Baby Carrier Industry Alliance Share Your Story

Babywearing in critical conditions

Jan — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:24:40 GMT

Ever had an emergency where your baby carrier literally saved a life? Whether it's being able to attend to an older sibling's injury, or the time you escaped from a flood with the baby on your back, please share how your baby carrier has been essential to your life.

If babywearing has changed your life, please consider making a donation.

Babywearing in daily life

Jan — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:25:59 GMT

How does using a baby carrier help you get through an ordinary day? What places would be harder to reach, or impossible to visit, without your carrier? Could you get through a whole day with a baby and no carrier, and how would it be different?

If babywearing has changed your life, please consider making a donation.

Babywearing newborns

Jan — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:29:18 GMT

Have you had post-partum depression or anxiety? Difficulty breastfeeding, or helping a sibling adjust to a new baby? Just figuring out how to make yourself a sandwich and hold your baby at the same time? Maybe you didn't know about babywearing with your first, but found it necessary with your second. If your baby carrier helped you get through those blissful, yet incredibly challenging, first weeks, please share your story.

If babywearing has changed your life, please consider making a donation.

Babywearing helps babies

Jan — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 12:36:47 GMT

Colicky babies often cry less when they're held, but you can't just hold them in your arms all day. And babies with reflux benefit from an upright position. Toddlers enjoy "uppies" between sprints around the playground. How does your baby carrier help you meet your baby's needs?

If babywearing has changed your life, please consider making a donation.

Babywearing special needs children

Jan — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:10:42 GMT

Whether it's your low-tone newborn or a toddler with a hip brace, babywearing a special-needs child has extra challenges... and extra rewards. Tell us how you met your child's special needs with a well-constructed baby carrier.

If babywearing has changed your life, please consider making a donation.

reasons why I wear my baby in a ring sling...

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 20:42:46 GMT

Three years ago, I was given a baby ring sling from a dear friend that made one for me after I had my 6^th child. With my first 5 babies, I had a strap-on carrier that I was only allowed to use up to a weight of 15 pounds. With my new sling, I was thrilled that I wouldn’t have to stop wearing my baby once she reached that 15 lb mark!

Now, only eight months ago, I had a sweet baby boy and am SO enjoying being able to hold him close to my heart. Besides wearing my baby close & being able to be hands free, another one of my favorite things about slings is how I am better equipped to PROTECT my baby from strangers that have the audacity to get too close to my baby’s face or even touch him! I find they tend to feel free to demonstrate that boldness whenever I happen to have my baby in a stroller (which is rare), but NEVER when I have him in my sling! Needless to say, I have my stroller tucked away in storage somewhere!

I have become SO thankful & supportive of baby ring slings, that I am now a member of Baby Carrier Industry Alliance. I am the owner of the shop, Deus Filia on Etsy.com. See the selection of my slings here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/DeusFilia?section_id=7749031 I personally, hand sew these baby ring slings & am thoroughly enjoying it!!! I am so thankful to God for giving me a friend who has inspired me to carry on the blessing of baby wearing!

Please check out the rest of my shop at: http://www.etsy.com/shop/DeusFilia

Rebozo,a Story of PPD

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:10:08 GMT

My baby was the one you could hear from down the hall. Doors all along the hallway of the Mother-Baby Unit shut as the nurse brought 5 pounds 2 ounces of scrawny, screaming irritation back to me once again. After a physically uneventful but emotionally draining year, I was completely unprepared for a premature birth, forced labor and botched delivery. Apparently baby was not ready, either.

It was weeks before I could sit down, months before I could sit down without pain. Days before baby could latch on, weeks before he wanted to latch. Family came and went before the weather could turn. They marveled at baby’s tiny body and earsplitting voice. I notified the silence where baby’s father had been: “Baby boy born. Mother and baby fine.” I tried to cook and clean for my patient husband, our new marriage trapped in non-verbal infancy and the frustration of novelty: diapers, dryer vents, drugstores, dirt.

Nights were measured in one-hour intervals. Days ran into one another strung together by the constant motion of bouncing, moving, swaying, walking around and around in circles on my carpet path. Housebound by doctors’ orders and winter storms I sometimes wore earplugs to dull the constant crying until I, too, became dull.

Dull. Alone. Sinking inside. In my more lucid moments I thought this must be punishment for unplanned pregnancy. No friends, no network, no family and no peace. I never registered for baby things thanks to the kind lady at the Pregnancy Center who gave me a crib, a stroller and some maternity clothes. Lacking an periodical subscription a Babies R Us or an internet connection, I did not hear the term “Postpartum Depression” until well after the postpartum stage.

