Please Don’t Swaddle Your Baby!!!

Research done by Dr. Nils Bergman, father of kangaroo mother care, indicates that swaddled babies have high levels of cortisol in their bloodstream. This means they are in a state of high stress and are NOT sleeping. Instead, like the baby in this photo, the children are dissociating. Dissociation is similar to the “freeze” or “play dead” response that animals exhibit in the wild. It occurs in humans when trauma overloads the system (parasympathetic shock) and the spirit leaves the body because it is just too uncomfortable for the spirit to remain. So the body is left on automatic pilot with no soul at the helm. Breathing slows down, heart rate slows down, the body goes into a state of temporary paralysis.

Medical staff who teach parents to swaddle their baby to keep them quiet cannot be trusted. Parents should be encouraged to hold their babies, rock their babies, sing to their babies, nurture their babies, hold their babies skin-to-skin, and try to intuit why their babies are crying (BIRTH TRAUMA) and if necessary, help them heal. Instead, parents are being conditioned to dissociate too, and to not properly bond or care for their children.

Whatever the medical system says, I encourage you to do the opposite.

Excerpt (full article below):

“One core concern on the part of pediatricians, breastfeeding advocates, and others is that routine swaddling interferes with a mother’s intuitive response to her baby’s needs. “Crying is the baby’s language, his voice; it’s the only way he has to tell you he needs something,” stresses internationally-known breastfeeding advocate, pediatric nurse practitioner, and educator Kittie Franz. “Newborns are about need, not want. Before you use this tool (of swaddling), find out what he needs—don’t just shut him up.”

Dr. Fleiss goes even farther, suggesting that when an infant with unmet needs is swaddled and separated from his mother, the message he receives is: Give up. No one cares, no one is going to help you; solve it yourself.

“You can say swaddling works; it stops the baby from crying. But because something works doesn’t mean it’s a good thing to do,” Fleiss argues. “I tell parents not to swaddle, ever. When a baby is crying he’s saying where’s my mommy? He’s not saying wrap me up real tightly. He should be put to the breast, he should be talked to, sung to, held, loved…

In fact, many researchers and infant advocates now believe the apparent contentment of a swaddled baby may in fact be a sign of listlessness and shutting down, rather than of feeling comforted.”

Source Article:
The Question of Routine Swaddling
http://www.mothering.com/articles/routine-swaddling/

Remember the bumper sticker, “What Would Jesus Do?” Here’s a variation on that query: What would Jesus’ mommy do? We are told his mother wrapped her newborn in swaddling clothes. So if it’s good enough for baby Jesus…?

Yet simply because a practice has been widespread in various cultures and time periods doesn’t mean it is best for babies.

Likewise, even though routine swaddling may have popular authority on its side at the moment—through bestselling books, advertising, parent education organizations, and even the apparent evidence of first-hand experience—this does not in itself mean its benefits outweigh potential disadvantages in the light of current research and intuitive common sense.

Why Swaddle?

The obvious and well-promoted benefits of swaddling, of course, are a calmer baby who fusses less and sleeps more. Parents are given a chance to rest, relieved of the stress of an “excessively crying” infant. The swaddled baby appears calm and content.

Other advantages often mentioned include preventing baby from scratching her face with her fingernails, and keeping her from startling herself awake with her own movements. In addition, proponents claim swaddling reduces the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) in babies placed on their backs to sleep, since with confined limbs they are less able to turn over into a prone position.

Why Even Question It?

For millions of new parents, the ubiquitous presence of pro-swaddling messages creates a reassuring sense of caring both for their baby’s needs and their own. For most, there seems no reason to question the practice. The idea that it elicits controversy may be surprising. Yet hidden behind this friendly face is a growing body of research from around the world that calls into question the benign, warm-and-cozy nature of routine swaddling of newborns and older infants.

It should be noted that the term swaddling means different things to different people. For some parents, loose wrapping with arms free is considered swaddling, while others use roomy sleep sacks that allow for movement within the bag. Here, however, we are referring to tight or constrictive wrapping using a swaddling blanket or cloth that holds the baby’s arms and legs straight. The blanket’s snugness is seen as providing a sense of comfort and security, and ensures the infant won’t pull it loose.

Wrapped in History

It was not only Jesus’ mother who wrapped her baby in swaddling clothes, which likely was cloth held in place by bandage-like strips of cloth wound around the infant. Some version of the practice of wrapping babies has taken place in many cultures worldwide and across time. Among the earliest evidence of swaddling, dating back several thousand years and perhaps originating in what is now central China, were various forms of the cradleboard.

