Baby Swaddling

Swaddling is an age-old practice of wrapping infants snugly in swaddling clothes, blankets or similar cloth so that movement of the limbs is tightly restricted. It was commonly believed that this was essential for the infants to develop proper posture.

It fell out of favour in the seventeenth century but it has again become popular as modern medical studies indicate that swaddling assists babies to sleep and to remain asleep and that it lowers the risk of sudden infant death syndrome.

Archaeological records suggest that swaddling first developed around 4000 B.C. in Central Asia with use of the back-pack cradle board by migrating peoples. Votive statuettes have been found in the tombs of Ancient Greek and Roman women who died in childbirth, displaying babies in swaddling clothes and also in the shrines dedicated to Amphiaraus, models representing babies wrapped in swaddling clothes have been excavated. These were frequently given as thank-offerings by anxious mothers when their infants had recovered from sickness.

Swaddling clothes described in the Bible consisted of a cloth tied together by bandage-like strips. As soon as an infant was born, the umbilical cord was cut and tied, and then the baby was washed, rubbed with salt and oil, and wrapped with strips of cloth which kept the newborn child warm and also ensured that the child's limbs would grow straight.

The child has hardly left the mother's womb and has hardly begun to move and stretch its limbs but it is given new bonds and is wrapped in swaddling bands, laid down with its head fixed, its legs stretched out, and its arms by its sides and wound round with linen and bandages of all sorts so that it cannot move . Whence comes this unreasonable custom? From an unnatural practice.

A modified form of baby swaddle is becoming increasingly popular today as a means of settling and soothing irritable infants,the lengthy swaddling cloths of mediaeval Madonna and Child paintings are now replaced with receiving blankets, muslin wraps, specialised 'winged' baby swaddles, or flannelette sheets.

Looser wrappings, tucked but not tied, can generally be kicked off by a wakeful baby but are still useful for keeping the baby warm, without increasing the SIDS risk, because the wrappings stay well clear of the baby's face and airway.

Modern specialized baby swaddles are designed to make it easier to swaddle a baby than with traditional square sheets or blankets and are typically fabric blankets in a triangle, 'T' or 'Y' shape, with 'wings' that fold around the baby's torso or down over the baby's shoulders and around underneath the infant.

Alternative views come from psychologist Arthur Janov, author of The Primal Scream (1970), who claims that swaddling has profound negative effects on the adult emotional health of a swaddled child, though he does not offer a neurophysiological mechanism by which this might take place in humans. His "primal therapy" techniques have never achieved acceptance among mainstream psychotherapists.