Swaddling
When I first became a doula, I felt very conflicted about the whole swaddling thing. I had read some articles by people who were vehemently against the practice and I also had talked with some professionals, in particular a lactation consultant and a sleep consultant, who both strongly recommended against swaddling. Their reasoning was that swaddled newborns are unable to cue because they are kept so warm and snug, so then they aren’t fed when they need to be, and then they lose weight and the breastfeeder’s supply will go down, and eventually both the newborn and nursing person will suffer and the breastfeeding relationship has the potential to fall apart.
And that is absolutely true if newborns are kept swaddled and are only fed every 5-6 hours for the first few days or weeks of their lives. Have I ever seen this happen? No, not really.
And I say not really because I actually have seen really sleepy babies whose parents struggle to wake them up and babies who will sleep five to six hours at a time. But if this happens, the first check-up on day three with either the midwife, family doctor or pediatrician will show that the baby will have lost a lot of weight so then their care providers begin monitoring them very closely and it becomes Operation Feed That Baby ‘Round The Clock. They will always recommend supplementation and a breastfeeding clinic, where baby is monitored daily for weight gain. The breastfeeding clinics give lots of great suggestions and tips for pumping, formula feeding, feeding schedules, etc. There are also incredible private lactation consultants that you can have in your home to get even more personalized care and who are willing to help. I think I’d be hard-pressed to find a family who doesn’t actively seek support for their baby if feeding seems minimal or a family who wasn’t intercepted by a care provider because there is a concern with the amount of food being taken in or supply being created by the person nursing -- and all of this, in my experience and from where I stand, is really independent of swaddling.
So, rule number 1 when it comes to swaddling: no arms-in swaddling until baby has reached their birth weight *and* feeding is figured out. This helps eliminate all the issues I just mentioned about swaddling hindering weight gain in the first couple of weeks, and a baby who is will-fed enough *will* be able to sleep alone in their bassinet with their arms free in the first two weeks.
The second part of that rule, about feeding being figured out, means that we know whether we are doing body or bottle. If the baby is bodyfed and then needs a bottle top-up, that signals it isn’t figured out and we shouldn’t swaddle. If baby is gaining weight well by exclusively feeding on the body or the bottle, then swaddling can be a thing. Why? Because if baby is needing a top-up after feeding, it is likely that they’re not getting enough per feed so I don’t want to add in a swaddle which may actually make feeding harder.
So, once weight is good and feeding is figured out, I, Janalee, a doula not a medical care professional so take my opinion and do what you like, do suggest swaddling to get longer stretches of sleep out of babies. Sometimes newborns wake themselves up if they are scratching themself or if they stretch their arms and legs out and don’t feel that they’re in the womb anymore -- you might have seen a baby do the big shake, which is a falling reflex triggered by not feeling an ‘edge’ or limit anymore of being inside a belly. They have super short sleep cycles so the swaddle can help them link sleep cycles independently and have better, deeper sleeps.
Now, not all swaddles and not all swaddle methods are created equally. In general you can either use muslin or flannel blankets to swaddle, or you can use the swaddle sleepers that have velcro or are zip-up. Both are great options and the number of layers totally depends on both what you decide to use and the temperature of your home.
If you’re using the zip-up or velcro swaddles then it’s pretty straight-forward in terms of methodology, but swaddling with muslins is definitely an art.
There are two main options, the traditional swaddle and the super swaddle. The traditional swaddle uses one muslin and the super swaddle requires two. I do NOT recommend the single swaddle at all, I don’t think it does much beyond the first 3 days of baby’s life because they begin to escape very easily and then it’s almost like they’re not swaddled at all, so I pretty much exclusively teach and use the double swaddle. Check out a video of that below.
Also, on the topic of swaddling, there’s quite a big discussion sometimes with parents about their babies wanting and liking having their arms free. Some will assume the newborn wants their arms up and out because they’re so squirmy and eager to get those little hands free. I remind parents that that’s exactly what babies were doing while still in the womb; they were constantly squirming and stretching their arms and legs, trying to see what their world is all about.. And they found deep comfort in knowing that you were always there. So same thing with swaddling, yes the babies are trying to wiggle around and it looks like they’re trying to ‘get free’ but they’re just repeating some of the only movements they know and there truly is a sense of relaxation that comes from testing and feeling that same resistance and push-back that they’ve known for the last ten months of their lives. When parents are trying to get sleep, I like to swaddle so it’s a squirm-squirm-back-to-sleep rather than a squirm-squirm-stir-need-to-be-soothed.
If you are swaddling a newborn, I always suggest unwrapping them every 2.5 hours if they haven’t woken up to offer them a feed. Once they’re released from their cocoon, they can move their arms and legs and feel that temperature change, then they’re often ready and looking for a feed but would have otherwise kept sleeping. We want to still try and respect and mimic a normal, healthy feeding schedule of a newborn which is at least every 2 to 3 hours which will help baby’s weight stay on track, which will help to stimulate breast milk production *and* the more they feed 2.5-3 during the day, the longer they sleep overnight so basically swaddling rocks. We swaddle from whenever weight and feeding is good, until they can roll from back to tummy which is anywhere between 4 and 6 months. But we’ll talk about that before I offboard you.
Of course, any questions, happy to chat and be sure to watch my swaddling demo below.
