How Can Stuffing Someone In A Bag, Help With Aches And Pains?

         How Can Stuffing Someone In A Bag, Help With Aches And Pains? - The age-old practice of swaddling babies is being turned in to a therapy for adults in Tokyo to alleviate posture and stiffness, mostly after giving birth.

Called Otonamaki, literally “adult wrapping”, the therapy is gaining traction especially amongst post-natal women after taking the internet by storm.

At a recent session in Tokyo organised by a non-profit organisation dedicated to new mums, about five women gathered at a local community centre to try it out, some for the first time.

Each took turns to tie each other in a large cloth from head to toe and in a cross-legged position, with the guidance from the session’s organiser Yayoi Katayama.

They also swayed lightly from side-to-side after being laid gently on their backs in the hope of helping loosening the muscles and bones.

Some were given the option to use a coloured cloth to help simulate different environments as they lay completely covered in the white cloths.

Many of the participants described the feeling of a warm embrace once swaddled in cloth.

“It felt warm and there was this feeling with my body. I have never experienced this before so its quite hard to describe properly,” said one unidentified participant.

Katayama says the practice was first devised by a famous midwife called Nobuko Watanabe from Kyoto city, and was especially devised for women suffering from post-natal stiffness in their shoulders or hips.

“We call baby swaddling in Japan ‘doll wrap’. We wrap them in cloths and they sleep very well like that. I believe this came about when someone thought about doing this with adults.” said Katayama.

“When we tried it, it was very relaxing. We understood why babies sleep well like this. And when adults tried it, it helped loosen them up. We think it would be good to add this before exercises and also after birth – many new mothers have hip aches and shoulder aches – so we wrap mothers for this,” she added.

However, health care professionals are not convinced the therapy has any lasting medical benefits.

“There may be cases where people with asthma may find it easier to breath (in that position), but once the cloth is off it’s the same thing. But apart from that, I just can’t think of how people can benefit from this even as a form of reflexology or exercise,” said chiropractor Shiro Oba of Akasaka Chiropractics.

Oba added he would warn anyone with back problems against trying this out, and advises anyone with a potential medical issue to consult a physician first before wrapping one’s self up in swaddling cloths.