As with American Indians and other later cultures, the cradleboard contained and protected babies during nomadic travels. Some current-day North American tribes continue to use cradleboards. In the Southwestern United States, for example, a Navajo mother may secure her baby in a cradleboard and prop it close to her while she works at her weaving loom.

Evolving motivations

Over the centuries, stated benefits of swaddling have included producing straight limbs and proper physical development, making babies stronger, preventing self-injury, allowing both parents to work in the fields, and providing babies with warmth and comfort. In 17th and 18th-century Europe the employment of swaddling by wet-nurses was often associated with neglect, with wet-nurses known to leave tightly wrapped babies unattended for hours.

Eighteenth-century philosopher Jean-Jacque Rousseau warned against some motivations for swaddling in his novel Emile: or, On Education: “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.” 1

In 19th and 20th-century Europe, England, and America, sedatives such as paregoric (camphorated tincture of opium), alcohol, antihistamines, or children’s cold medicines were sometimes used instead of swaddling to calm and quiet fussy babies.

Swaddling Today

By the mid-20th century, American hospital maternity wards were turning to swaddling newborns as a means of relieving overwhelmed nurses when babies began being separated from their mothers and placed in the hospital nursery after birth.

Respected Los Angeles-based pediatrician Dr. Paul Fleiss invokes “disturbing mid-20th century photographs taken in factory-style maternity hospitals…(with) tightly swaddled newborn babies precision packed into orderly rows of sterile plastic bins. In these pictures, the babies are unmoving and still…like termite larvae in their egg cases.” Although many hospitals now embrace rooming-in, others continue to separate mother and infant and continue to rely on—and teach new parents—swaddling to quiet crying babies.

In recent years, routine swaddling by parents has grown increasingly popular, in large part as a result of the efforts of California-based pediatrician Dr. Harvey Karp. Dr. Karp’s best selling book, The Happiest Baby on the Block, and related DVDs have reached millions of parents in search of an easy way to quiet a crying baby. Numerous online chat rooms and parenting sites also attest to the mother-to-mother spread of “success stories” involving swaddling. As emphasized in Dr. Karp’s writings and educational programs, one significant attraction of swaddling is that fathers, as well as mothers, can have hands-on involvement in quieting baby.

Crying for a Reason

With all this in mind and assuming that modern parents don’t leave wrapped babies unattended for hours on end, what could be the downside of swaddling?

One core concern on the part of pediatricians, breastfeeding advocates, and others is that routine swaddling interferes with a mother’s intuitive response to her baby’s needs. “Crying is the baby’s language, his voice; it’s the only way he has to tell you he needs something,” stresses internationally-known breastfeeding advocate, pediatric nurse practitioner, and educator Kittie Franz. “Newborns are about need, not want. Before you use this tool (of swaddling), find out what he needs—don’t just shut him up.”

Dr. Fleiss goes even farther, suggesting that when an infant with unmet needs is swaddled and separated from his mother, the message he receives is: Give up. No one cares, no one is going to help you; solve it yourself.

“You can say swaddling works; it stops the baby from crying. But because something works doesn’t mean it’s a good thing to do,” Fleiss argues. “I tell parents not to swaddle, ever. When a baby is crying he’s saying where’s my mommy? He’s not saying wrap me up real tightly. He should be put to the breast, he should be talked to, sung to, held, loved.”

Comforted, or Shut Down?

In fact, many researchers and infant advocates now believe the apparent contentment of a swaddled baby may in fact be a sign of listlessness and shutting down, rather than of feeling comforted. Franz tells of a new product introduced some years ago at a medical conference. Plugged into a crib, the device vibrated its springs while emitting “white noise.” Fussy babies were believed to be calmed by the rhythmic movement and sounds. But photographs of the babies’ faces told another story.

“In the before photos the eyes were open, hands fisted, there was tightness around the nose and mouth, and the babies were crying,” Franz says. In photos taken as babies experienced the crib device, the hands were still fisted, there was the same furrowed brow and tightness around the eyes and mouth—but the babies were silent. Franz has observed a similar response among swaddled babies. “The baby is staying quiet but is not relaxed or happy. That led me to conclude the baby is shutting down,” she says.

