Babywearing is a powerful, often misunderstood, often under-utilised parenting tool.

Babies who are carried, cry up to 43% less than non carried babies – A study in Montreal, via La Leche League

Parents from all sorts of backgrounds, cultural beliefs and lifestyles choose to carry their children, babywearing is not about a particular parenting philosophy or belief system.

Teaching the art of babywearing is about empathy, enabling and facilitating families – helping them to build bonds and secure attachments, to go about their daily lives and choose to carry because it feels good, is convenient to modern living and because they and their children enjoy it. Babywearing should be about acceptance and encouragement without judgement.

The single most important child-rearing practice to be adopted for the development of emotional and social healthy infants and children is to carry the infant on the body of the caretaker all day long.” James Prescott, Ph.D

We are hardwired for touch, to receive love and support for survival. Touch is as important for the giver as for the receiver and studies show that oxytocin is released in a newborn when the mother holds him or her but also in the mother from holding her newborn.

• Touch improves immunity and lowers blood pressure.
• Touch is 10 times stronger than any emotional or verbal contact.
• Touch slows our heart rate and lowers our levels of cortisol – the stress hormone.
• Touch is a biological need for survival and forms the basis of human bonds.
• Touch is the primary sense and the first to develop in all animal species – your skin is your external nervous system.

With a sling you are free to:

Eat, cook dinner, get a drink, play with your toddler, go for a walk and your baby will be happy because they are close to you, can smell mum and know that they are safe.

Try carrying your child and see if it suits you both, remember if you keep your child close, you will learn her cues and respond with love, teaching your baby that communication with you works and that their needs are being met.

 

 

 

Just look at how this baby is looking at his mum, it is so adorable, he is gazing into her eyes like she is the only person in the whole world, this is what love looks like, this is why I love babywearing so much and this baby is learning so much already from his mum: