A Secret Life of Mom Highlight Story: Sometimes there are tales that are just too good, too beautiful, or too unbelievable to keep locked away. That’s why we scour the archives and bring some of them back to enjoy again. They may make you smile or shed a tear, but they’re always meant to add a little positivity to your day. Enjoy!
Having a baby is an incredible gift. Having twins is a double blessing. They are like two little peas in a pod and have been so for the past nine months. It almost seems like a shame to separate the peaceful fellows and remove them from each other’s arms.
These twins thought their nine months in the womb wasn’t over
In 2013, a short but powerful video that made the rounds on YouTube shows newborn twins hugging in a very cute post-birth bath. It appears the little ones do not even realize they’ve been born yet going by their reactions.
Just days after the birth of these twins, a boy and a girl, French nurse Sonia Rochel took out her phone to record her signature bathing technique for newborns called the “baby spa”. The twins whose mother wanted their identities to remain anonymous appeared to love every second of the bath. They held onto each other like how they did in the womb.
According to TODAY Moms, “They’re already born, but they might not know it yet. This video of a unique bath is offering an amazing look at what life must like for twins in the womb, with the babies cuddling and embracing as if they were still in their mother’s belly.”
The aww-inducing video not only serves to showcase the incredible bond between twins but also to showcase the new bathing technique.
Thalasso Baby Bath
A 51-year-old French nurse, Sonia Rochel, is credited with developing the technique called “Thalasso bain bébé” in French. It is a method of bathing newborns where they are bathed and massaged for 15 minutes under running water. This is done to the sound of relaxing music without the use of gels and creams.
The goal is to show just how relaxing bath time can be for both parents and newborns. [2] The adorable video shows the twins holding on to each other as they are held inside a tiny basin filled with tepid water by the nurse. They have just their mouths and noses above the water.
Read: These Are The Rarest Triplets In The Entire World – Take A Closer Look
They appear so peaceful and ethereal in the water as the nurse delicately cradled them. Afterward, she took them out of the water and wrapped them in a comfy-looking towel to dry.
The video, which originally went viral in 2013, now has over 49.5 million views. And while the bathing style and the babies’ reaction surprised several people, Rochel — a grandmother of six — said she was not surprised by their reaction as she has bathed twins together several times. [3]
If you’d love to watch another video of Rochel bathing babies the Thalasso, you can watch it below. Just make sure you are ready for your heartstrings to be tugged on repeatedly.
According to Rochel, the method should only be used on babies that are younger than two months. And while she doesn’t think parents should try this technique at home to avoid water getting in their noses, she does encourage them to slow bath time a bit and make it more of a “restorative nighttime routine”.
Restorative nighttime care for babies
This is essentially a fancy term for slow relaxed bathes for babies. Just like most nurses, Rochel was trained to give babies a short bath after birth. However, they always cried in the water and Rochel wondered why. She found it difficult to understand why they cried when they were immersed in an environment that was similar to the one they just came from. She also noticed some odd movements from them.
The inception of the unique bathing technique
Rochel came up with the idea of the Thalasso baby bath when she was in the shower and experienced the amazing feeling of water running down her face. She figured it would make newborns feel good as well. It didn’t just do that; it also made them move in a way similar to how they moved in the womb because the bath mimics that environment.
She believes that babies need to have a reminder of their life before birth, and she’s fairly confident the bath gives them a semblance of that. Also, after incorporating music into the technique, Rochel noted that 90% of the babies no longer cried after the bath.
Read: Mom gives birth to 3 girls on the same day exactly 3 years apart
Safety guidelines to observe during a restorative nighttime bath
In an interview with Heidi Holvoet, Ph.D., Rochel said that she gives guidelines for safety because babies move during baths. “It’s their reflex for example when they touch the side of the bath, to ‘jump up’. I know that that happens so I always have my hands ready because I know that at any moment, the baby can do this and make a sudden movement,” said Rochel.
“So that is the main safety guideline: be ready for sudden movements, just keep your hands close and ready,” she added.
Another rule is to never give a bath when a baby is hungry because at that point all they care about is food and will end up being too fussy.
Rochel advised that parents use a gentle baby shower head. This lets water stream over their head softly and give the softest cranial massage.
As for why it’s necessary to give babies a bath of that nature, Rochel said, “Most of all, it’s about changing the whole idea of a bath, so that it becomes less strict, more about fun than about hygiene.” [4]
The twins in the video most likely succeeded at tugging at your heartstrings and perhaps you can’t help but wonder what it means to be a twin.
Wonder no more, here are four things being a twin means
- Crying ‘for and with’ someone else – This doesn’t mean you feel their physical pain in your body. It means sympathizing with someone on a level so deep that you find it hard to explain.
- It means having a copy of yourself – When other people complain about sharing a dress or seeing someone in the same outfit as them, twins just laugh and roll their eyes. Being a twin means sharing a lot more than clothes with another human being. It means sharing a piece of the very essence of yourself with someone else.
- Valuing your twin more than any other person …and not be faulted for that. Everyone understands that the relationship between twins is special. Just like other siblings, twins fight each other, but at the end of the day, they wouldn’t trade the other for anything in the world.
- Understanding your twin in ways no other human being can – Twins typically form a relationship with one another that is entirely separate from the rest of the family. This is why they are often described as “a family within a family”. This closeness is not easily explained to other people but it certainly exists within them. [5]
All-in-all, babies are precious and should be treated as such. A restorative nighttime routine is something all parents should adopt to make their babies feel good. However, it should be done while bearing the safety guidelines in mind and preferably after watching a professional do it.
Keep Reading: Mother who didn’t know she was pregnant has twins
Sources
- ” Astonishing Video Captures The Unbreakable Bond Between Twins.” HuffPost. Sara Gates. November 15, 2013.
- ” Twins mimic life in the womb in amazing baby bath video.” Today. Annabel Roberts. November 15, 2013.
- ” Twin Newborns Hug During Bath: Nurse Sonia Rochel Gives Babies Relaxing ‘Spa Bath’ To Mimic Life In The Womb [VIDEO].” Medical Daily. Nadia-Elysse Harris. November 17, 2013.
- “Interview with Sonia Rochel of Thalasso Baby Bath.” Baby Sleep Advice. Heidi Holvoet. September 24, 2018.
- ” 12 things that only twins will know to be true.” Insider. Amy Daire. April 8, 2019.