Books lived on the nightstands, on the counters, on the edge of the crib. Straight lines of text balanced the erratic daily mood swings, until they joined one day in a black-and-white picture book from 1961 entitled Children and their Mothers. Grainy photos of black and white skin, poverty and prosperity, new world, old world, third world glared starkly in the glow of my nightlight. Mothers from around the world, sad and happy, eating, healing, resting, nursing, working, starving, dying. In homes, hospitals, clinics, hovels and ditches. But the babies! The babies were content, peaceful, unaware of their circumstances. And for every sleepy, drooly, placid baby there was a piece of cloth, a basket, a scarf, a pack which held them up high on their mother’s body.

In the morning, after my tired husband left for work, I took a flat sheet and ripped it in half longwise. Looking in the mirror for perhaps the first time in weeks I tried to tie a band around my body, wrapping the length and width around mummy-like. I looked at the tiny body clawing at his blanket on my bed and then at the quantity of fabric wrapped around my middle. Looked at the picture of the African mamas washing sewing cleaning with babies socializing on their backs. Unwound the sheet and picked up now-frantic baby…and stuffed him feet-first into the top of my sports bra.

This became our morning exercise routine. Daddy leave for work. Baby wake up again. Mommy frantically strip her shirt off and nurse angry baby, then stuff him semi-upright in her bra and begin walking our carpet path. After a few days, baby quieted after a few minutes of protest, dosing in his tight elastic nest on top of mommy’s chest, all his bony arms and legs folded in, securely held. After a few weeks I got braver. I knew how to do something! I could cook, I could clean, I could help my baby feel better, if only for a few hours.

We got braver as the weather worsened and nights began before dinnertime. I half-expected to be stopped by a police car on our first walk around the block. Ma’am, what is that lump under your coat? Just a sleeping baby, warm in his swaddling of shirts and scarves, only the top of his hat visible under my chin. Deep snow, deeper quiet, an hours’ respite from fighting our housebound demons.

By spring baby had outgrown his nest. A new internet connection brought news of warmer weather, lists of garage sales and links to baby stores. I dragged out a used Snugli and diaper-pinned the straps back on. Baby objected to this new, open-air insecurity. What luck when I found a “real” sling at Walmart! It was huge--I pushed and pulled the padding through the rings, removed stitching, chopped ends and generally mangled it into submission. Miles, weeks and two aching shoulders later, I found a new website. La Leche led to Jenrose led to Jan Andrea led to my sewing machine and finally a simple pouch sling emerged.

We went to the grocery store together, baby, the pouch, and I. The white people stared, the gentleman in the milk aisle shook his head. “What will they think of next? That baby is going to fall out on the floor!” But the old Mexican lady buying bushels of tomatoes adjusted the stretch of fabric across my back with a gap-toothed smile and tucked the edges under baby’s knees. The deli girl told me of her grandmother and her country as plastic-gloved hands mimed tying straps and tucking fabric. “Rebozo?” asked a man sorting oranges, then let loose a torrent of Spanish. “Rebozo?”

“Rebozo?” I asked my Spanish-speaking mother a few weeks later. Doubtful about my invention, she was heartened by my combed hair and babbling baby. The wall between us cast shadows in either direction, baby rising every day, the noon sun of compromise. A few months later she returned from a missions trip, thinned and warmed by hotter climate. She handed me two strips of brightly woven cloth with fringe at the ends. The weave was open, the cotton soft and flexible. Meshlike, the scarves stretched and curved around the curve of baby’s peeking face. “Rebozo,” said my mother, as she tied it around baby and I. “Rebozo.”

Babywearing Saved our Lives

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:21:16 GMT

When my daughter was born I very quickly began to suffer from Postpartum Depression. I loved my daughter but I wasn't able to connect with her. To top it off, she had colic and I was essentially caring for her alone because my fiance was working round the clock to enable me to stay home. I FINALLY was able to get a carrier - I'd been drooling over them for months. My first carrier was a Moby wrap and although it wasn't perfect and we no longer care for Mobys, it was there for us. It opened an entire world of babywearing to us and saved our lives. One memorable evening I reached an all time low and contemplated throwing my daughter out the window to shut her up. Luckily, I was able to realize that this was the PPD talking and got up, put my daughter in our wrap, and within minutes she was quiet and happy. Within seconds I was relaxed and happy - I am scared to think of what might have happened had we not had our wrap! Babywearing enabled me to realize what true love and bonding with my daughter could be like and allowed me to realize I needed to seek help and treatment for my PPD.

