You can count on Japan to always offer something new in fashion and even health. These days, their adults are getting wrapped up from head to toe in white swaddling cloth and gently rocked from side to side.
In the strange form of physical and mental therapy, Japanese mothers are hoping to address postnatal aches and pains in the body.
Wrapped, Rocked Like A Baby
Otonamaki, meaning “adult wrapping,” was initiated by Kyoto-based midwife and professor Nobuko Watanabe, who believed that child swaddling at birth could also assist mothers in improving their post-pregnancy wellness and helping cure shoulder and hip pain from their recent labor.
Watanabe created the Toco Chan maternity belt, a back brace-like tool that seems to be popular with expecting mothers in the country.
“It felt warm and there was this feeling with my body,” said one mother who underwent the 20-minute session, as reported by Reuters.
She has never experienced it before — a hard-to-describe feeling, the mother at a Tokyo community center added. She was lying on her back with her knees on her chest, bundled up comfortably in massive white cloth, and being rocking over cushions by dedicated staff.
Intended to “reset” the body and soothe and relax its adult patients, the practice is said to help new mothers experience the feeling of being in a womb.
Does Swaddling Work?
“We call baby swaddling in Japan ‘doll wrap,’” shared session organizer Yayoi Katayama. “We wrap them in cloths and they sleep very well like that.”
She recommended it as a pre-exercise or post-partum routine, a way that adults can loosen up.
Chiropractor Shiro Oba of Akasaka Chiropractics, however, remained skeptical about adult swaddling’s ability to heal and provide lasting gains. He instead advised mothers suffering back pain to pay their doctors a visit. He cannot think of how patients can get benefits even as a form of exercise or reflexology.
Anyone with back problems or an existing medical issue might also want to take caution before getting swaddled, the health care practitioner added.
Watch how adult swaddling is done in this video.
How About Baby Swaddling?
Baby swaddling is not without its own controversy. In a study by a University of Bristol team last year, the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) appeared to rise when infants were swaddled while sleeping on their sides or stomachs.
Involving data from four studies that cover 2,519 infants, the research saw that the risk of SIDS when placing babies on the side or front for sleeping climbed when infants were swaddled.
Swaddling is a method taught to new mothers in hospitals, and believed to keep babies cozy, warm, and comfortable in womb-like conditions. However, it has been linked to problems such as overheating and breathing difficulties when swaddled babies roll onto their stomach.
CBS2’s Dr. Max Gomez advised always putting a baby to sleep on her back and never too tightly wrapped, particularly once she gets to the age when she is able to roll over. Parents, too, are suggested to keep cribs as empty as possible.
