Swaddling
'Swaddling'
Until the 18th century, newborm babies were bound tightly so that they could not move at all. This was done in order to prevent accidents and to develop straight arms and legs. It was also believed that swaddling was beneficial for the moral character of a child. Nevertheless the method of swaddling came to an end in the 18th century due to the following reason:
In connection to wetnursing, many children were left in their swaddled estate and the wetnurses did not really look after the newborn but left it in its care without washing and comforting it.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote in his book Emile (1762):
The child has hardly left the mother's womb, it has hardly begun to move and stretch its limbs, when it is given new bonds. It is wrapped in swaddling bands, laid down with its head fixed, its legs stretched out, and its arms by its sides; it is wound round with linen and bandages of all sorts so that it cannot move […]. Whence comes this unreasonable custom? From an unnatural practice. Since mothers despise their primary duty and do not wish to nurse their own children, they have had to entrust them to mercenary women. These women thus become mothers to a stranger's children, who by nature mean so little to them that they seek only to spare themselves trouble. A child unswaddled would need constant watching; well swaddled it is cast into a corner and its cries are ignored […]. It is claimed that infants left free would assume faulty positions and make movements which might injure the proper development of their limbs. This is one of the vain rationalizations of our false wisdom which experience has never confirmed. Out of the multitude of children who grow up with the full use of their limbs among nations wiser than ourselves, you never find one who hurts himself or maims himself; their movements are too feeble to be dangerous, and when they assume an injurious position, pain warns them to change it.
He obviously spoke in favour of children being left in an unswaddled estate so that they could act freely. He did not see the benefit in developing straight arms and legs by this method. For him, this physical development could also be achieved without swaddling.
But in today's medicine, swaddling constantly gains in importance because several studies have found out that it helps newborn children to sleep and to feel comfortable. Moreover, risks of the sudden infant syndome can be minizimed by parents swaddling their babies.
Sources
http://histclo.com/Chron/c17.html
http://www.probertencyclopaedia.com/cgi-bin/res.pl?keyword=Swaddling&offset=0
http://pediatrics.about.com/od/weeklyquestion/a/0607_swaddling.htm