I believe the noose was designed for this exact purpose
Yep. In 1800, back before most people had dishwashers/washing machines, they just tossed their kid into a bucket of water, shoved it up against a washboard, and voilà you have a clean wet baby. But who wants a wet baby??
It hung on racks quite nicely with a noose keeping it from falling. We wouldn't want the baby to break its legs.