• Babywearing facilitates bonding between the baby and the wearer.  This is a great way to get dads, partners, grandparents, and caregivers involved and connected!
   
• Younger babies often find it soothing to be worn; the experience of being worn is similar to being in the womb.  It’s like rocking a baby without having to stay in one place.
  
  
• Older babies often find it stimulating and reassuring to be up at "adult" level, where they can see what’s going on, both indoors and out.
  
  
• Babies who are worn are naturally calm in strange environments.
  
  
• Babies and caregivers are spared the ordeal of natural separation anxiety experienced when a caregiver needs to move from place to place before a baby is mobile; the baby is reassured by staying close to the parent, while the parent has no need to restrict her or his own mobility.
  
  
• Babywearing is a wonderful tool for parents who work outside the home – both as a way for parents to connect with their babies when they are home, and as a way for the caregiver to practice Attachment Parenting in their absence.
  
  
• Babywearing parents will have decreased reliance on devices that put a physical separation between infant and caregiver – strollers, carseat carriers, swings, bouncy seats, playpens, etc.  While using any of these in moderation is unlikely to cause harm, many of us committed to Attachment Parenting are concerned about parents’ increasing reliance on objects instead of loving arms.
   
• Being worn close to an adult’s center of gravity promotes healthy balance and inner ear coordination.
  
  
• Babywearing is the ultimate tool for breastfeeding in public.  With the right carrier, the only ones who will know you’re nursing are you and your baby.  (By the way, I fully endorse nursing in public while exposing as much of the breast as necessary; nursing while wearing a baby in a wrap is a failsafe strategy for nursing when more discretion may be needed [religious services, squeamish in-laws, etc.]).
  
  
• Babywearing allows you to be fully responsive to your baby’s cues for nursing – the optimal way to nurse.  Since you and your baby are always equipped to nurse at any time or place, there is no need to create a schedule for feedings that requires you to be at home.  Simply feed or comfort your baby according to her cues!
  
  
• Wearing a baby on the back can allow you to safely keep tabs on the baby during meal preparation or any other activity that does not lend itself to having a little one underfoot.
  
  
• Babywearing is the ultimate practical tool for parents of toddlers and preschoolers who also have a newborn.
   
• Babywearing is cultural enrichment for your family, since many cultures around the world have rich traditions of mothers, fathers, siblings and grandparents wearing babies.

There are very few drawbacks that come along with making a decision to wear your baby as much as possible.  However, I want to share some of the potential challenges.

Resistance. When you find that babywearing works for you and your baby, it can be challenging when spouses and other family members or caregivers resist.  The resistance can take the form of turning down opportunities to wear the baby, or it can manifest as comments about excessive frequency of babywearing, the baby’s lack of comfort being out of the carrier, or the baby being cramped or uncomfortable in the carrier.  There might be a kernel of truth in any of these comments for you, and it is important not to shoot the messenger.  For example, if my baby looks uncomfortable in a carrier, I want to know so that I can fix it!  Pay attention to tone of voice and non-verbal cues like facial expression to figure out if you have a real conflict brewing or just an attempt to be “helpful.” 

Remember that resistance is to be expected.  We live in a culture that promotes detached parenting.  Most people who might find it strange that I wear my baby and nurse her on cue would consider it perfectly normal to see a baby being bottle-fed while sitting in a stroller.  But think about it from the perspective of evolutionary biology!  Babywearing is natural and normal for our species.

Physical Limitations of Others. Sometimes, friends and family members who might otherwise be supportive of babywearing have physical limitations that prevent them from participating.  If you rely on babywearing as a primary tool, you will need to make an extra effort to facilitate your baby having special experiences with them that accommodate their physical needs.

In my opinion, the best carriers are those that are sized to a particular individual both in size and in babywearing competency, which can make it difficult to share babywearing with others.  Take, for example, my two favorite carriers:  the woven wrap and the pouch sling.  The woven wrap is somewhat complex for use by the uninitiated, and it comes in varying lengths that accommodate different body sizes, so a small person using a long wrap will end up with a lot of extra fabric (not a huge deal, but worth mentioning, since this is what I dealt with after purchasing an extra-long wrap for both my husband and myself to use, and then shortening it after 10 months).  The pouch sling is sized to the individual and will not work without a snug fit, so a small person cannot use a pouch made for a larger person, and vice versa.  In this vein, I suggest purchasing at least one carrier that is both one-size-fits-all and will be acceptable to all those who could potentially wish to participate in babywearing.  In my household, this is a frame backpack.

