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Benefits of Babywearing
Here are some excerpts on the importance and benefits of babywearing from Dr. Sears' website. There are two parts presented here: how it got started and, further down the page, the benefits of babywearing For more information please click on the link above to his website AskDr.Sears.com
WHAT BABYWEARING MEANS: OUR STORY
I would like to introduce you to a style of parenting which will bring out the best in your baby and yourself. During my thirty years as a pediatrician, parents in our practice would often say, "As long as I carry my baby she's content." After years of watching a whole parade of babywearers we dubbed these thriving infants "sling babies." Many kids ago we noticed that the more we carried our babies the less they cried. With each baby, we began carrying them more and more. By the time baby number six, Mathew, entered the family we wanted to become more experienced at wearing our babies.
Because we noticed that cultures throughout the world carried their babies in homemade slings we began fabricating different styles of slings to carry Mathew. I remember one day when Martha fabricated a sling out of material from an old bed sheet and said, "I really enjoy wearing Mathew. The sling is like a piece of clothing. I put it on in the morning and take it off in the evening." Hence the term "babywearing" was born in the Sears household.
Since that time we have worn two more infants, Steven and Lauren, and over the past fifteen years have encouraged hundreds of parents in our pediatric practice to wear their babies, as well as promoted the art and science of babywearing in our many articles and books. Since 1985, when we began our personal study on the beneficial effects of babywearing on babies and their parents, we have logged many miles wearing our own babies and have continued to advise this style of parenting in our pediatric practice. At their baby's first check up, we show new parents how to wear their baby. During this personal course on babywearing, we advise parents to experiment with various training positions to find the one that is most comfortable and allows the baby to mold to the contour of the parent's body. I encourage parents in our practice to wear instead of wheel their babies.
Babywearing means changing your mindset of what babies are really like. New parents often envision babies as lying quietly in a crib, gazing passively at dangling mobiles and picked up and carried only to be fed and played with and then put down. You may think that "up" periods are just dutiful intervals to quiet you baby long enough to put him down again. Babywearing reverses this view. Carry your baby in a sling many hours a day, and then put her down for sleep times and tend to your personal needs.
THE BENEFITS OF BABYWEARING
1. Sling babies cry less. Parents in my practice commonly report, "As long as I wear her, she's content!" Parents of fussy babies who try babywearing relate that their babies seem to forget to fuss. This is more than just my own impression. In 1986, a team of pediatricians in Montreal reported on a study of ninety-nine mother-infant pairs. The first group of parents were provided with a baby carrier and assigned to carry their babies for at least three extra hours a day. They were encouraged to carry their infants throughout the day, regardless of the state of the infant, not just in response to crying or fussing. In the control, or noncarried group, parents were not given any specific instructions about carrying. After six weeks, the infants who received supplemental carrying cried and fussed 43 percent less than the noncarried group.
Anthropologists who travel throughout the world studying infant-care practices in other cultures agree that infants in babywearing cultures cry much less. In Western culture we measure a baby's crying in hours, but in other cultures, crying is measured in minutes. We have been led to believe that it is "normal" for babies to cry a lot, but in other cultures this is not accepted as the norm. In these cultures, babies are normally "up" in arms and are put down only to sleep – next to the mother. When the parent must attend to her own needs, the baby is in someone else's arms.
2. Sling babies learn more. If infants spend less time crying and fussing, what do they do with the free time? They learn! Sling babies spend more time in the state of quiet alertness . This is the behavioral state in which an infant is most content and best able to interact with his environment. It may be called the optimal state of learning for a baby. Researchers have also reported that carried babies show enhanced visual and auditory alertness.
The behavioral state of quiet alertness also gives parents a better opportunity to interact with their baby. Notice how mother and baby position their faces in order to achieve this optimal visually interactive plane. The human face, especially in this position, is a potent stimulator for interpersonal bonding. In the kangaroo carry, baby has a 180-degree view of her environment and is able to scan her world. She learns to choose, picking out what she wishes to look at and shutting out what she doesn't. This ability to make choices enhances learning. A sling baby learns a lot in the arms of a busy caregiver.
