Swaddling
ON THE RITUAL TORTURE OF INFANTS -- THE CASE OF SWADDLING by Jeanice Barcelo
Quotes
"...The effects of swaddling upon every human born during the past ten
millennia were catastrophic. Besides having "the pressure force blood to their
heads and make their little faces purple," besides "crushing his breast and
ribs" and "compressing the flesh almost to gangrene, the circulation nearly
arrested," (268) swaddled infants were severely withdrawn, listless and
physically retarded in the onset of walking, which often didn't begin until from
two to five years of age (see my table of historical ages of first
walking).(269) The effects of swaddling on all adults' emotional lives is even
more profound. Because of the lack of warmth and holding, there is a lifelong
deficit in oxytocin and oversupply of cortisol, the stress hormone, resulting in
a lifetime of rage and anxiety states.(270) Even rats lose neurons in the
hippocampus and orbital frontal lobes when tied up like human infants were,
producing depletions in serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, exacerbated
aggressive behavior and a severe decrease in social capabilities.(271) In the
next chapter we will discuss the enormous transformation produced in Western
science, politics and culture by the ending of wetnursing and swaddling and the
evolution of parental love during the modern period. .."
The Emotional Life of Nations by Lloyd
deMause. Chapter 8----The Evolution of Childrearing