Babywearing in the news

It's great to see the growing trend of stories about babywearing in the news. I hate to be too terribly picky but in this story, the mom is pictured with the Maya Wrap sling and it's just not looking quite perfect to my uber critical eye. This is a perfect example of how most people wear their babies. Please don't take offence at my critique. This is meant not in a spirit of picking but rather in a spirit of helping people understand that babywearing isn't meant to be difficult. So let me preface my critique by saying that with our older daughter, my husband and I did not know how to babywear very comfortably so we suffered (with grace) for 18 months before we discovered wraps. With my second, I am loving the Ergo baby carrier for it's simplicity and consistent comfort.


The shoulder isn't quite spread enough to be comfortable and will have a tendency to ride up to her neck. And the part where the baby sits isn't quite right - ideally, the baby's knees should be higher then his tush so he can't straighten his legs and fall right out the bottom. Now, I bet what happened is that the camera crew rushed the mom a bit and she herself wasn't thrilled with how this photo turned out because she didn't want to look like it was too difficult to position baby correctly.

There is a learning curve to any baby carrier and at first, it can be intimidating to do in public because making adjustments to get it just right might make it seem like you don't know what you're doing. Many is the time I left baby in a painful position because it just seemed to be taking too long and people were staring. Nowadays, I know what I'm doing so this is no longer the case but if I do find something wrong, I take the time to fix it.

If this nice mama showed up at one of my NINO babywearing meetings, or oh heck, even a park near me, I might walk up to her, introduce myself, and ask permission to make a few adjustments. As I learned from Tracy of Mamatoto, wearing your baby is an art that will be lost of we don't take the time to help each other, one on one.