the joy of

Babywearing is the Babywearing act of wearing or carrying a baby or child in a sling or Katherine Norman other form of carrier.

Babies need contact, to be There are many different baby touched and carried as they develop carriers and slings available, with and grow. Baby carriers are a great something suitable for every parent’s How to choose a sling tool to help us continue to function in style. But sadly, many parents never everyday life, whilst providing our discover the carrier(s) that suits them All the carriers listed here can do babies with human contact. best or how to use them most a range of different positions and effectively. In most parts of the world, and ages - front, back, hip and throughout history, the baby carrier Like any aspect of parenting, newborn to 3 or 4 years. has been an essential piece of baby babywearing takes a bit of learning to equipment. master, but don’t be put off by this - Success with using them comes it definitely pays off. Sadly the last vestiges of the UK’s down to personal preference, traditional babywearing culture died The most versatile carriers are sold by body shape and a little out with the massive social changes in small, parent-run companies, who as perseverance or help. the period between the wars, but the sling-users themselves can give advice welsh shawl is still remembered by on the best carrier for you and how to some. use it. Meet other babywearers to try out Today babywearing is undergoing a Alternatively the website different carriers and get expert resurgence. From celebrities such as www.slingmeet.co.uk puts you in advice at www.slingmeet.co.uk, Madonna and Angelina Jolie, to touch with local babywearer meet-ups 0845 862 0073. ordinary parents, the joy of where you can try out other parent’s babywearing is being rediscovered in slings, and get advice. the western world. Babywearing

Benefits Tummy to tummy - Kari-me wrap wrap For you ... Regulates systems Contact with an adult helps A wrap is a rectangle of material, Comfortable newborns regulate their wrapped around you and baby and A well chosen baby carrier temperature, breathing, and tied. Wraps come in a variety of distributes your child’s weight well, heartbeat. is now widths and lengths, and are usually allowing you to carry them more widely used with premature babies easily, for longer periods at a time, for these very reasons. worn over both shoulders.

and as they get heavier. Most versatile - front, back and hip Cry less carriers are suitable up to 16kgs, 3 carries Baby’s who are carried more and or 4 years. comfortable for long periods are responded too quicker have and heavier babies or Freedom of movement been found to cry less. toddlers A baby carrier gives you greater very adjustable for exact fit freedom to move around than a and can be used by different pram or pushchair. It is easy to You can breastfeed discretely in a sized adults move up stairs and through small carrier. Some mums find that with more of a learning curve than spaces, making shopping, public practice they can even feed hands- some carriers toilets, and walking easier. free.

Stretchy wraps such as the Kari-me Communication Hands free and Hug-a-bub are easier with a new A carried newborn can see your A baby carrier can give you back born, whereas woven wraps (Girasol, face, and gets more experience of your hands, allowing you to look Calin-bleu) are more supportive for a language, facial expressions and after older children, do housework heavier child. and get on with the things you want body language. to do. Stimulates learning Carried babies spend more time in For baby ... the quiet alert state required for learning. A babe-in-arms can Less stress observe the world and touch, itself, Babies are soothed by movement has been found to stimulate the and personal contact. From the growth of brain cells. safety of the sling they can determine their own levels of Bonding interaction with the world. The closeness between parent and child in a sling helps bonding. You Physical development can get to know each other and The movement associated with learn to communicate and trust being carried develops baby’s each other, whilst carrying on with balance and muscular strength. life. Back carry - Calin Bleu wrap © All photography rights remain the property of the company concerened 2006 concerened company the of property the remain rights photography © All

Cradle carry - Hotsling pouch Kangaroo carry - Taylormade Tummy to tummy - Cwtshi pouch ring sling asian baby carrier

A pouch is a tube of material worn A ring sling is a rectangle of material An asian baby carrier is a soft carrier over one shoulder to create a pocket with rings sewn in at one end. Worn with a rectangular body and straps for baby to lie or sit in. Great for over one shoulder it forms a pouch that go over both shoulders. Some new parents and newborns because in which baby lies or sits and is have a waist strap and it be fastened of their simplicity, but less adjusted using the rings. by tying straps or by buckles. adjustable. versatile easy to learn Very easy to adjust and use very adjustable for exact fit comfortable for long periods limited adjustablility and can be used by different or with a heavier child custom fit - pouch needs to sized adults One size can be used by fit you, so probably won’t fir some learning curve for different sized adults both parents adjusting using the rings great for back carries less comfortable for longer may be less comfortable for more suitable for babies with periods or with a heavier longer periods or with a good head control child heavier child Covering a wide range of different Non-adjustable pouches include the Padded ring slings (Huggababy and carriers, the asian baby carriers Brightsparks Coorie Pouch and the Better Baby) are easier to learn, but include the mei-tai (Cwtshi and Hotsling. Other pouches come with an unpadded ring sling, such as a Ellaroo) with waist straps. More zips or poppers to give more Taylormade, Natya or Zolowear structured related soft pack carriers adjustability (Zolowear Adjustable allows for greater adjustability and include the Ergo and Wilkinet. Pouch). more versatility.

Tummy to tummy - Zolowear pouch Hip carry - Natya ring sling Back carry - Ellaroo Mei Tai Babywearing

Contacts everyday shopping trips, to a stress- Katherine free two day music festival with an eight week old! and Erin’s Calin-bleu When I was pregnant I read Deborah www.calinbleu.com babywearing Jackson’s book Baby Wisdom (now out of print) which starts with a look at Coorie Pouch Sling journey the modern baby equipment list and www.brightsparkslings.co.uk just how numerous our expected ‘essentials’ have become. I wanted a Cwtshi www.cwtshi.com simpler approach and combined with my biologist’s belief in the Didymos www.didymos.de appropriateness of keeping your baby Ellaroo www.ellaroo.com close I chose to forego the travel system and bought myself a ring sling Ergo instead. So began my love affair with www.ergobabycarrier.com babywearing and baby carriers - the pleasure of carrying my child and the Girasol www.girasol.de beauty of many of the carriers themselves has left a lasting Hotslings www.hotslings.com impression on me and my life.

