Swaddling

For thousands of years, humans customarily “swaddled” babies for the first nine months or so of their lives. Swaddling is the practice of wrapping the infant in tightly bound cloths, to prevent the baby from being able to move his/her arms and legs. Historically it was believed that swaddling kept babies from developing physical deformities, and also that it made them easier to tend. But while the practice of swaddling babies was widespread, it was not universal. Scythians and Spartans, for example, did not swaddle their babies, believing that allowing infants to move their arms freely helped them grow into better soldiers.

By the 1700’s, in the West significant opposition arose to the practice of swaddling infants, and it eventually fell out of favor. Nowadays swaddling is controversial, with its advocates arguing that swaddling helps comfort infants and with its critics arguing that the practice is dangerous. Whatever the merits of the arguments for and against it, these days swaddling is far less common than it once was, and when practiced is of much shorter duration.

According to St. Luke’s Gospel, the baby Jesus was swaddled (as would have been perfectly normal at that time), as depicted in this nativity scene by Giotto di Bondone. The other image is a 17th century Dutch painting titled “The Swaddled Twins” (artist unknown).