Hello All,
I attended a conference a couple of days ago and Dr. Ann-Marie Widstrom
spoke about the negative effects that swaddling had on newborn babies,
because the hands are very important in aiding breastfeeding and latch-on
in the first hours after birth ( by finding the nipple/areola and massaging
the breast). She says that in 30 minutes after birth the baby puts it's
hand to its mouth and that this seems to stimulate an increase in mouth
movements ( Breastfeeding and interaction between mother and infant, and
Short-term effects of early suckling and touch of the nipple on maternal
behaviour, A.M. Widstrom, published in Early human development, 21 (1990)
153-163, ELsevier Scientific Publishers Ireland, ltd. ) She showed slides
of Russian babies that were completely swaddled and interpreted the looks
on their faces.
However I must admit that sometimes light swaddling ( only the arms ) aids
some mothers and babies with latching on, but this is only my experience
which is not research based...............:-)
Just my 2 mls.
Renate Rietveld, IBCLC
Rijswijk, The Netherlands
At 12:52 1-11-00 EST, you wrote:
>The swaddling practice, especially in the first hours and days of life, keeps
>the baby from access to his/her hands. Thus they sleep longer because they
>don't self wake by going for their hands. I saw a picture of swaddled babies
>lined up in a hospital nursery on the unicef web page -- and it stated that
>swaddling can interfere with the initiation of breastfeeding (something like
>that -- I can find it again if you can't). I don't think there's anything
>against swaddling a fussing baby to calm and nurse them, it's more the
>swaddling to keep them sleeping so they don't wake to eat as often as they
>might need to.
>Lori Salisbury, RN, IBCLC
>
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Renate Rietveld, IBCLC
E-mail : [log in to unmask]
Homepage: http://home.wanadoo.nl/renate.rietveld.ibclc
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