Meaning of 何かに挟まっても

Question

Referring to babies falling out of bed:

頭が重くて何かに挟まっても自分の力で出ることができないためです。
It's because their heads are heavy and, no matter what it gets caught in, they can't get out with their own strength.

At first I translated 何かに挟まっても to "Even if it gets caught in something" but that doesn't fit the rest of the sentence.

Then I thought about phrases like: question word + verb + ても e.g. 何をしても, "no matter what he does", だれに話しても, "no matter who he talks to" etc. But 何かに挟まっても doesn't seem to fit this pattern because 何か ('something') is a noun, not a question word. I would have guessed at 何に挟まって (without the か), if this was the intended meaning.

So, how should I translate this phrase, and why would 何に挟まって be incorrect?

Answer 1

「頭{あたま}が重{おも}くて何{なに}かに挟{はさ}まっても自分{じぶん}の力{ちから}で出{で}ることができないためです。」

Your translation is:

「It's because their heads are heavy and, no matter what it gets caught in, they can't get out with their own strength. 」

The only mistake, of course, is the "no matter what" part. If that were what the author had wanted to say, s/he would have said:

「何に挟まっても」 without a 「か」

just as you yourself stated.

In this sentence using 「何か」 would be considerably better and more natural than using 「何」. My own TL would be:

"It's because their heads are heavy and in case they (= babies) get caught in something, they can't get out with their own strength. "

There is no "even if" feeling in the original, which is why I just used "in case". It only means "when" here.

Answer 2

According to wikipedia article: adverbival clause https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adverbial_clause

I think you and l'electuer's interpretation are both correct. As you know, you are using interrogative word(no matter what, whatever) as an adverbial clause　such as "頭が重くて、adverbial clause、 自分の力で出ることができないためです" And, you describe that babies' body are in a place between bed and something. While l'electuer describes babies are in the condition of getting sandwiched between bed and something. I think, only this sentence, it is hard to define whether this adverbial clause is a position or a condition type.