Is it still safe to swaddle your baby?
Many parents and paediatricians swear by it, yet some maternity-ward nurses tell new moms and dads that it’s too dangerous to try at home. What gives?
Photo: Stocksy United
When Melissa Romain had her first baby at a Toronto hospital in 2016, the nurses demonstrated how to swaddle him and encouraged her to continue doing it at home. But by the time she
had her second baby four years later, things had changed. The nurses swaddled her baby the whole time they were on the maternity ward; then, as she was being discharged, they told her she shouldn’t swaddle at home because it was too dangerous. They said this was because the baby was under closer supervision in the hospital, but Romain says there was plenty of time that she and her baby were alone together in her room. “I was confused and a little frustrated,” says Romain. “Nobody explained why swaddling is no longer a best practice. They just said that this is how it is now.”