The Swaddle

About The Swaddle

The Swaddle is an independent digital publication and creative production studio based in Mumbai, India, publishing at theswaddle.com. Founded in 2014 by Karla Bookman, who serves as founder and editor, the publication covers healthcare, science, gender, mental health and culture through a feminist lens. It began as a digital resource for women's health and later remade itself as a multimedia publication producing original news, features and opinion alongside podcasts and films. Its stated mission is to shape discourse on culture, society and power through its magazine, social media, podcasts and films.

Founding and founder

The Swaddle was founded in 2014 by Karla Bookman, who was moved to India in 2008 after her marriage to Pirojsha Godrej, the chief executive of Godrej Properties. The birth of her first child was the catalyst for the venture: as a new mother she was struck by the lack of reliable, unsentimental information for parents in India and began building a website to answer the questions she found no one addressing. She started TheSwaddle.com as a static digital resource focused on maternal, sexual and mental health, subjects she felt were underserved because of the stigma and taboos surrounding women's health in India. By 2016 the parenting guide was about two years old and expanding into mother-and-child events.

From health resource to multimedia publication

In an interview with the journal of the design store Le Mill, Bookman described the publication's evolution as the tale of two almost completely different businesses. She began The Swaddle as a static digital resource for women's health issues, but came to feel that laying out objective information alone did not challenge the status quo. Around 2019 the publication changed course and became a multimedia outlet with a strong point of view, built on the belief that transparency and inclusivity can shift social biases and taboos. Bookman has said she does not subscribe to the traditional notion that journalism must pretend at objectivity; her position is that reporters' own experiences and perspectives shape the stories they choose and how they tell them, and that The Swaddle deliberately tells different stories through a different lens.

Editorial coverage and sections

The Swaddle publishes original news, features and opinion daily, covering healthcare, science, gender, mental health and culture, and often focuses on issues that are not openly discussed because of social taboos. Its website is organised into topic sections and recurring series, including coverage of gender norms, workplace discrimination, sexual health, parenting and mental well-being. Signature series have included "The Buzz Cut", a weekly round-up of gender-related news, and explainers that break down research and policy developments for a general audience. The publication's reporting frequently draws on academic studies and survey data to examine how gender shapes everyday life in India.

The gynac survey

One of the publication's better-known reporting projects was a survey of women's experiences with gynaecologists in India, in which 1,100 women responded. Half of the respondents said they did not feel comfortable openly discussing sex with their gynaecologist, a finding Bookman has cited in public appearances to illustrate how taboo and shame operate even in clinical settings. She has pointed to the emergence of crowd-sourced lists of gynaecologists noting whether doctors are queer-friendly or open-minded as evidence that younger women are pushing back against patriarchal norms in healthcare. The survey exemplified The Swaddle's approach of combining reader-generated data with feminist analysis.

TS Studios: podcasts and films

The Swaddle operates TS Studios, the arm through which it brings its storytelling and creative point of view to original podcasts and films. Its podcast output has included "Respectfully Disagree", a series in which the publication's team discusses and dissects issues on which they differ, with episodes on topics such as feminism across generations, gaming culture and Indian television. The studio has also produced short-form video series, including "The Rewind", and earlier the "School of Parenting" series of animated explainer videos for parents, produced in 2016 with scripting by the Swaddle team. These formats extend the publication's editorial perspective beyond text into audio and video.

Karla Bookman's public profile

Bookman, described by the Business of Fashion as the founder and editor of what it called India's only women's health and culture site with a strong feminist lens, has become a public commentator on gender issues in India. She contributes op-eds on gender to The Indian Express and speaks on subjects including gender discrimination in the workplace, parenting in the digital age, sexual health and leadership. She appeared at VOICES, the annual gathering convened by the Business of Fashion, in conversation with actress Sonam K Ahuja, discussing the slow subversion of patriarchal attitudes in India. Her observation there that feminism has long been alive in India but that women now have more of a platform has been widely quoted.

Editorial stance and tone

The Swaddle's editorial stance is openly feminist and progressive, distinguishing it from general-interest publications that cover gender as one beat among many. Its articles combine news reporting with analysis that is explicit about its point of view, and its headlines and series titles often use wit to address serious subjects. The publication targets readers who want health and culture coverage that takes women's experiences seriously, and it has built its audience in large part through social media distribution, where its explainers and illustrated stories circulate widely. This stance has made it both a distinctive voice in Indian digital media and a publication with a clearly defined, self-selecting readership.

Business model and independence

The Swaddle operates as an independent media company, and its founder has spoken publicly about the challenges of building an independent publication in India. In interviews she has described entrepreneurship as requiring a thick skin, and has framed The Swaddle's independence as central to its ability to publish a feminist point of view without the constraints of a larger media group. The company earns revenue through a mix of branded content, partnerships and its studio work, and it has collaborated with organisations and platforms on sponsored series while maintaining its editorial identity. Its Mumbai base places it within India's media and creative industries, close to the brands, agencies and cultural institutions it works with.

Place in Indian digital media

The Swaddle belongs to the generation of Indian digital-first publications that emerged in the 2010s around identity, health and culture, alongside a broader wave of independent online media. Its trajectory — from a niche women's health resource to a general-interest feminist publication with a production studio — mirrors the path of several digital outlets that began with a single vertical and broadened as their audiences grew. By combining daily publishing with podcasts, films and survey-driven reporting, it has built a model that treats the magazine and the studio as two expressions of the same editorial project: shaping public conversation about gender, health and power in India.

Distribution and audience

The Swaddle publishes daily on its website and distributes its journalism through social media, podcasts and films, the four channels named in its own description of how it shapes discourse on culture, society and power. Its explainers and illustrated stories are designed for social circulation, and the publication has built its readership largely through shares and engagement on those platforms rather than through search-driven traffic alone. The combination of a daily magazine, the TS Studios podcast and film output, and survey-driven reporting projects gives it multiple touchpoints with an audience interested in gender, health and culture — readers who, in Bookman's framing, are asking questions and seeking a better world.