began teaching infant massage to the new mothers in our community. Although it was a great program we could not reach families who did not have the economic means to pay for the classes. We also were concerned with the young new mothers in our OB/GYN Depart. Because many of them were teenagers they did not have the bonding skills needed to be mothers, basically they were babies having babies.

I was always very impressed with the Massage Therapy Foundation but did not feel we had a shot at receiving a grant because we are a small community hospital. Unfortunately, it is very hard for hospital's our size to stay in "the black", so I knew I needed funding to do our next program.

I arranged a meeting with our staff from The Center For Prenatal Care at Greenport. The meeting was with the director of ambulatory care, the nurse practitioner and the LPN. The Center For Prenatal Care is an Article 28 extension clinic of Southampton Hospital and is located on the North Fork of the East End of Long Island, NY. The Center offers comprehensive, prenatal care to women who, prior to initiation of care, had limited or no health insurance or access to care.

We applied to the Massage Therapy Foundation for a grant to teach infant massage classes to new mothers and care-givers, all patients at The Center. We titled our grant L.I.F.E. (Low Income Families Enrichment Program). We were very excited when we received the grant!

The course was designed to teach the critical elements of bonding, eye-to-eye contact, skin-to-skin contact, and interaction between mother and infant. Classes were to meet for 1 to 1 1/2 hours a week for a 3 week session. Our biggest concern was getting the mothers to the class. Most of these families live day to day worrying about work, food, child care, etc. Once they attended the class they were so happy to be there. The Center was a safe place for them to be, very nurturing and caring. Over all, we were able to educate 19 families about the benefits of massage. Because of the generous support from The Massage Therapy Foundation, we were able to reach out to members of our community and provide them with a service that they could not afford. The administrators of Southampton Hospital were happy because a nice article was written in a local newspaper about the grant and we were able "cover our overhead". It was a win-win situation. All because we followed a need in our community.