Swaddling

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Ambrogio Lorenzetti's Madonna and Child (1319) depicts swaddling bands.

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

Swaddling fell out of favour in the seventeenth century. It has become popular again 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 (cot death).[1]

Contents

[edit] Origin and history

Mothers have swaddled their babies throughout history. 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. As desertification progressed, migration from region to region became a relatively permanent way of life. Swaddling subsequently became an institutionalized part of child-rearing tradition in those same areas.[2]

Native American baby of the Nez Perce tribe, photographed by Edward S. Curtis, 1911

Votive statuettes have been found in the tombs of Ancient Greek and Roman women who died in childbirth, displaying babies in swaddling clothes. In shrines dedicated to Amphiaraus, models representing babies wrapped in swaddling clothes have been excavated. Apparently, these were frequently given as thank-offerings by anxious mothers when their infants had recovered from sickness. [3]

Probably the most famous record of swaddling is found in the New Testament concerning the birth of Jesus:

“ And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. (Luke: II: 6-7) King James Version ”

The oriental swaddling clothes consisted of a square of cloth and two or more bandages. The child was laid on the cloth diagonally and the corners are folded over the feet and body and under the head, the bandages then being tied so as to hold the cloth in position. This device formed the clothing of the child until it is about a year old, and its omission (Ezekiel 16:4) would be a token that the child had been abandoned.[4]

The Cholmondeley sisters and their swaddled babies. c.1600-1610

Over time swaddling clothes became more elaborate, especially for the wealthy. During Tudor times, there were several different clothes needed to wrap a baby. In the case of the children of James III of Scotland, the children wore several caps, a shirt, a square band "bed", which bound from the breast to the feet and up again, a long band of swaddling clothes (roller), a tube waistcoat that bound the arms and roller and a blanket.[citation needed] A stay band would be attached to the forehead and the shoulders to secure the head. Babies would be swaddled like this until about 8 or 9 months.[5]

In the seventeenth century the opinion towards swaddling began to change. There was an association of neglect with swaddling, especially in regard to wetnurses who would leave babies in their care, swaddled for long periods without washing or comforting them.[6] John Locke, in his 1693 publication Some Thoughts Concerning Education, became a lobbyist for not bounding babies at all. This thought was very controversial during the time, but slowly gained ground, first in England and later elsewhere in Europe.

For instance Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote in his book Emile: Or, On Education, 1762:

“ The child has hardly left the mother's womb, it has hardly begun to move and stretch its limbs, when it is given new bonds. It is wrapped in swaddling bands, laid down with its head fixed, its legs stretched out, and its arms by its sides; it is wound round with linen and bandages of all sorts so that it cannot move […]. Whence comes this unreasonable custom? From an unnatural practice. Since mothers despise their primary duty and do not wish to nurse their own children, they have had to entrust them to mercenary women. These women thus become mothers to a stranger's children, who by nature mean so little to them that they seek only to spare themselves trouble. A child unswaddled would need constant watching; well swaddled it is cast into a corner and its cries are ignored […]. It is claimed that infants left free would assume faulty positions and make movements which might injure the proper development of their limbs. This is one of the vain rationalizations of our false wisdom which experience has never confirmed. Out of the multitude of children who grow up with the full use of their limbs among nations wiser than ourselves, you never find one who hurts himself or maims himself; their movements are too feeble to be dangerous, and when they assume an injurious position, pain warns them to change it. ”

Although this form of swaddling has fallen out of favour in the Western world, many Eastern cultures and tribal people still use it. Some researchers have been shocked that the practice continues today.[7]

[edit] Modern swaddling

A modern application of swaddling

A modified form of swaddling is becoming increasingly popular today as a means of settling and soothing irritable infants.[8] 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. The confinement does carry a risk of the baby overheating if the swaddling material is too thick, or the room is too warm.[8] Today, many midwives swaddle infants soon after birth and it is now a standard newborn care practice in many hospitals.[citation needed] Swaddling also prevents newborns waking themselves with their startle reflex.

An example of how to swaddle an infant on Wikimedia Commons.

Looser wrappings, tucked but not tied, can generally be kicked off by a wakeful baby. They 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. This assumes that the baby is put to sleep on its back, as anti-SIDS precautions recommend. By the time the baby is learning to roll over, often around 6 months, it should be sleeping in less restrictive coverings - so it has more freedom to respond when it succeeds in rolling over.

