Dear Fellow-lacnetters,
Nikki Lee also was interested in my position on babywearing. Here is
an essay I wrote about that (it was removed by my editor):
Infant carriers: Another piece of ancient wisdom that is making a
comeback
"I used to think that people with baby carriers were granola people and
hippies…but now, I think women are weird if they don't use one.”
Debra, mother of twins Audrey
and Sophia
A final example of an old, discarded custom that has been
resurrected, thanks to
recent scientific studies, is the use of baby carriers and slings.
These devices allow
babies to be carried while leaving their mom’s hands free for other
jobs. These
simple folds of cloth are so valuable to new parents that I suspect
they were one of
the first items of clothing ever invented!
Despite their great practicality, however, infant carriers were
discarded by our
Western culture many generations ago. During the late 1800’s baby
carriages
replaced the old practice of carrying babies for walks. Pushing a
“baby buggy” or a
“pram”, as these carriages were referred to, was seen as being more
refined and
lady-like than strolling down the avenue with your baby draped over
your shoulder.
This preference to not hold babies was reinforced by the vocal
opinions of experts
who warned parents to avoid carrying their babies “too much”. In
1894, Dr
Emmett Holt, the “Dr. Spock” of his day, cautioned parents not to
pick up their
crying babies, not to spoil them with too much carrying and never to
rock them to
sleep! So, for decades, parents continued to transport their infants
exclusively in
carriages and strollers.
Imagine, though, what it’s like being in a stroller…from your baby’s
point of view.
There she is, sunken in a bucket seat unable to see you or even hear
you very
well. And, when you stop walking, an eerie stillness descends around
her!
Strollers are certainly useful and valuable tools for long trips
(and, heavy babies).
However, in the late 1980s, a new series of medical and
anthropological reports
began to push these rolling baby seats back into a more limited
role. These
studies by top scientists, like Ron Barr from McGill University,
reacquainted the
our culture with the prehistoric practice of carrying babies in slings.
Babies adore slings and infant carriers of all variety. They nurture
their senses in
a rhythmic, calming way. Babies who are carried become enveloped by
the constant
presence of their parent’s warmth, scent, movement, touch and
sounds. If I were
asked to compare strollers to slings, I’d say that strollers are like
singing “Row, row,
row your boat” over and over again while slings are like a full
chorus performing
“The Hallelujah Chorus”!
In 1986, Dr. Barr and his associate Dr. Urs Hunziker asked women to
carry their
babies at least 3 hours a day (in a sling or their arms). They
discovered the more
a baby was carried the calmer and happier she became. Overall, these
cuddled
infants had 43% less crying. Thanks, in part to studies like this,
infant carriers have
been saved from the brink of extinction and sent back up to the “top
of the charts”.
In the 1970s, women carrying their babies in slings may have been
considered
counter-cultural oddities, but these days, mothers from Tacoma to
Tallahassee are
snapping up infant carriers like hot cakes. Now, they’re so much a
part of our
culture it’s almost odd for a mom not to “wear her baby”!
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