| Should the child be swaddled or not? stop worrying mothers. This article might just prove to be an answer. |
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Modern mothers are increasingly turning to an age-old Practice-swaddling. For decades, wrapping a baby tightly in cloth was thought to stop its self-expression and hinder it from learning how to control its movements. But scientists have proved that swaddling helps babies sleep more deeply. It is thought to be a reminder of the comfort and security of the womb, and prevents the baby disturbing itself during the night by flailing its arms and legs.
A US study of babies up to six months old found they slept more deeply when swaddled. In addition, by keeping the infants lying on their back it meant they were less at risk of cot death, which is associated with babies lying on their front or side. The baby Jesus is said to have been swaddled-the hymn While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night tells of the infant all meanly wrapped in swaddling-clothes and in a manger laid.
Some critics warn that swaddled babies can suffer a greater risk of dislocated hips, although the chances of this are rare-less than one baby in 1,000. And imperfectly swaddled babies can cry more rather than less. But many child-rearing experts are advising parents that it is worth a try as a way of calming an irritable baby. Anita ONeill, a midwife with the Zita West Clinic, was taught not to swaddle when she trained 20 years ago. She said, "The feeling was that babies needed to stretch out, to express themselves, and that you should not restrain them. With a few years experience of settling babies, I began teaching my mums that swaddling is the best way because it recreates the environment of the womb."
The movement is gathering pace in the US, where one of its strongest advocates is paediatrician Dr Harvey Karp, whose best-selling parenting book Baby Bliss is now on sale in the UK. "Babies are really evicted from the womb," says Dr Karp. "Putting them in a quiet room and tiptoeing around and giving them freedom is antithetical to what every more traditional culture understands
about babies."
Dr Karp studied traditional childcare methods in cultures such as the San people of the Kalahari, where he claims that swaddled babies can be settled in less than a minute. "It was deal that they knew something wed forgotten in our culture and it convinced me that what we had been teaching mothers, to leave babies to cry, was completely incorrect and mislead-babies to cry, was completely incorrect and misleading."
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