Why Wear Your Baby?
- What is Babywearing?
- Why Wear Your Baby?
- "Slings Help Foster Bond between Baby, Parents"
- "Ready to Wear: Can a simple parenting tactic make your baby happier, smarter, and more secure?"
- "Depriving Infants of Constant Contact"
*Our love and thanks to the following authors - most especially the revered William Sears, M.D. and Martha Sears, R.N. - and publications for allowing us to share their wisdom with other parents: Linda Weber of BabyTalk Magazine; Houston Chronicle; and Nurturing Magazine*.
William Sears, M.D. and Martha Sears, R.N, "The Baby Book":
(A noted Southern California pediatrician, Dr. William Sears is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Southern California, the author of a dozen books on child care, and currently practices pediatrics in San Clemente, California. He and his wife Martha, a registered nurse and lactation consultant, are the parents of eight children. All of us at MyBabySling.Com holds Dr. Sears in the highest regard for his support of attachment parenting and highly recommends Dr. Sears' books - The Birth Book, The Baby Book, Nighttime Parenting, The Fussy Baby, The Discipline Book, and more...
"Every parent has these two simple desires: to make life easier for themselves and to make life better for their baby." -- Sears & Sears
"The womb lasts 18 months: nine months inside the mother, and nine months outside." -- Sears & Sears
"You may envision your picture-book baby lying quietly in a crib, gazing passively at dangling mobiles, and picked up only to be fed and played with and then put down; you may think that "up" periods are just dutiful intervals to quiet your baby long enough to put him down again.
"To understand babywearing, reverse this view: Carry your baby much of the time, and put him or her down for longer nap times, nighttime, and to attend to your personal needs. Allow baby to enjoy down periods and freestyle movements on the carpet, but pick her up when she signals the desire to be carried.
"You will notice an interesting contrast in behavior. "Down" babies learn to cry to get picked up; "up" babies learn non-crying body language signaling their need to get down. The amount of holding time naturally decreases as your baby increases in age and motor skills. Even your toddler, however, may show occasional high-need periods when he or she wants to be picked up and worn."
"Babywearing Organizes and Regulates Baby.
During the first nine months, the womb environment regulates baby's systems automatically. Birth temporarily disrupts this organization. By extending the womb experience, the babywearing mother (and father) provide an external regulating system that balances the irregular and disorganized tendencies of the baby.
"Babywearing Reduces Crying and Colic.
In 1986 a team of researchers in Montreal reported a study of ninety-nine mother-infant pairs, half of which were assigned to a group that was asked to carry their babies in their arms or in a carrier for at least 3 hours a day. The other group studied was asked to position their babies facing a mobile or picture of a face when placed in a crib but not to try to calm the baby by increased carrying. The infants who received supplemental carrying cried & fussed 43% less than the non-carried group.
"Babywearing Enhances Learning.
If infants spend less time crying and fussing, what do they do with their extra time and energy? Researchers have reported the following effects of babywearing and quiet alertness: carried babies show enhanced visual and auditory alertness. The behavioral state of quiet alertness also gives parents a better opportunity to interact with baby. When worn in the cradle position mom & baby are positioned face-to-face, and researchers have found the human face, especially in this position, is a potent stimulator for interpersonal bonding.
"Slings Help Foster Bond between Baby, Parents"
Houston Chronicle, October 11, 1998
Though relatively new in the U.S., baby-wearing spans cultures and generations. Anthropologist Meredith Small (Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent) notes that baby-wearing is the norm in much of the world.
"In most cultures - and over most of human history - babies spend almost all their time carried in a sling on the side or back of adults. In this position, babies see the world as adults do; the rhythm of adult walking is also physically soothing."
Catherine Dundon, M.D., of Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, Nashville, says "the idea of spoiling is garbage…I don't think that anyone spoils a child by meeting his need for human touch or contact in the first year or two. If you meet that need, you'll get a calmer, more secure child."
"Ready to Wear: Can a simple parenting tactic make your baby happier, smarter, and more secure?"
BabyTalk Magazine, September 1997
"By instilling a sense of security, babywearing can foster the bond between parent and child while stimulating the baby's development.
"For a newborn, birth is a kind of paradise lost. After an abrupt and wrenching separation from her mother's body, a baby must cope with a barrage of strange stimuli. So it's no wonder that she may be comforted by anything that approximates pre-birth sensations.
"The sling is like an outside womb. It recreates the feeling of being contained," says Dr. Sears. While a baby is enveloped in this womb-like environment, she can once again move with her mother's familiar gait and hear the comforting sounds she listened to in the womb.
"Susan Ludington-Hoe, Ph.D., Professor of Maternal and Child Health at University of Maryland at Baltimore School of Nursing, says these sounds are particularly important. 'When she snuggles close to your chest, the reverberations your baby picks up - the timbre of your voice, the whoosh of air as your chest expands and contracts, the rhythmic thud of your heartbeat - can create a state called "entrainment." Entrainment helps baby's heartbeat and breathing, which tend to be fast and irregular (especially in newborns, preemies, and babies who are distressed and crying), slow down and go into sync with the parent's.
"Some or all of these memory-jogging sensations can also lull a baby into a form of deep sleep known as the "quiet sleep state." Brain maturation takes place during this uninterrupted form of slumber, says Ludington-Hoe. And because a baby's brain grows phenomenally - from 25% of its adult weight at birth to 50% at six months and 90% at one year - it's crucial that babies get enough of this regenerative down time.
"Anthropologists, pediatricians, and child psychologists who've traveled to countries where babywearing is second nature have remarked on another apparent advantage to this practice: these infants seem to cry less than our own. Scientific studies have borne out these observations."
"Depriving Infants of Constant Contact"
Nurturing Magazine
"Babywearing with a sling it's an inexpensive investment in the health, development and happiness of an infant, and every parent should have one and use it daily for at least the first two years of their infant's life.
"Babies spend a glorious nine months in constant movement from the security and warmth of their mother's womb. They thrive after birth in a similar environment, close to the parent's body, in a semi-vertical or vertical position so they can see the world around them, yet secure enough in the constant presence of their parents that they are not overwhelmed or over stimulated by the loudness of the world they've been born into.
"We want to encourage parents to look towards the care and nurturing of their child and enjoy and treasure the happy moments of smiling down at their content and alert, non-crying infant snuggled happily against their chest in an infant sling."
Home | Sling Features
| Fabric Selections |
FAQ's
Why Wear Your Baby? | Customer Comments |
Sling Orders
Other Items to Order | Some More Photos
|
In The News |
Links & More