My babywearing story

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 16:43:17 GMT

This is an abridged version of what I had posted on my blog during International Babywearing Week.

Babywearing is probably the most important thing I have learned about parenting. Ever.

I didn't know about it with my first except for the token Bjorn or Snugli that everyone seems to get as a shower gift. I tried it, disliked it, forgot about it and moved on.

Then, four years later, I had another baby. He was a preemie and wearing my baby took on a whole new meaning for me. I read book upon book those countless minutes, days, weeks that he was encapsulated in an isolette in the NICU. Dr. Sears became my new best friend. It was through him that I learned of the benefits of attachment parenting(AP) and with that, babywearing and the belief that "the womb lasts 18 months: nine months inside Mother and nine months outside". The number of times I've had strangers on the street comment that my baby looks like 'she might as well still be inside you' as though it were a criticism rather than a compliment is unnerving.

After my son was home from the hospital we used baby carriers daily. Part of it was due to the fact that after having him taken away from me for so long in the hospital, I just didn't want to let him go; and knowing the benefits of babywearing, I didn't. The other factor of my near-constant wearing was the reality of having a four year old at home. A four year old whose needs and differences were just starting to become noticeable to us. Keeping Isaac close to me allowed him the security and comfort of being held, nourished and attended to, but also let me colour at the kitchen table, bake bread and cookies and play dinosaurs with my daughter.

Babywearing has not only been beneficial to my children, but it has provided me with countless benefits as well. Of course I can cite that carrying around a huge chunk of baby on my back for five days in Disney World must have done something for my overall fitness, but it was my mental health that babywearing and AP really managed to salvage. I suffered some pretty intense post-partum depression after my first child was born. That bond just wasn't there. I feel that having worn my children so close to my heart and always having them near me to hug, kiss, smell and talk to stunted any stirrings of PPD in my most recent pregnancies.

Alive and safe because we wear.

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 01:20:58 GMT

Babywearing also saved our lives. A few weeks ago, I was wearing my toddler on my back in a wrap as I left the grocery store. While we were crossing the parking lot in a crosswalk, a car came flying around the corner and very nearly hit us. Because she was wrapped on my back, instead of in a cart or stroller, I was able to jump clear of the vehicle. I don't know what I would have done if she had been in a cart because there was absolutely no way I could have gotten a cart AND myself clear of that car, and they definitely weren't stopping. One of us, possibly both, would have been severely injured or killed. Wrapping literally saved our lives.

ICU, 5 weeks old Choppered in Heart failure, Baby Sling a Necessity

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 18:52:29 GMT

When I think of people questioning whether a baby sling is the right choice, I find myself thinking of all the critical life moments that were made a success story because of a my baby sling specifically, and especially that it WAS a baby sling, not a snugly or back pack carrier that was needed for the job.

I am shameless in my love for my baby sling! It is the safest place for my baby.

After being Choppered to Children’s Hospital with my baby, James, 5 wks old in heart failure, I found it very challenging spending 5 days trying to hold him in my arms and stop him from crying as I had been advised to do by the head of Electrical Cardiology to prevent him form going into another heart episode - I was asked to stay by the bed and try and hold him as it was the only thing that kept him from going into arrhythmia. Not the morphine, not the Chloral hydrate sedative, not the Flecainide heart drugs, but Holding Him. Wow, did I ever feel like I was asked to hold a grenade when the result of him crying hard was him going into SVT- heart beat of 320bpm- and having to be injected with a drug to make his heart flat line, and then have his heart restart again by doctors. This had been happening repeatedly all day long, every day, as they tried to find the right heart drugs for him, until they had me hold him.

For days he hadn't sleep. Just writhed and screamed from all the procedures he had been put through, his heart constantly spiking to 320 bpm and having his heart stopping and restarted by doctors, countless wires and sensors coming out of his head and chest. Now I'm asked to try and stay by his side and hold him as much as I can to keep him calm. I was so worried I was hurting him holding him with all the IVs in him, and then the ICU nurse took one of the "needles" that were used in the IVS in his arms, legs and head and showed me that they were not needles at all but squishy bits of tiny rubber tubing that went into the vain – mushy plastic tubes - not needles pocking into him when I held him! That was it! On went my stretchy fitted sling and in went baby, IVs, heart sensors and all, So, so gently sliding down into the upright kangaroo care position. I started walking around with him and they gave me a remote monitor so he wasn’t hooked to the wall and he was SO happy and peaceful. He fell asleep!! I sat in the rocking chair and rocked him for the first time without my arms aching, or my brain reeling form 4 days without sleep worrying about dropping him while rocking him.