Strain on Your Body. At a certain point, your baby will outgrow the front carry, at least for long trips.  You will begin to feel strain throughout your body similar to the aches and pains of the last weeks of pregnancy.  There is no magic age at which this happens, since all babies grow on their own timetable, and all babywearers are different sizes, too.  For me, at 5’2” and 110 pounds, this came when my daughter weighed around 22 pounds (14 months).  I found that I could still support her weight for short stretches if we were out and she wanted to nurse, but I could no longer venture out of the house with her on my front and a backpack on my back, expecting to be gone for several hours.  This coincided with her independently becoming interested in her stroller, so in our case, we transitioned to an umbrella stroller with the wrap in the basket. We were also living in Manhattan at the time and did not have a car; I am sure that this wrap-to-stroller takes on less significance when a car is used for most excursions from the house.  I have also made an effort to practice and learn back carries with my wrap now that I no longer use it routinely for front carries.  It is still the most comfortable carrier that I own!

Getting Over the Initial Hump. Sometimes babies don’t immediately take to being worn.  My daughter cried when I first tried to wear her, and I was crushed.  I know now that she probably sensed my own insecurity and lack of comfort with the carrier I was attempting to use.   Don’t give up!  Find a babywearing group, try on different carriers, and as a last resort, give it a few weeks and then try again.

Babywearing Resources

The following three websites are an excellent starting place to learn more and check out customer reviews of various types of carriers:

• Nine In Nine Out
• MamaToto
• TheBabyWearer.com

How to Get Started with Babywearing

• Buy a pouch sling (my favorite is Slinglings) before you give birth, doing your best to guess the size you will need and returning it after the baby is born if it doesn’t fit.  This should be all you need for the first few months.  
  
  
• Resist the temptation to buy a Baby Bjorn carrier until you decide it’s really what you want.  I know that it’s the only thing you see at Babies R Us, but it’s only one type of carrier out of hundreds, and many moms who’ve tried out several carriers will tell you that it ranks low on their list.   If you want a structured carrier, I’ve heard good things about the Ergo and the Sutemi.
  
  
• Locate other babywearing parents near you.  Before spending a lot of money to buy a carrier that looks great online, it is a good idea to try it out and make sure it will work for you.  Moreover, learning to use a wrap can be much easier with a hands-on demonstration instead of a DVD.  Trust me – I learned all of this the hard way!  Yahoo groups can be a good place to start in your search for other babywearers.  In New York City, for example, there is a babywearing group that meets twice a month and has a Yahoo group where members field questions.   If you have a chapter of Attachment Parenting International in your city or town, this would be another excellent resource.  Otherwise, your local La Leche League can probably give you some support, or at least point you in a helpful direction.
   
• Check out Nine In Nine Out.  NINO (which stands for nine months in the womb, nine months worn outside of the womb) is an organization dedicated to babywearing advocacy.  Their website is a wonderful resource with tips and free demonstration videos for many different types of carriers.
  
  
• Practice, practice, practice.  It really does get easier.  The more you do it, the more this is true.  You can’t imagine what will eventually become second-nature.  If you’re having trouble, seek support.  The internet is an amazing resource!
  
  
• Read A Ride on Mother’s Back: A Day of Baby Carrying Around the World by Durga and Emery Bernhard, a beautifully-illustrated children's book on babywearing across several cultures.  This makes a terrific baby gift or source for a child’s book report, too!

Journeymama’s Favorite Baby Carriers

I feel that I have, at last, found the perfect trio of baby carriers for me:

1. Sturdy woven wrap, such as Storchenwiege or Didymous.  I have the Storchenwiege in Ulli.  This is an terrific piece of fabric.   Once you learn how to tie the wrap, it is easy.  It can accommodate all sizes of babies and parents (provided it is long enough).  Yes, it can be a bit cumbersome when going through airport security, but it’s so wonderfully comfortable that I have happily endured minor inconveniences in order to make sure I would be happily situated.  When baby is small, the front cross carry without the chest belt is the most secure “poppable” (i.e. easy to “pop” the baby in and out without taking the carrier off) carrier I know of, which makes it great for travel and for Elimination Communication.   I have used the front cross with chest belt since my daughter was about 9 months old, since I found that adding the chest belt made it more comfortable for my back.  The disadvantage of this carry is that it is not poppable, so it has to be re-wraped each time you want to put the baby in.  The advantage of this over the front cross without chest belt – in addition to the additional weight support – is that you can pick up the baby in a shorter amount of time because you can finish the wrapping while holding the baby.  As my daughter approaches age two, I mostly use the wrap to put her on my back when walking the dog, since this keeps my hands free to manage the dog rather than juggling the dog and stroller. Occasionally, even now, I can still wrap her on my front to allow her to nurse. Overall, for me, no other baby carriers even come close to a woven wrap.  Remember that you’re not buying just any old piece of fabric (though many people do make their own wraps).  These fabrics used in making the Storchenwiege and Didymous are specially designed to have precisely the right weight, support, give, grip, and smoothness.  I love the "Storch," but the Didymous is also popular.  The main difference I’ve noticed is that the Didymous fabric is a heavier weight.  Price range:  Around $100. 
   
