Name: Mrs Alpita Chavda
Lives: West London
What do you teach? Baby Massage
How long have you been an instructor? Coming up to 1 year
What made you want to become an instructor? I really love teaching, and this is my main job in a school. When I had a baby I saw the real benefits of doing baby massage and decided I wanted to teach it within my local area, as it was nowhere to be found when I had my baby.
Have you always been an instructor?
I am a primary school teacher and still work in school. Being a baby massage instructor is flexible and works around my family too. I currently do baby massage once a week.
What’s your favourite part of your job?
I love meeting new mums and babies. I also love hearing from them about how massage is helping with their bedtime routine and how relaxed the babies are after their massage. I also really like how it is flexible and allows me to do nursery drop offs and pick ups for my daughter.
How do you keep your skills up to date? Do you have any favourite websites that you use?
By practising weekly it enables me to learn all of the strokes and then they start becoming embedded within the script I say each lesson. I follow all of the To Baby and Beyond channels including the group, to keep up to date with the conversations in there.
What qualities do you think are important in an instructor?
It’s important to know what you are teaching, be confident and knowledgable about baby massage and learn some of the key facts of massage too. It’s also important to stick to timings in class, ensure the room is ready and set up for your parents and have good communication with them throughout the sessions.
What benefits do you derive from teaching?
There are plenty of benefits from teaching baby massage – it allows the flexibility to suit my family, it’s my own business so I can run classes as and when I wish to do so, I can do less or more in a month as I see fit.
Have you learnt anything surprising about baby massage?
That most parents are really appreciative of your help and support. Baby Massage also
encourages the parents to talk to each other in class and builds their confidence too – especially for new mums.
What’s your top tip for other instructors? To run the sessions and not be disheartened if there are quiet spells in bookings. I’ve had this too and it feels a bit disheartening but then other courses fill up so it just depends on what the parents are looking for in your area. I have done further advertising with ‘Window to the Womb’ stalls and I attended a Baby Fayre and had a stall there too to promote the business. Online promotions work really well; most of my customers come through
Instagram and Facebook. I’ve printed leaflets too and distributed in local coffee shops, pharmacy etc.
Have you had an amusing experience in your work as an instructor?
When babies poo and pass wind in class! It makes everyone think ‘oh-no!’ but I say it’s good
for them to do this because we are pushing everything along their digestive tract therefore weeing and pooing is normal and might happen more in class.
Who would you most like to teach on one of your courses and why?
Beyonce would be amazing to have in my class! Any connections for this, please share my details!
What are your plans for the future?
I plan to continue to run baby massage classes but I’ve started doing themed sessions that are seasonal as I find that people want to sign up for them. For example, I have a Disney Mother’s Day Special coming up for Baby Massage so they can come, learn massage, we make a keepsake craft in the lesson and they can take Disney photos with the props in the middle too. I may well do different themed classes such as Easter as well.
Wow: Alpita really is an example to us all! We love her themed classes ideas, and she's doing a brilliant job of marketing her classes too!
You can find Alpita online in the following places:
Facebook Instagram
TikTok 
