Breaking the rules again: swaddling

Wednesday 30th of October 2013 | Category: Opinion | Written by: Siobhan Thomas

For a while there has been speculation that swaddling might not be 100% safe for babies. I’ve kept half an eye on the progression of the research, reluctant to acknowledge that one of the things that worked for me might be off the cards. In the news today, Prof Nicholas Clarke of Southampton University reinforced the opinions of other experts by restating that ‘swaddling was damaging hips’. The Royal College of Midwives also supports this school of thought, so it’s probably time for me to pay more attention.

Not more rule changes?

I can hear the ‘tut-tutting’, I can see the eye-rolling. Tonnes of women out there will utter the age old lines ‘I did it for mine and it did no harm’, ‘They’re always changing the guidelines, everything is bad for something’, and the more sensitive among mothers – ‘We are always doing something wrong’. And yes, it is hard to keep up with current advice and research. It is a bit annoying when something that you find really convenient or useful suddenly becomes against the rules. But that’s kind of the point of medical research, isn’t it? swaddled baby

I for one am surprised by how quickly things change, and it’s only 3 ½ years since I had my first baby. If it wasn’t for my job revolving around pregnancy and parenting I might not be any the wiser to this stuff. But as it is, I would rather know about it, I appreciate being in a position to change my approach to any area of parenting if it means that I’m making my baby or child healthier or safer.

Swaddling

I did it for both the girls and found it really helped to settle them. I was advised to do it in antenatal classes and shown again by the midwives in the hospital – their technique left Erin bundled up like a tightly wrapped pig in a blanket, with no room to move at all! It was a brilliant method for getting them to settle at night, and I admit therefore, that I was a bit disgruntled to hear that it might encourage hip dysplasia and even hip dislocation. On top of that, it also presents a danger of overheating and cot death. Typical, I thought – I really can’t ignore this.

So I looked into it a bit more. Swaddling isn’t necessarily off the cards all together, as it turns out. Many medical experts and paediatricians still seem to support it in principle. Provided that you are mindful of temperatures (i.e. room temperature, the layers they are dressed in and the material of the swaddling wrap or blanket) there are safe ways to swaddle a baby that also allow for healthy hip development. Essentially you need to make sure that their legs aren’t tightly wrapped. They need to have enough free space to move their legs up and outwards.

There is a really good video here by the International Hip Dysplasia Institute, which shows you how to safely swaddle a baby with different types of blankets or commercial swaddling products.

Another new approach

So there we have it, as always it’s worth delving beyond the headlines to examine the finer details of the story. I will still swaddle the new baby – provided he or she responds well to it – but I’ll do it differently now to how I did it before. That is of course, unless the rules change again within the next few weeks!