I thought after about the fact that I would not have been able to carry him if it were necessary to buckle strap or wrap him into a more complex carrier. They needed to be able to lift him out quickly if he had an attack and a sling made that possible in seconds.

There is no way I could have carried him in any type of pack or snugly carrier where his legs hung out. He had had so many IVs put into his legs and ankles and it was much safer for him to have his legs relaxed inside the sling.
I was told by the paediatric nurses that babies that age have a falling reflex and that when they feel their legs and arms hanging and waving free it signals their brain that they are falling. They said babies that age are much calmer and happier if inside a carrier more like being swaddled rather than limbs waving free.

We were very grateful to have our Baby Sling while our baby needed to be kept calm and recover.

My baby James just a few hours old

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 18:27:41 GMT

My baby James, itty bitty, just a few hours old. Me after 16hrs of hair raising labour - my arms hurt and I felt like my entire body had been used for a punching bag for 16 hrs. I remember wondering why face and scalp hurt so much! I needed help to walk down our stairs and my arms were too weak to hold James. This surprisingly didn’t go away for days, and I remember feeling so grateful to be able to hold him in the sling when he was crying or I wanted to snuggle him. I knew I couldn't hold him in my arms for long, and it felt so strange to leave him in another room for long after he had been part of my body for so long. It was so nice for me to be able to make that adjustment with my daughter as she realized how much of mommy was not hers any more. At least when I put him in the sling, I could tell that to her it didn't seem like I was constantly holding him -between- me and her, and at times she didn’t notice that I was holding him at all, snuggled down in the sling in the cradle hold -especially since I was able to help her with both hands. Helping her with both hands for all those things I was used to doing for her like go potty or swing on the swing was something I wouldn’t have been able to do at all if I was just holding him in my arms. I felt like it eased that first bit of time that can be so awkward, and helped to bring some peace and normal times into our days. I felt like when I put Him in the baby sling everyone was happier.

What happens when you forget your sling

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 18:26:25 GMT

Forgot my sling when I took James, now 10 mths, to the pediatrician today and was I ever frustrated! What a chore trying to hold him in my arms in the waiting room and then while I went to the washroom ( going to the washroom with him in the sling is like you don’t even have a kid compared to what I had to go through )... OH MY GOODNESS, have you ever tried holding a wild ninja baby in your arms and trying to use the washroom an then get yourself put back together, all the while, trying to not put them on the disgusting floor or let them touch Anything?! In with the Dr was the worst. Now he’s bored a squirming. I was exhausted after and then had to carry him in my arms, which felt like they were going to fall off, all the way back to the car. Insane! Of course I had taken the stroller out of the car earlier or at least I could have used that, although he wont stay in that happily for long. I’m not sure what people do without slings for 10 mth old wild babies, but it was not fun!

protects against respiratory infections

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 18:24:25 GMT

“Researchers have found that infants who are touched and carried more produce more
immunoglobin, which protects against respiratory infections. Touch improves
intellectual and motor development immediately from birth,” says Barbara Nicholson, co-founder of Attachment Parenting International. “It also helps regulate a baby’s temperature, heart rate and sleep/wake patterns, especially when baby is held skin-to-skin. These babies not only gain weight faster, but they nurse better, are calmer and are able to be more quickly soothed when they cry.”

http://www.attachmentparenting.org/pdfs/NaturalLifeBabywearing_AMcMann.pdf

BWing lifesaver for mom of High Needs Baby

Thu, 07 Oct 2010 00:29:14 GMT

My oldest was a high needs baby. Being laid down after falling asleep ended in 20 min. The only place she would sleep for a long time was snuggles against one of our bodies. Daily I strapped her on so I could get out of the house to do everything from taking a walk to getting groceries. When teething and awareness of the outside world started we added nursing difficulties to everything else. She didn't want to sit and nurse or sleep. Many days the only way I could get her to nurse was to carry her and walk back and forth in the dark hallway of our small house. I quickly became proficient in nursing anywhere and any how. I spend many of my waking hours that first year with a baby carrier attached to me for feeding, napping, or just functioning.

When I had my second child the needs of my first didn't go away and I had another to deal with! I'm certain I would have went down the road of depression if I had not been introduced to baby-wearing while I was pregnant so many years ago.

My husband started wearing the girls before I did. It has helped him connect and bond even though he only sees them on the weekends and about 3 hours during the workweek. Our youngest went though a stage where she needed daddy extra...we remembered and they spend time together through baby-wearing again. After a few times as soon as she saw he had his mowing shoes on, she ran to get the carrier.