More Sleep, Less Nursing

Breastfeeding advocates note a related and worrying aspect of swaddling, especially during a baby’s first days and weeks. Newborns who are routinely swaddled have been found to feed less frequently, suckle less effectively, and have greater weight loss than those left unswaddled with access to the breast. 2

One reason is that swaddled babies awaken less frequently and less fully, often falling asleep again while feeding. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that breastfed newborns need to feed eight to twelve times every 24 hours. Swaddled babies, however, often feed no more than six or seven times in a 24-hour period. 3 This is related to the natural progression of sleep states in infants. As a baby begins moving through the sleep stages from deep to light, her eyes move a little under closed lids and her mouth moves. As she rises into even lighter sleep, her arms begin to wave, or “cycle.” 4, 5 This arm movement serves as a natural cue to help wake baby for her feeding. If the arms are bound by swaddling, the baby may sink back into a deep sleep and miss a feeding.

Some years ago Franz, while working as a pediatric nurse practitioner in Santa Monica, California, noticed that breastfed babies often lost as much as 10 percent of their birth weight in the first week when they were swaddled. This is a higher than normal weight loss that calls for supplemental feeding to avoid rapid escalation downward into dangerous dehydration.

Franz began telling the parents of these swaddled babies to keep their babies un-swaddled for 24 hours, and in most cases the infants quickly began regaining weight. “Babies need to feed around the clock and when they’re kept swaddled they sleep through their cues. They don’t wake up to feed,” she explains. She adds that she noticed that the mothers who stopped swaddling were happy with the weight gain, but the fathers tended to be not so sure they wanted their babies “so awake” all the time.

Drug Babies

There are circumstances in which it may be appropriate to swaddle an infant as a temporary short-term intervention. One is the case of a baby—born to a drug-addicted mother, for example—whose central nervous system is immature, resulting in jitteriness or excessive erratic limb movement. Another is when an infant has too much muscle tone and her limbs remain stiffly extended or too tight. Both situations can negatively affect breastfeeding and swaddling can be helpful, Franz observes. However, she stresses that whenever she recommends swaddling it is always with room for the arms and legs to flex, rather than held straight at the baby’s sides.

Among the most commonly stated benefits of swaddling is the calming of babies who cry inconsolably from the pain and discomfort of colic. Yet a mother may not know whether her child has colic or is crying for other reasons, Franz notes. In such cases she recommends applying the “rule of threes”: If the infant is over three weeks and under three months old (the age range in which colic occurs), with bouts of crying for three hours a day, three times a week, he very well may be suffering from colic. But even a truly colicky baby may be helped more by being carried than by swaddling, since motion helps relieve colic symptoms by encouraging bowel movements and the passing of gas, Franz points out.

Temperature Regulation

While swaddling would appear to be a good way to keep a newborn warm and cozy, especially in cool climates, research indicates skin-to-skin contact with mother is the best way to regulate an infant’s temperature. In a study of 176 mothers and babies conducted in a Russian hospital, a team of Swedish, Russian, and Canadian researchers found that swaddled newborns placed in the hospital nursery were colder—as measured by foot temperatures—and consumed less mother’s milk than those not swaddled. 6

Bundled babies not only miss out on their mother’s physical warmth and comfort in cool environments; in overly warm circumstances swaddled babies can become dangerously overheated, leading to brain damage or even death. This is especially crucial among ethnic or cultural groups with a traditional belief that mother and her newborn should be kept very warm, or in cases where families have recently moved from a cold to a hot climate, Franz notes. “If a baby is swaddled and his onesie is damp from sweat, then he is at great risk of over heating,” she says.

Skin-to-Skin

It is important to note that most studies on swaddling compare swaddled and un-swaddled babies who in both cases are separated from their mothers, rather than looking at babies in skin-to-skin contact with mother. When skin-to-skin contact is introduced into the equation, the purported advantages of swaddling dramatically diminish in comparison.

South African researcher Dr. Nils Bergman suggests that through skin-to-skin contact, mother helps her baby “regulate,” or find the optimal set-points for future control of physiological functions including temperature, heart rate, breathing, and hormone levels. This results in thermal and behavioral synchrony between mother and baby.7, 8, 21

Bergman also notes that newborns are able to “self-regulate” by reaching their arms out to cool themselves down. “Keeping temperature in homeostasis requires freedom of movement,” he believes.