Hug-a-bub www.hugabub.com I found an incredible freedom in being Huggababy able to go anywhere, anytime without worrying about lugging around a www.huggababy.co.uk pushchair, or finding somewhere to Kari-me breastfeed. It has made negotiating public toilets, escalators and stairs, www.kari-me-baby- and rough ground no different to how carrier.co.uk it was before I had a baby. I have even The Maya Wrap Adjustable been able to breastfeed hands-free whilst paying for my shopping in the Pouch www.mayawrap.com supermarket!

Natya www.natya.co.uk As Erin has grown older we have appreciated the view of the world a SlingEasy baby carrier provides and even as a www.slingeasy.co.uk toddler the opportunity for a place of Taylormade rest. www.taylormadeslings.com The most wonderful part has been the sharing each moment with my little Wilkinet www.wilkinet.co.uk girl. With her in my arms I have found that I am never alone, there is always Zolowear www.zolowear.com someone right by me to talk to, listen to, or watch the world go by with. For product and vendor

reviews and forums offering Babywearing is one of the most lots of advice on choosing and empowering things about being a mum using a bay carrier visit for me. Carrying Erin in a sling has www.thebabywearer.com allowed me to do things with a baby that I would probably otherwise have found too overwhelming. From the

as soon as I was up and about. In those baby goods – bath thermometer, baby

days there were very few slings around, bath stand – in the car boot sale pile at Rachel, and even fewer places to buy them from. the back of the cupboard. But I never In fact Mothercare was the only high forgot the joy of carrying her, and of Poppy and Teddy’s street shop that sold baby equipment at being able to kiss her head and hold her all, apart from the odd independent close as we did the shopping, caught the nursery shop that sold much the same bus etc. babywearing conventional stuff. So, I bought the only journey thing on offer at the time – a Mothercare Eleven years on, and pregnant with my carrier. second child, I knew I wanted another sling. Time had moved on – I’d seen I don’t remember much about it other plenty of babies being toted around in than the fact it was turquoise and Baby Bjorn carriers, and read about I was a twenty-three-year-old postgrad clipped on, with my daughter dangling at Hollywood babies being carried in student when I had my daughter, Poppy, the front. I wore it every time we went leather Bill Amberg papooses. thirteen years ago. I’d had a waterbirth, out for about the next six weeks. We got was breastfeeding and also wanted to many stares and quite a few comments – Another major development since carry my baby in a sling – in other words I mainly positive I have to say – and I loved Poppy’s baby years was the Internet. Via was regarded as a bit of a hippy. But it having her close to me. However, the joy the magic of the Net it was possible to was hard to avoid going the mainstream was short-lived. The design of the sling buy baby stuff from somewhere other route, as getting hold of anything other threw all the baby’s weight on my than Mothercare! I happened to be than high street baby equipment was shoulders and back and, at about two googling cloth nappies (another great nigh on impossible. months, Poppy became too heavy to leap forward to the past!) when I was carry. So we reverted to the pram and directed to a parenting site called UK We had a pram - a present from my the carrier joined the pile of obsolete Parents. I emerged from behind the parents – but I went shopping for a sling screen a few hours later with the scales Babywearing

fallen from my eyes!

Parenting had indeed moved on, and there were online communities of sharing advice and experience. I learned was that there were a myriad of slings to choose from – and all of them were a world apart from the Baby Bjorn- type carriers available on the high street.

I joined thebabywearer.com - a website dedicated to (obviously!) babywearing - and learned about different types of sling. When Teddy was born a few months later, he went straight into a Hug-a-Bub – a stretchy wrap, which is basically a long stretchy piece of material that you wrap round you and pop the baby inside. This time the sling was back-friendly, as the design meant that all the baby’s weight was held against my body. He was snug and happy. I was comfortable and happy. And what’s more, I had two hands free again! Teddy thrived in the sling and was very contented. He cried very little, which I put down to being carried so much.

Now Teddy is 15 months old and still carried in slings. I have a ring sling for quick trips, where he sits cosily on my hip; a couple of mei tais (Asian-style slings) which tie on and are very comfortable for carrying him on my back. We also have an Ergo carrier, worth the effort! about with me, engaged in whatever’s which is a bit more structured – it has going on. buckles and padding and looks more like All these slings will last Teddy until he’s the high street carriers but is designed to well into toddlerhood and beyond. We Having your baby snuggled close, with no make sure the back of both wearer and wear our slings out and about and also need to cry to be picked up, is such an baby is supported. This is daddy’s round the house, so not only is shopping addictive feeling. In fact, to feed my favourite sling – always in use while much easier (no buggy to manoeuvre love for slings, I go to sling meets, where mowing the lawn. The last type we have through doors and up steps) but I can slinging parents and their children meet is a woven wrap, which I’m still trying to cook, vacuum and make a cup of tea up for days out and to try on different master. It’s a long piece of woven with two hands while still carrying the types of carriers. Slings have made a big material that can be tied on in many baby! I do have a buggy, an off-road impact on my life as a this time different ways for hip, back and front three-wheeler which lives in the boot of round. I’ve made new friends, have a carries. I think this will be the most the car. To date it’s been used about ten great bond with my son and my parenting versatile, but for me, it’s the most times, as I just find the slings handier, style has changed for the better. Not bad difficult one to learn to use. The others and Teddy hates being strapped into his for a simple piece of cloth. took a few attempts at home before I buggy – he much prefers to be up and felt confident with them. But boy, was it