Modern specialised baby swaddles are designed to make it easier to swaddle a baby than with traditional square sheets or blankets. They 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. Some of these products employ velcro patches or other fasteners. Fabrics used include synthetic 'fleece', cotton, organic cotton, and cotton/synthetic blends. A Spandex/cotton fabric is widely used, which provides more stretch than cotton alone. The synthetic content of the fabric is not always required to be disclosed.

At least one modern baby swaddle uses merino fabric. This use of merino in a specialised baby swaddle seeks to combine the health benefits from using merino bedding for newborn babies[9][10] with the idea of an easy-to-use specialised baby swaddle blanket. The chief benefits expounded for the use of a merino baby swaddle are the reduction in the risk of the baby overheating compared to other fabrics, and the baby's ability to move its limbs while swaddled due to the natural stretch of the merino fabric.

[edit] Medical studies

Medical studies show that swaddling reduces arousal, or the tendency for the baby to awaken through reflex motion;[11] that it can enhance neuromuscular development of the very low birth weight infant; and that it might have a role in lowering SIDS risk [12][13] Research has also found that swaddling helps infants stay in REM sleep longer.[14]

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,[15] though he does not offer a neurophysiological mechanism by which this might take place in humans.[16] Moreover, Janov's "primal therapy" techniques have never achieved acceptance among mainstream psychotherapists.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Swaddling 'reduces cot death risk'. BBC News Monday, 2 December, 2002, 10:42 GMT. Retrieved 27 March 2009
  2. ^ DeMeo,James Ph.D., Saharasia: The 4000 BCE Origins of Child Abuse, Sex-Repression, Warfare and Social Violence, In the Deserts of the Old World, 2006 Revised Second Edition
  3. ^ C.J.S. Thompson M.B.E. curator, Greco-roman votive offerings for health in the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, London: Hazell, Watson and Viney
  4. ^ International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co, 1915
  5. ^ Sim, Alison, The Tudor Housewife, page 26, 1998, McGill-Queen's Press
  6. ^ Childrearing PychoHistory.Com
  7. ^ [1] – article by Michel Odent, M.D.
  8. ^ a b Risks of Ancient Practices in Modern Times, Josephus Petrus Johannes van Gestel, MD, Monique Pauline L’Hoir, PhD, Maartje ten Berge, MD, Nicolaas Johannes Georgius Jansen, MD, PhD and Frans Berend Plötz, MD, PhD, PEDIATRICS Vol. 110 No. 6 December 2002, pp. e78
  9. ^ Scott, S., and Richards, M. 1983. Lambswool is safer for babies. Nursing low-birthweight babies on lambswool. Lancet, pp 556.
  10. ^ Australian Wool Innovation, Proof of the attributes of Australian Merino; Health; Benefits of Merino for babies, www.merinoinnovation.com 2008
  11. ^ Spontaneous Arousals in Supine Infants While Swaddled and Unswaddled During Rapid Eye Movement and Quiet Sleep, Claudia M. Gerard, MD, Kathleen A. Harris and Bradley T. Thach, MD, PEDIATRICS Vol. 110 No. 6 December 2002, pp. e70. Retrieved 27 March 2009.
  12. ^ Franco P, Scaillet S, Groswasser J, Kahn A., Increased cardiac autonomic responses to auditory challenges in swaddled infants, Sleep, December 2004
  13. ^ M.A. Short, J.A. Brooks-Brunn, D.S. Reeves, J. Yeager and J.A. Thorpe., The effect of swaddling versus standard positioning on neuromuscular development in very low birth weight infants, Neonatal Network, 15 (4) p. 25-31, 1996.
  14. ^ McNamara F, Lijowksa A and Thach BT. Spontaneous Arousal Activity in Infants during NREM and REM sleep. J Appl Physiol 2002, 538(1)263-269
  15. ^ Janov, Arthur (2000). The Biology of Love. Prometheus Books. 
  16. ^ The Biology of Love. - book review Journal of Sex Research , Nov, 2001 by James V. Kohl. Retrieved 27 March 2008.

[edit] External links

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