It's been almost 4 1/2 years since we became parents and first fell in love with babywearing and we are still wearing our girls for everything for walks, shopping, to trips to the zoo and so much more.

Reconnecting and managing family life for a working mom

Débora — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 20:58:28 GMT

When you return to work, life is simply frantic. You are trying to get used to a new schedule and still keep your head above water while keeping everything ticking like clockwork.

One of things I appreciated most about babywearing is the way that is allowed me to reconnect with my youngest son when I got home from work without sacrificing the ability to take care of my eldest. I didn't have to choose between either of my children or the chores that need to tackled at the end of the day. There are many positives babywearing has added to my life, but to me, this was the biggest blessing of all.

Much Needed Sleepy Dust

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 20:08:06 GMT

Babywearing is critical to my parenting every single day. My son is 6 months old and I wear him every evening after I return to work. Together with nursing, babywearing helps us to reconnect after a long day apart and readies my son for a peaceful bedtime and a restful night of sleep.

If babywearing is important to me today, it was absolutely required right after he was born! My son was an in-arm sleeper for the first five months of his life and simply refused to nap on his own. Daddy and other caregivers could at least accommodate him with some special sleepy rocking and positioning ... but not Mommy. With Mommy, my son would nap *exclusively* in a wrap or soft structured carrier. Babywearing was the cornerstone of these months, and though he's grown out of this phase, I am already nostalgic for those naps with my son snuggled up against me, safe and sound. I can't imagine how deeply unhappy we both would have been, had we needed to "cry it out" on his own those first months. I am grateful for babywearing every day.

Babywearing Has Helped Me Transition to Motherhood

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 16:15:05 GMT

I like to say that infancy is childhood with training wheels thanks to babywearing. With my son safely in a carrier I spent the first year of his life continuing many of the activities I enjoyed as a childless adult. Going through pictures just now I spotted us traveling the world, shooting pool, and even LARPing in the woods. With a good carrier and some diapers my son and I are all set!
Now that he's becoming a toddler I can't rely on him napping just because he's tired and up on my back. I'm coming to realize just how much freedom babywearing gave me!
I still wear my son every day. It keeps him safe in parking lots, gives him a good view at the zoo, and brings him up to adult head-height so my social butterfly can learn how to be a part of the conversation. I can't imagine parenting without babywearing.

Different situations in which babywearing was a lifesaver

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 14:25:37 GMT

My first daughter was so high needs and had poor muscle tone. She reached almost 30 pounds by her first birthday and was not put down once. Okay, I exaggerate, but not much! She wanted mommy All. The. Time. It was totally overwhelming. Especially so because it took me a full 18 months to finally discover wraps, which were a total lifesaver. She was worn almost constantly until nearly 4 years old, when I got pregnant with my 2nd and just could not manage anymore. My second daughter was independent and high energy. Babywearing was a life saver because without having a way to keep her happy and still, she'd simply take off! Taking her places was dangerous! She was completely content and relaxed so long as I had her in an Ergo. Thank goodness for that because we had a lot going on with her older sister and could not afford to only stay in relatively safe situations!

Babywearing has made me a better mother

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 04:58:28 GMT

When my husband and I finally conceived after 8 years of infertility, we were over the moon in love with our son. He unfortunately was a very uncomfortable baby. It took us until he was almost a year until we figured out his allergies so that left a baby that needed to be held close constantly. Babywearing came to the rescue for us. It let me hold him close, safe and secure and was one of the few ways to calm him. He was also a late walker and hated even a second in the stroller so with babywearing it we were able to still go on trips together and do simple errands that would have been so difficult just in arms. My son was also really shy and timid and it let him come back to me in a safe, secure place when he was overwhelmed but still see the world and get new experiences. Little did I know how important it would become.

Right before he turned 4 we were blessed with a second child, a little girl. She had a 5 day NICU stay that babywearing was essential at helping us bond after. But when she was 3 months old, my son was diagnosed with cancer. We were devastated and spent weeks in the hospital. I had no privacy to nurse her and was so busy walking all over the hospital for surgery, testing, etc that I felt like I barely saw my baby but she was close in her carrier, nursing when needed and still with her mommy. My son is often weak from treatments and needs to reconnect and I can't even describe the joy he shows when he can ride on mommy or daddy's back when he needs comforting. That's priceless and can't be replaced with anything else. Babywearing has been an essential part of both my husband and my lives as a parent. It's helped make up for the years we wished we had a baby to hold. It's made me so thankful I spent so many years snuggling my son and meeting his needs since he needed that support for what he weekly faces and we face as a family. I couldn't care for my daughter as well as I have going through this without it.