Holistic Care For Our Clients May Include Collaborative Approaches

Hello!!! 

First of all I really want to thank each and everyone for posting their support for The Butterfly Swaddle. I am very genuinely so proud to be part of this amazing community of loving and supporting caregivers. 

I would like to add a few comments and feel this should be a safe space to do so. 

As a medical professional and mother of four, who had zero help with any of my children (minus my husband of course) please take these words as sincere and well thought through. I am a person who is coming at breast feeding from a true holistic perspective. I have had the misfortune of working with recovering women who have pushed themselves to the brink. These extreme views have often led to a level of postpartum psychosis where mothers hurt their own children, suffocation of infants due to falling asleep while nursing, marriages fail due to stress and depression, even babies that are brain dead from shaking baby syndrome. I have come to realize even if I don’t agree with other views that there is always a way to come to a middle ground. 

When one makes a blanket statement that says swaddling is not allowing infants to wake to feed, and so it should not be done, we dismiss the needs of a parent, a human being, to sleep.  Why not instead teach parents to set alarms to feed at intervals that are acceptable and developmentally appropriate for the infant at whichever stage they are at? To teach people not to swaddle at all and make them fear their child will stop breathing or not wake to eat is not appropriate! Deeper sleep with a swaddle is mitigated with lighter clothing, and lower nursery temperatures as it’s not the swaddle alone that causes SIDS and babies to stop breathing! 

There are plenty of those unicorn babies that even without a swaddle, especially when preemie, will sleep through feedings and we teach parents they must be woken to feed. 

Why not do the same with swaddling? 

I know there could be equally negative side effects to parents and the overall desire to continue nursing all together to give their babies the “liquid gold” at all costs. Babies thrive on breast milk; we know that and want to support and encourage parents in their breastfeeding journey. However, we can’t separate out and ignore the health and well being of the postpartum mother. We know also with proper rest and recovery mothers will make more milk. When we make things impossible for some to physically and emotionally cope with there are only negative consequences. In short there is no one size fits all approach! 

Please know that the swaddle I invented has no bearing on my feelings on this matter. I was a strong believer in supporting both swaddling and non-swaddling methods depending on the circumstances and the needs of the families I have worked with. 

I respect and share the passion for lactation support and mean no disrespect to anyone who wants to support the best practice for lactation and successful nursing experiences. I understand the torment of working in a field where you feel doctors and other caregivers are sabotaging what you feel so passionately about. But in your passion, please don’t forget the reason for a balance and the harm and damage that can come from blanket statements instead of respecting individual circumstances and needs!