Understanding the Moro Reflex and Your Baby’s Developing Nervous System
For generations, swaddling has been used to help babies feel secure, settle more easily, and sleep for longer. Many parents are shown how to swaddle before they even leave the hospital, and for some babies it can be an incredibly helpful tool during those early weeks.
But like many aspects of parenting, there are two sides to the story.
Understanding what swaddling does to your baby’s developing nervous system, particularly the Moro reflex, can help you make informed decisions.
The Moro Reflex Has a Purpose
The Moro reflex is one of the first ways a baby’s nervous system responds to sudden changes.
Although it often interrupts sleep and can be frustrating for tired parents, it is a normal part of neurological development.
Each time a baby startles and is met with calm, loving reassurance that feels like safety, their nervous system gathers valuable information.
“I became overwhelmed.”
“I wasn’t alone.”
“My body returned to calm.”
Over hundreds and eventually thousands of these moments, the nervous system begins to understand something profound:
Stress can be followed by safety.
This pattern becomes a template that many researchers and clinicians believe contributes to emotional resilience and secure attachment throughout life.
The goal isn’t to prevent every startle.
The goal is to help your baby recover from it.
Safety Is Felt, Not Taught
Babies don’t learn safety because we explain it to them.
They learn safety because they repeatedly experience it.
Every cuddle after a fright…
Every calm voice during tears…
Every loving embrace after becoming overwhelmed…
These moments are shaping the architecture of your baby’s brain.
Eventually, the external regulation you provide becomes internal regulation.
Your calm becomes their calm.
Your steady breathing becomes familiar.
Your presence becomes something they carry with them long after you’ve put them down.
But What Happens to the Moro Reflex?
Here’s where things become interesting.
When a baby is tightly swaddled, their arms are unable to move freely.
If the Moro reflex is triggered, the brain still sends the message to perform the movement but the body can’t complete it.
The nervous system initiates the response, but the muscles are physically prevented from carrying it out.
Occasionally, this isn’t likely to be a problem. However, when this happens repeatedly over many weeks or months, it raises an important question:
Does the nervous system receive enough opportunity to complete and integrate this important developmental reflex?
Primitive reflexes are not simply movements. They are experiences.
The movement itself provides sensory information back to the brain, helping build neural pathways and supporting healthy neurological development.
Like learning to crawl or roll, repetition matters.
Why Integration Matters
When primitive reflexes integrate naturally, they become the foundation for more mature movement patterns and nervous system regulation.
If the Moro reflex remains active beyond the expected age, some practitioners believe it may contribute to ongoing nervous system sensitivity.
An unintegrated Moro reflex has been associated with:
- Increased sensitivity to sound, light or touch
- A heightened startle response
- Difficulty settling or self-regulating
- Emotional reactivity
- Challenges with attention and concentration
- Poor balance and coordination
- Motion sensitivity
- Difficulty filtering sensory information
It’s important to note that these associations do not mean swaddling causes these challenges.
Many factors influence primitive reflex integration, including pregnancy, birth, early development, illness, stress, movement opportunities and each baby’s individual nervous system.
Current research has not established that swaddling alone leads to retained Moro reflexes or later developmental difficulties. More research is needed in this area.
Freedom to Move
Babies learn through movement.
Stretching, bringing their hands to their mouth, turning their head, waving their arms, touching their face and gradually discovering their body all provide valuable sensory experiences.
These seemingly random movements are actually helping organise the brain and nervous system.
Giving babies plenty of supervised, awake time with freedom to move allows these natural developmental processes to unfold.
As a craniosacral therapist working with babies, I often meet parents who worry they’re “doing it wrong.”
The truth is, there is rarely one perfect answer.
Every baby’s nervous system has its own story.
By observing your baby with curiosity rather than judgment, and by providing opportunities for both comfort and movement, you’re supporting one of the most important aspects of early development, a nervous system that gradually learns it is safe, adaptable and resilient.
We Are Our Baby’s Nervous System
When your baby becomes overwhelmed, startled or distressed, they aren’t manipulating you or developing bad habits. They’re experiencing a nervous system that simply doesn’t yet have the maturity to return to calm on its own.
Your heartbeat, your breathing, your voice, your smell, your warmth and your gentle touch all send one powerful message:
You are safe.
This process is known as co-regulation.
Every time you pick your baby up, cuddle them close, respond to their cries or soothe them through a difficult moment, you’re doing far more than comforting them.
You’re helping wire their developing nervous system.
Over time, those repeated experiences become internalised. Eventually, your baby no longer needs to borrow your calm because they’ve learned what calm feels like within themselves.
This is one of the foundations of secure attachment.
Amanda Fincham - Craniosacral & Remedial Massage therapy 