Wiggle Room

Babies are natural wigglers. Flexing and extending arms and legs, wiggling fingers, and moving around to whatever degree they can is one way of refining muscular control and assisting in the development of the nervous system, observes Dr. Fleiss. “Humans need total freedom of movement, not only so that blood can properly circulate to all the extremities, but for critically important neurological reasons that science is just now beginning to document,” he maintains.

Others point to the fact that flexion is the baby’s natural position. In the womb, a fetus’s arms are flexed with hands at the mouth. Tight swaddling with straight limbs not only forces an infant into an unnatural position, it prevents her from the self-soothing that comes from putting her hands to her mouth.

Hip Dysplasia

As swaddling has grown in popularity, so has concern about the potential for developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH) in tightly swaddled newborns. 9,10,11 Hip dysplasia is a deformation or misalignment of the hip joint, which can lead later in life to premature degenerative joint disease and chronic pain, including early arthritis of the hip. The often-congenital condition can be exacerbated in a baby’s first days and weeks by forcing the legs to remain in extension through tight swaddling. In a technical report released Nov. 1, 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against tight swaddling for this reason. The authors state: “This is particularly important, because some have advocated that the calming effects of swaddling are related to the “tightness” of the swaddling.”23

SIDS Risk

A more commonly noted risk is that of sudden infant death syndrome, which has been linked to babies sleeping prone (face down). In this sense, swaddling may offer some protection for young babies who are placed face up to sleep, since without the use of arms and legs they are unable to turn themselves over. However, in one study, some swaddled babies were able to turn themselves over onto a prone position by three months of age, suggesting that older swaddled babies may be at greater risk of SIDS even when placed supine, or face up, to sleep.12

In addition, an Australian case-control study found that among babies laid face down, those who were swaddled were at greater risk of SIDS than those (also face down) who were left un-swaddled.13 “These results suggest that if infants have to sleep in the prone position for a specific medical reason, they should be placed on a firm mattress and not swaddled,” the researchers conclude. (According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, one medical reason for placing a baby prone to sleep is infant gastroesophageal reflux.) Franz reminds us that even when sleeping prone, babies reflexively use their hands to push against the mattress to be able to lift and turn their heads, which helps protect the airway.

Whether sleeping prone or supine, swaddled babies in life-threatening situations may be subject to an added level of danger because swaddling inhibits arousal, according to a 2007 review of the research in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. 14 In addition, a too-high body temperature—resulting from swaddling in combination with an overly warm environment—is believed to be a possible contributory factor in SIDS.

Another potential health risk associated with tight swaddling is pneumonia and upper respiratory infections. One reason may be that a tightly wrapped chest restricts expansion of the lungs, which can increase susceptibility to infection. 15, 16

Officials Weigh In

While the American Academy of Pediatrics mentions swaddling as a possible aid in “prevention and management of pain and stress in the neonate,” 17 the AAP has no official policy on the practice. (Significant research suggests breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact is an effective analgesic and is preferable to swaddling in this function. 18 19 20) The American SIDS Institute discourages the use of routine swaddling because of its potential to increase the risk of SIDS, according to Executive Director Betty McEntire. McEntire cites the risk factors of overheating, turning over to face-down position while swaddled, or pulling swaddling fabric loose. “Unless a baby needs swaddling, why take the chance?” she asks.

Attachment Parenting International also has no official policy on swaddling. However, because of the API’s focus on helping parents become more sensitive to their baby’s cues, co-founder Barbara Nicholson expresses concern that routine swaddling can mean parents become less closely attuned to their infant’s needs.

What Baby Really Needs

Nicholson and others note that other tools for soothing a baby can work at least as well as swaddling and have additional benefits. For example, carrying baby in a fabric baby carrier provides a similar sense of comfort but with the added stimulation of the mother’s movement and closeness to her body and the rhythm of her heartbeat. “What I love about a baby carrier is that the baby is up seeing the world. Babies are very observant, and they really love that motion,” she says. Other excellent tools for calming a fussy baby include skin-to-skin contact and gentle infant massage. “We (at API) talk a lot about the importance of touch,” Nicholson says.

Studies show that separation from mother creates stress in young babies. When babies in a 2006 study were held by their mothers much of the time in the early weeks after birth, crying was found to be significantly less than among those not held. 22 Dr. Fleiss agrees. “The best way to prevent crying is to keep your baby in your arms and be attentive to his beautifully subtle and effective communication efforts,” he believes. “Yes, this is a lot of work. Caring for babies is the hardest work there is, but it is also the most rewarding,” he stresses. “I guarantee that you will look back upon the physical closeness you experienced with your child during his babyhood as the most meaningful and cherished moments of your entire life.”

