Swaddling, and Bloody Difficult Woman ticked off by Guy

Madonna & Child 1319
by Ambrogio Lorenzetti

Reviewed a new manuscript today. In the evening, hosted the Milton Local History Group, with invited speaker Robert Parker, giving an introduction to researching family history. The item that caught my attention was the swaddling of babes. Following this up back home, I found that this is an ancient practice where the baby is bound tightly in bands of cloth to restrict the movement of arms and legs, effetively immobilising the child as a mummy. The practice seems to have already been current practice in palaeolithic times in Crete and Cyprus, as judged by votive offerings about 4,000 or more years ago.

From when written records become available, it appears that the main function was based on the belief that this helped the limbs grow straight, and it could be applied up to the first year. The convenience of immobility and ease of carrying the swaddled child must have helped the practice. however, according to ThoughtCo https://www.thoughtco.com/medieval-child-surviving-infancy-1789124, the child would have been freed for regular changing and cleaning, and perhaps been free to move around later when becoming mobile.

In the UK, the practice gradually declined in the 17th/18th century, however, there are significant regional variations worldwide; in Turkey, more than 90% of newborns are swaddled, according to Wikipedia. The practice has had a revival, based on the argument that it calms babies, but there appears to be contradictory evidence both for and against the practice on health grounds (Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swaddling).

Today, Prime Minister May used the media hype, re the different interpretations of the Wednesday EU talks with Jean Claude Juncker, to bounce back with a message for the domestic market that she promised to be a "Bloody difficult woman" in the forthcoming elections. European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt came up with his own mocking interpretation for the EU audience: “Any Brexit deal requires a strong & stable understanding of the complex issues involved. The clock is ticking – it's time to get real.”