Swaddling

The listed papers look at swaddling in several settings, and none of the titles centers on hip development or sleep safety. A critical review examines the impact of swaddling on breastfeeding. A randomized trial studies early half-swaddling and kangaroo care in relation to maternal sleep quality and postpartum depression, and another compares skin-to-skin care with swaddling for pain control during vitamin K administration in full-term newborns.

Much of the remaining work concerns bathing. Randomized trials in neonatal units compare sponge baths with swaddle baths, and compare swaddled with traditional tub bathing, looking at comfort, stress and physiological measures in preterm infants. A further study examines immersion swaddle bathing for the first hospital bath and thermoregulation.

Parents commonly ask whether swaddling is safe, how it affects sleep and feeding, and when to stop. The papers here do not address every one of those questions directly. An educator may want slides that describe swaddling as one practice among several for comfort and that note where the research is thin. The papers below are the ones the Hub tracks on this topic.