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and "compressing the flesh almost to gangrene, the circulation nearly arrested," (268) swaddled infants were severely withdrawn, listless and physically retarded in the onset of walking, which often didn't begin until from two to five years of age (see my table of historical ages of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