When I first became a doula, I felt very conflicted about the whole swaddling thing. I had read some articles by people who were vehemently against the practice and I also had talked with some professionals, in particular a lactation consultant and a sleep consultant, who both strongly recommended against swaddling. Their reasoning was that swaddled newborns are unable to cue because they are kept so warm and snug, so then they aren’t fed when they need to be, and then they lose weight and the breastfeeder’s supply will go down, and eventually both the newborn and nursing person will suffer and the breastfeeding relationship has the potential to fall apart.
And that is absolutely true if newborns are kept swaddled and are only fed every 5-6 hours for the first few days or weeks of their lives. Have I ever seen this happen? No, not really.
And I say not really because I actually have seen really sleepy babies whose parents struggle to wake them up and babies who will sleep five to six hours at a time. But if this happens, the first check-up on day three with either the midwife, family doctor or pediatrician will show that the baby will have lost a lot of weight so then their care providers begin monitoring them very closely and it becomes Operation Feed That Baby ‘Round The Clock. They will always recommend supplementation and a breastfeeding clinic, where baby is monitored daily for weight gain. The breastfeeding clinics give lots of great suggestions and tips for pumping, formula feeding, feeding schedules, etc. There are also incredible private lactation consultants that you can have in your home to get even more personalized care and who are willing to help. I think I’d be hard-pressed to find a family who doesn’t actively seek support for their baby if feeding seems minimal or a family who wasn’t intercepted by a care provider because there is a concern with the amount of food being taken in or supply being created by the person nursing -- and all of this, in my experience and from where I stand, is really independent of swaddling.
So, rule number 1 when it comes to swaddling: no arms-in swaddling until baby has reached their birth weight *and* feeding is figured out. This helps eliminate all the issues I just mentioned about swaddling hindering weight gain in the first couple of weeks, and a baby who is will-fed enough *will* be able to sleep alone in their bassinet with their arms free in the first two weeks.
The second part of that rule, about feeding being figured out, means that we know whether we are doing body or bottle. If the baby is bodyfed and then needs a bottle top-up, that signals it isn’t figured out and we shouldn’t swaddle. If baby is gaining weight well by exclusively feeding on the body or the bottle, then swaddling can be a thing. Why? Because if baby is needing a top-up after feeding, it is likely that they’re not getting enough per feed so I don’t want to add in a swaddle which may actually make feeding harder.
So, once weight is good and feeding is figured out, I, Janalee, a doula not a medical care professional so take my opinion and do what you like, do suggest swaddling to get longer stretches of sleep out of babies. Sometimes newborns wake themselves up if they are scratching themself or if they stretch their arms and legs out and don’t feel that they’re in the womb anymore -- you might have seen a baby do the big shake, which is a falling reflex triggered by not feeling an ‘edge’ or limit anymore of being inside a belly. They have super short sleep cycles so the swaddle can help them link sleep cycles independently and have better, deeper sleeps.
Now, not all swaddles and not all swaddle methods are created equally. In general you can either use muslin or flannel blankets to swaddle, or you can use the swaddle sleepers that have velcro or are zip-up. Both are great options and the number of layers totally depends on both what you decide to use and the temperature of your home.
If you’re using the zip-up or velcro swaddles then it’s pretty straight-forward in terms of methodology, but swaddling with muslins is definitely an art.
There are two main options, the traditional swaddle and the super swaddle. The traditional swaddle uses one muslin and the super swaddle requires two. I do NOT recommend the single swaddle at all, I don’t think it does much beyond the first 3 days of baby’s life because they begin to escape very easily and then it’s almost like they’re not swaddled at all, so I pretty much exclusively teach and use the double swaddle. Check out a video of that below.
Also, on the topic of swaddling, there’s quite a big discussion sometimes with parents about their babies wanting and liking having their arms free. Some will assume the newborn wants their arms up and out because they’re so squirmy and eager to get those little hands free. I remind parents that that’s exactly what babies were doing while still in the womb; they were constantly squirming and stretching their arms and legs, trying to see what their world is all about.. And they found deep comfort in knowing that you were always there. So same thing with swaddling, yes the babies are trying to wiggle around and it looks like they’re trying to ‘get free’ but they’re just repeating some of the only movements they know and there truly is a sense of relaxation that comes from testing and feeling that same resistance and push-back that they’ve known for the last ten months of their lives. When parents are trying to get sleep, I like to swaddle so it’s a squirm-squirm-back-to-sleep rather than a squirm-squirm-stir-need-to-be-soothed.
If you are swaddling a newborn, I always suggest unwrapping them every 2.5 hours if they haven’t woken up to offer them a feed. Once they’re released from their cocoon, they can move their arms and legs and feel that temperature change, then they’re often ready and looking for a feed but would have otherwise kept sleeping. We want to still try and respect and mimic a normal, healthy feeding schedule of a newborn which is at least every 2 to 3 hours which will help baby’s weight stay on track, which will help to stimulate breast milk production *and* the more they feed 2.5-3 during the day, the longer they sleep overnight so basically swaddling rocks. We swaddle from whenever weight and feeding is good, until they can roll from back to tummy which is anywhere between 4 and 6 months. But we’ll talk about that before I offboard you.
Of course, any questions, happy to chat and be sure to watch my swaddling demo below.