Franz offers parents a simple way to sort out conflicting advice. “See which basket the advice fits into: the good-for-the-parent basket or the good-for-the-baby basket,” she suggests. “Remember: You’re not managing an inconvenience; you’re raising a human being.”

Gussie Fauntleroy is a Crestone, Colorado-based writer whose work has appeared in national magazines including Orion, Arts & Antiques, Southwest Art, American Craft and Native Peoples. She is the author of three books about visual artists, and has written on a variety of topics for local and regional publications.

References
1 Rosseau, Jean-Jacque. Emile: Or, On Education, 1762. Quotes and historical information in this section were taken by permission from a webinar, “Swaddling: A Historical, Cultural, and Lactational Perspective,” presented in February 2011 by Linda Smith, an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant, Fellow with the American College of Childbirth Educators, and owner of Bright Future Lactation Resource Centre, Ltd. In Dayton, Ohio. See uslcaonline.org/edures.html and go to “webinars available on CD” to purchase the CD of Smith’s complete webinar.
2 Bystrova, K. Matthiesen, A.S. Widstrom, A.M., Ransjo-Arvidson, A.B., Vwlles-Nystrom, B., Vorontsov, I., et al. (2007) The effect of Russian Maternity Home routines on breastfeeding and neonatal weight loss with special reference to swaddling. Early Human Development, 83(1), 23-39.
3 Franco, P., Seret. N., Van Hees, J.N. Scaillet, S., Groswasser, J. & Kahn, A. (2005) Influence of swaddling on sleep and arousal characteristics of healthy infants. Pediatrics, 115 (5), 1307-1311.
4 Gerard CM, Harris KA, Thach BT. Spontaneous arousals in supine infants while swaddled and unswaddled during rapid eye movement and quiet sleep. Pediatrics, 2002 December;110(6):e70.
5 Richardson HL, Walker AM, Horne SC, (2010) Influence of swaddling experience on spontaneous arousal patterns and autonomic control in sleeping infants. The Journal of Paediatrics
6 Bystrova, Matthiesen, Widstrom, et al.
7 Bergman, NJ; Linley, LL; Fawcus, SR (2004) Randomized controlled trial of skin-to-skin contact from birth versus conventional incubator for physiological stabilization in 1200- to 2199-gram newborns. Acta Paediatrica, 93 (6), 779-785
8 Franco P, Scaillet S, Groswasser J, Kahn A. Increased cardiac autonomic responses to auditory challenges in swaddled infants. Sleep 2004 December 15;27(8):1527-32.
9 Mahan ST, Kasser JR (2008). Does swaddling influence developmental dysplasia of the hip? Pediatrics, 121 (1), 177–8
10 Sahin F, Akturk A, Beyazova U. et al (2004). Screening for developmental dysplasia of the hip: results of a 7-year follow-up study. Pediatrics International, 46(2):162
11 Mahan ST, Kasser JR (2008). Does swaddling influence developmental dysplasia of the hip? Pediatrics, 121 (1), 177–8
12 Beltman, M. (2000) Swaddling of infants: an old fashioned habit on its return [MSc degree paper], Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
13 Ponsonby, A.L., Dwyer, T., Gibbons, L.E., Cochrane, J.A., Wang, Y.G. (1993). Factors potentiating the risk of sudden infant death syndrome associated with the prone position. New England Journal of Medicine, 329(6), 377-
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14 Kuis, Tom W.J. Schulpen and Monique P. L’Hoir, Bregje E. van Sleuwen, Adèle C. Engelberts, Magda M. Boere-Boonekamp, Wietse, Swaddling: A Systematic Review,Pediatrics 2007;120;e1097-e1106
15 Yurdakok K, Yavuz T, Taylor CE. (1990) Swaddling and acute respiratory infections. American Journal of Public Health, 80 :873 –875
16 Gerard CM, Harris KA, Thach BT (2002) Physiologic studies on swaddling: an ancient child care practice, which may promote the supine position for infant sleep. Journal of Pediatrics, 141:398–404
17 Committee on Fetus and Newborn, Committee on Drugs, Section on Anesthesiology, Section on Surgery and Canadian Paediatric Society, Fetus and Newborn Committee, Prevention and Management of Pain and Stress in the Neonate, Pediatrics
18 Shah, P. S., Aliwalas, L. I., & Shah, V. (2006). Breastfeeding or breast milk for procedural pain in neonates. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 3, CD004950.
19 Carbajal, R., Veerapen, S., Couderc, S., Jugie, M., & Ville, Y. (2003). Analgesic effect of breast feeding in term neonates: randomized controlled trial. BMJ, 326(7379), 13.
20 Gray, L., Miller, L. W., Philipp, B. L., & Blass, E. M. (2002). Breastfeeding is analgesic in healthy newborns. Pediatrics, 109(4), 590-593.
21 Christensson, K., Siles, C., Moreno, L., Belaustequi, A., De La Fuente, P., Lagercrantz, H., et al. (1992). Temperature, metabolic adaptation and crying in healthy full-term newborns cared for skin-to-skin or in a cot. Acta Paediatr, 81(6-7), 488-493.
22 St James-Roberts, I., Alvarez, M., Csipke, E., Abramsky, T., Goodwin, J., & Sorgenfrei, E. (2006). Infant crying and sleeping in London, Copenhagen and when parents adopt a “proximal” form of care. Pediatrics, 117(6), e1146-1155.
23 Rachel Y. Moon, MD, lead author with AAP task for on sudden infant death syndrome, 2010-2011. SIDS and Other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths: Expansion of Recommendations for a Safe Infant Sleeping Environment, Pediatrics,128(5) November 2011, 304-307