   
2. Pouch sling.  I love the compactness and ease of use.  For me, a pouch sling is essential to have around the house when I don’t want to go through the time or extra heat of wearing a wrap, and when I need something completely poppable.  I love being able to shift my daughter from my hip to my back when I’m in the kitchen.  The pouch sling doesn’t work for me for long journeys, but I have a close friend for whom it is her main mode of transport, and I do take one with me everywhere rolled neatly in the bottom of my baby bag.  Next time around, I will definitely start out with a pouch sling for my newborn.  My new favorite pouch sling is made by Slinglings, a company with the most incredible customer service I have ever witnessed. Sara and Steve, the owners, have graciously accommodated my many requests for assistance with sizing, fabrics and more (I buy a lot of slings as baby gifts). The quality of the Slinglings pouches is outstanding, and if you want to buy more than two at once, their prices are unbeatable. For the record, I have also been a satisfied owner of four Hotslings – cotton stretch, cotton stretch sateen, fleece and waterproof Solarveil. Price range:  $40-60.
   
   
3. Frame backpack.  For reasons mentioned above, I believe in having at least one carrier that everyone in the home feels comfortable with using, and the frame backpack plays that role for our family.  It is not as snuggly as the wrap or the sling, but it allows my husband to take long walks with our daughter and our dog, and our daughter loves being high up.  Occasionally, I will use it when I need to get something done in the kitchen or walk the dog.  We have the basic Snugli backpack (it was a gift, so I didn’t do exhaustive research to identify the best frame backpack).

Reviews of Other Carriers

Ring Sling (Maya Wrap).  When I was pregnant, before I knew anything about babywearing other than that I wanted to do it, I ordered the Maya Wrap.  I thought, “Hey, I’m all ready for babywearing – I’ve got a Maya Wrap!”  Ha!  I followed the DVD that came with it at about 95% comprehension and practiced with a doll before my daughter was born.  When she arrived, I couldn’t figure it out.  She screamed when I put her in it.  The rings slipped down and dug into my shoulder bone.  I was distraught.  In desperation, I bought a…

Structured Carrier (Baby Bjorn Active Carrier).  This worked better for my daughter, insofar as she would actually let us put her in and wear her for short intervals.  But I didn’t like the fact that there was fabric in between my daughter and me, that I couldn’t nurse in the carrier, and that the older babies I saw in the Bjorn all looked like beached whales.  I was also somewhat concerned with what I’d read about the Bjorn forcing a baby to hang from her crotch, although our pediatrician (an expert in pediatric rheumatology) told me not to worry.  I kept reading online and hoping to find another alternative to the Maya Wrap.

Mei Tai Asian-style Carrier (Kozy Karrier).  This is a rectangle with four straps attached.  This product is superbly made, but I don’t love this style of carrier; I find the wrap and pouch sling much easier.  Also, until my baby’s legs were wide enough to straddle my body, I found this nearly impossible to use.  That said, some people love it, so it’s worth trying one out if you know anyone who has one.  This was the last carrier that I purchased before I connected with my local babywearing group. 

Padded Ring Sling (Pea-in-the-Pod).  This beautiful red fabric cotton padded sling was a gift, and I got a lot of use out of it – not to mention compliments on the fabric everywhere I went (a nice bonus!).  It was the beginning of my babywearing outside of the house.  I loved that there was plenty of room for my daughter to sit up in the kangaroo position, and that I could shift her to cradle when she wanted to nurse.  There was plenty of extra fabric to use if I wanted privacy for nursing.   The padding made it fairly comfortable to wear.  The downsides were that I always needed to have at least one hand/arm on my baby and I couldn’t adjust the rings easily to fit my body.  It was while wearing my baby in this sling at a nurse-in that I met the organizer of our babywearing group, and then there was no turning back…

Stretchy Wrap  (Tinoki wrap made in Israel).  This beautiful gift from close friends inaugurated my babywearing group experience.  I took it to my first meeting and asked for help.  Learning how to wrap my baby was a revelation!  This wrap must be about 8 meters long – it’s a lot of fabric.  Also, the stretchiness of the fabric made it necessary to wrap very tightly, which made it next to impossible for me to figure out how to nurse in the wrap.  After learning more about my options from the other babywearers, I decided that I was ready to take the plunge and order my Storchenwiege and Slingling.