Yes, exactly. Swaddling looks weird and harmful because we project ourselves into the situation, but a newborn has just come from a highly cramped, dark, noisy place. The “4th trimester” idea is meant to ease the transition. I feel sorry for our friends who can’t get over the idea and are constantly waking up because the baby startled awake or poked themself in the eye. Not to mention how much safer the baby is from accidental suffocation.
3 Likes
Time to conquer Earth!
2 Likes
Rather than the squee everyone else seems to be enjoying, I can’t watch this without feeling a miserable dose of claustrophobia. Being wrapped like that unable to move my arms would cause me to start freaking the fuck out. I mean, what if you get an itch?
2 Likes
So what you’re saying is that if someone modified your physical boundaries, it’d make you uncomfortable?
A baby’s entire life at this point was wrapped up tight. Now their boundaries changed, and they’re uncomfortable.
My boy (7 today! Sheesh) loved to be swaddled even after he was too big for the swaddling cloths. At least 4+ months. Might have been 6
2 Likes
You’re not an infant, though, right?
My girl was one that didn’t like swaddling much, after the first few days she wanted to either be splayed out laying on her belly or on her side doing what I can best describe as a Thriller pose.
3 Likes
Hey! My balls itch!
3 Likes
Apparently babies learn their midline during the third trimester. So if the baby misses the third trimester by being born too early (like my daughter) they don’t learn their midline and can have physical problems later. We were taught a special kind of swaddle to try and teach the little premmies their midline. The nurses and doctors told us they didn’t know if it was going to work, not enough data yet. My daughter is 4 now and will be needing occupation and physical therapy soon. I still think it helped some.
5 Likes
Well, in this case, the baby doesn’t even know what “itch” is, let alone “finger” or “scratch”. Just a constant onslaught of new sensory experiences with no context and no sense of the body or how to control it. It gets really weird when you think about having been connected to an umbilical cord and suddenly feeling hunger or having been in an aqueous environment all of your existence and suddenly, violently breathing air.
3 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