Watch as this baby desperately searches for his mother’s nipple. Notice that there is an entire group of babies here who are being ritually medically tortured through swaddling. Unable to move their arms, legs, torso, or any part of their body besides their head, unable to smell the scent of their mother or hear her heartbeat or feel her touch, these children will be permanently brain damaged from the lack of sensory stimulation they experience early in life. And it goes without saying that there is no bonding possible for these innocent babies either — a condition the dark forces strive to create so that we will remain a mutant, mostly brain-dead, slave race.

And we wonder why we use such a small portion of our brain potential!!!! IT IS BECAUSE WE ARE BRAIN DAMAGED!

“…The effects of swaddling upon every human born during the past ten millennia were catastrophic. Besides having “the pressure force blood to their heads and make their little faces purple,” besides “crushing his breast and ribs” and “compressing the flesh almost to gangrene, the circulation nearly arrested,”268 swaddled infants were severely withdrawn, listless and physically retarded in the onset of walking, which often didn’t begin until from two to five years of age (see my table of historical ages of first walking).269 The effects of swaddling on all adults’ emotional lives is even more profound. Because of the lack of warmth and holding, there is a lifelong deficit in oxytocin and oversupply of cortisol, the stress hormone, resulting in a lifetime of rage and anxiety states.270 Even rats lose neurons in the hippocampus and orbital frontal lobes when tied up like human infants were, producing depletions in serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, exacerbated aggressive behavior and a severe decrease in social capabilities.271 In the next chapter we will discuss the enormous transformation produced in Western science, politics and culture by the ending of wetnursing and swaddling and the evolution of parental love during the modern period. ..”

Lloyd DeMause, The Emotional Life of Nations, Chapter 8 – http://www.psychohistory.com/htm/eln08_childrearing.html

We have already seen that infant swaddling causes a high stress response in infants — and that they are not sleeping while being swaddled, but are suffering with extremely high levels of cortisol. This indicates that babies are IN SHOCK while being swaddled and that they have SHUT DOWN, expecting that their true needs will never be met.

Additionally, we have also seen that infant swaddling causes delays in breastfeeding and may be contributing to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

As if all of that were not enough, we now also see that infant swaddling causes developmental hip problems in babies and even hip dislocation. Although the article below argues that there are “safe” ways to swaddle, indeed anyone connected to their intuition will clearly see that infant swaddling is not only dangerous, but can cause life-long, debilitating problems.

PLEASE PROTECT YOUR BABIES!!!! DO NOT SWADDLE!

Source Article:
Swaddling babies can cause them hip problems, doctors warn
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/28/swaddling-babies-blankets-hip-problems-doctors-warn

The practice of swaddling babies, which has become fashionable as a way to calm them, risks causing them hip problems as they grow, doctors warn.

Parents have been turning to the old-fashioned practice in order to settle their babies and help them sleep better. Swaddling, which involves wrapping the baby in sheets or blankets with their legs out straight and arms pinned so that they cannot move, has been shown to induce sleep and soothe excessive crying and colic.

But, say doctors who specialise in orthopaedics, evidence shows that the practice increases the risk of developmental hip abnormalities. Professor Nicholas Clarke of Southampton University hospital writes in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood that one in five babies are born with a hip abnormality, perhaps because of a breech birth or family history. Although these can resolve unaided, swaddling can delay it.

Swaddling has become more popular, says Clarke. Nine out of 10 infants in north America are now swaddled in the first six months of life. Sales of swaddling clothes increased in the UK by 61% between 2010 and 2011.

But studies have shown that babies who do not have their legs free to bend and kick can suffer dislocation or abnormal development of the hip.

“A high incidence of hip dislocation was reported in Navajo Indians who strapped their infants to a board,” Clarke writes. “In Japan, an educational programme initially aimed at grandmothers was commissioned to prevent traditional swaddling.” The programme cut the incidence of hip dislocation from between 1.1% and 3.5% to just 0.2%.

Clarke says that parents should be advised on “safe swaddling” if their babies are at risk of hip development problems. “In order to allow for healthy hip development, legs should be able to bend up and out at the hips. This position allows for natural development of the hip joints. The babies’ legs should not be tightly wrapped in extension and pressed together.”

Commercial products for swaddling babies should have a loose pouch or sack for the legs and feet, allowing plenty of room for movement, he says.

Other experts agreed with him. “There is indeed evidence that swaddling can affect the normal development of infants’ hips,” said Andreas Roposch, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at Great Ormond Street hospital.

“Similar effects may be seen in all devices or manoeuvres that place the legs in a purely straight position for prolonged periods in this critical age of early infancy. Swaddling should not be employed in my view as there is no health benefit but a risk of adverse consequences.”

Dr Alastair Sutcliffe, reader in general paediatrics at the Institute of Child Health, University College London, said swaddling had been known to be associated with an increased risk of congenital dislocation of the hip (CDH) for many years.

“The archetypal example is in traditions where a baby is carried with their legs splayed around a mother’s waist such as in Nigeria, where there is a virtually unseen rate of CDH, whereas in a country where swaddling is employed, such as far-eastern countries, there is a much higher rate of CDH.

“I would advise that if a baby needs to be wrapped up to get off to sleep that parents do this in a sympathetic and loose manner, not tight, especially around the babies’ hips.”

I have been saying that swaddling is extremely harmful for infants for many years. Now, the mainstream is finally catching on, although the media seem bent on making it seem unreasonable that this dangerous practice is now being banned in day care centers.

Swaddling is a straight-up trauma-based mind-control technique in which infants are prevented from moving, sometimes with a pacifier in their mouth to additionally prevent them from making any sounds. Swaddled infants have extremely high levels of cortisol in their brains and are not sleeping. They are in parasympathetic shock.

Using swaddling to try to quiet a traumatized, abandoned, terrified infant is a very dangerous practice that will compound the trauma and lead to life-long problems.

The swaddling of infants needs to end now.

Source Article:
Ban on Swaddling Throws Day Cares Into Chaos
http://moms.popsugar.com/Day-Care-Swaddling-Ban-29056999

“Is swaddling dangerous? As day care centers around the country start to ban the widely accepted practice, the jobs of caretakers are getting much more difficult. Unswaddled infants, they say, are harder to soothe, sleep less, and require more one-on-one attention.

The controversial ban stems from findings that improper swaddling, which can happen in institutional settings like day care centers, may cause hip dysplasia or put infants at risk for suffocation and is based on an advisory from several public health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics. But not all experts are falling into line with it; Dr. Harvey Karp, author of The Happiest Baby on the Block, told the Huffington Post that a strong case against swaddling has not yet been proven.”

Important Study…
http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/WA-lsoftdonations.exe?A2=ind0306D&L;=LACTNET&D;=1&P;=93743

“Subject: swaddling revisited

From: Rachel Myr

Reply-To: Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>

Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2003

There’s swaddling and then there’s Swaddling, as practiced in Russia from
birth onwards and in many other countries where then-Soviet birth culture
made inroads.
In the March issue of Acta Paediatrica (the one with Lisa Amir’s cover photo
and her great article on duration of BF correlating with prenatal intent to
BF :-)) there is an article about a study done in St. Petersburg, Russia, in
collaboration with many of the foremost Swedish breastfeeding researchers
alive. They compared body temperatures in babies swaddled and laid in cots,
swaddled and held in mother’s arms, clothed and laid in cots, clothed and
held in mother’s arms, and babies left skin-to-skin on mother’s bare chest.
All these treatments were carried out in the first two hours post partum and
they controlled well for confounders.

They measured skin temperature in one axilla, on the back, thigh and foot, I
think. The foot and the axilla were definitely two of the points, at any
rate. What they found was that the swaddled babies had colder feet than any
other group. The skin-to-skin group had the warmest feet. Body temp
otherwise was within normal range for all babies. The reduced foot
temperature in the swaddled babies persisted for days. They believe that
the difference in foot temperature between the groups cannot be explained by
temperature conservation alone, but that the swaddled babies had higher
cortisol levels and the s-t-s babies had the lowest, implying that lying
naked on mother’s body was the most energy efficient way of helping babies
recover from the normal stress of being born. Higher foot temp was believed
to come from better perfusion of the extremities due to vasodilation. The
duration of the lowered foot temp in the tightly swaddled babies could
indicate that this increase in cortisol production is long lasting. Also
worth noting is that in both groups observed in cots or in mother’s arms,
the babies in cots were colder than babies held in mother’s arms.

John Kennell wrote a commentary to this study, published in the same issue
of Acta Paediatrica, saying what you’d expect one of the first researchers
to notice bonding as a survival process to say. Worth reading as much as
the study is.

When I read this article I realized that we are always looking for
nutritional explanations for the impaired health of babies who are not
breastfed. But simply being born in a culture that separates mother and
baby immediately post partum, and ‘allows’ them to be together as long as
their skins barely touch, could have implications for our blood pressure and
even our insulin metabolism for the rest of our lives. I believe
breastfeeding would mitigate the effects of such unphysiologic care, but it
would be far better if we regained some respect for what newborns and
mothers really need, and changed our way of ‘caring’ for them to reflect
those needs. Simply placing a baby under a warming lamp is an insult to
both baby and mother – as though the only thing mother is good for, is
generating heat.

This tight swaddling from birth onwards is not very much like the swaddling
shown on the ‘miracle blanket’ website. My hesitancy about the blanket is
more from the marketing (implying babies ought to sleep all night from a
very, very young age, inter alia) than from the swaddling as it is shown
here. Also, they spelled dysplasia ‘displacia’ when boasting that the
blanket won’t inhibit development of hips and knees – that always weakens my
confidence in a product.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway
still feeling warm to the tips of my own toes after attending a beautiful,
normal home birth two nights ago, where baby stayed naked on mother’s body
til after her first feed was completed – about two hours post partum.
Baby’s axillary temp was 36.9 C (98.4 F) at two hours and her toes were warm
and pink. She had by then been suckling with audible swallows most of the
time, for about 80 minutes.”

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Yesterday, I spent the day in the presence of @Nils Bergman, who is the founder of Kangaroo Mother Care in South Africa. Nils confirmed that swaddling causes high levels of cortisol in infants
and that infants are actually having an extreme stress response which involves shutting down and/or disassociation when they are swaddled. Infants are not “sleeping” when they are swaddled, but are in an extreme biological shutdown which would only happen in case of extreme threat. In other words, if the infant were in the wild and was in extreme danger of being eaten by a wild animal, it would “play dead” and remain very silent so as not to be noticed. Infants are responding the same exact way when they are swaddled and are really in a state of hypervigilance to threat and exhibiting signs of parasympathetic shock.

Swaddling is NOT good. And a better and far more loving way to calm a baby would be to put the baby skin-to-skin with it’s mother.

“…In fact, many researchers and infant advocates now believe the apparent contentment of a swaddled baby may in fact be a sign of listlessness and shutting down, rather than of feeling comforted. Franz tells of a new product introduced some years ago at a medical conference. Plugged into a crib, the device vibrated its springs while emitting “white noise.” Fussy babies were believed to be calmed by the rhythmic movement and sounds. But photographs of the babies’ faces told another story.

“In the before photos the eyes were open, hands fisted, there was tightness around the nose and mouth, and the babies were crying,” Franz says. In photos taken as babies experienced the crib device, the hands were still fisted, there was the same furrowed brow and tightness around the eyes and mouth—but the babies were silent. Franz has observed a similar response among swaddled babies. “The baby is staying quiet but is not relaxed or happy. That led me to conclude the baby is shutting down,” she says…”

The Question of Routine Swaddling
http://mothering.com/parenting/the-question-of-routine-swaddling

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