3. Sling babies are more organized. It's easier to understand babywearing when you think of a baby's gestation as lasting eighteen months – nine months inside the womb and at least nine more months outside. The womb environment automatically regulates baby's systems. Birth temporarily disrupts this organization. The more quickly, however, baby gets outside help with organizing these systems, the more easily he adapts to the puzzle of life outside the womb. By extending the womb experience, the babywearing mother (and father) provides an external regulating system that balances the irregular and disorganized tendencies of the baby. Picture how these regulating systems work. Mother's rhythmic walk, for example, (which baby has been feeling for nine months) reminds baby of the womb experience. This familiar rhythm, imprinted on baby's mind in the womb, now reappears in the "outside womb" and calms baby. As baby places her ear against her mother's chest, mother's heartbeat, beautifully regular and familiar, reminds baby of the sounds of the womb. As another biological regulator, baby senses mother's rhythmic breathing while worn tummy- to-tummy, chest-to-chest. Simply stated, regular parental rhythms have a balancing effect on the infant's irregular rhythms. Babywearing "reminds" the baby of and continues the motion and balance he enjoyed in the womb.
Here are some excerpts on the importance and benefits of babywearing from Dr. Sears' website. There are two parts presented here: how it got started and, further down the page, the benefits of babywearing For more information please click on the link above to his website AskDr.Sears.com
WHAT BABYWEARING MEANS: OUR STORY
I would like to introduce you to a style of parenting which will bring out the best in your baby and yourself. During my thirty years as a pediatrician, parents in our practice would often say, "As long as I carry my baby she's content." After years of watching a whole parade of babywearers we dubbed these thriving infants "sling babies." Many kids ago we noticed that the more we carried our babies the less they cried. With each baby, we began carrying them more and more. By the time baby number six, Mathew, entered the family we wanted to become more experienced at wearing our babies.
Because we noticed that cultures throughout the world carried their babies in homemade slings we began fabricating different styles of slings to carry Mathew. I remember one day when Martha fabricated a sling out of material from an old bed sheet and said, "I really enjoy wearing Mathew. The sling is like a piece of clothing. I put it on in the morning and take it off in the evening." Hence the term "babywearing" was born in the Sears household.
Since that time we have worn two more infants, Steven and Lauren, and over the past fifteen years have encouraged hundreds of parents in our pediatric practice to wear their babies, as well as promoted the art and science of babywearing in our many articles and books. Since 1985, when we began our personal study on the beneficial effects of babywearing on babies and their parents, we have logged many miles wearing our own babies and have continued to advise this style of parenting in our pediatric practice. At their baby's first check up, we show new parents how to wear their baby. During this personal course on babywearing, we advise parents to experiment with various training positions to find the one that is most comfortable and allows the baby to mold to the contour of the parent's body. I encourage parents in our practice to wear instead of wheel their babies.
Babywearing means changing your mindset of what babies are really like. New parents often envision babies as lying quietly in a crib, gazing passively at dangling mobiles and picked up and carried only to be fed and played with and then put down. You may think that "up" periods are just dutiful intervals to quiet you baby long enough to put him down again. Babywearing reverses this view. Carry your baby in a sling many hours a day, and then put her down for sleep times and tend to your personal needs.
THE BENEFITS OF BABYWEARING
1. Sling babies cry less. Parents in my practice commonly report, "As long as I wear her, she's content!" Parents of fussy babies who try babywearing relate that their babies seem to forget to fuss. This is more than just my own impression. In 1986, a team of pediatricians in Montreal reported on a study of ninety-nine mother-infant pairs. The first group of parents were provided with a baby carrier and assigned to carry their babies for at least three extra hours a day. They were encouraged to carry their infants throughout the day, regardless of the state of the infant, not just in response to crying or fussing. In the control, or noncarried group, parents were not given any specific instructions about carrying. After six weeks, the infants who received supplemental carrying cried and fussed 43 percent less than the noncarried group.
Anthropologists who travel throughout the world studying infant-care practices in other cultures agree that infants in babywearing cultures cry much less. In Western culture we measure a baby's crying in hours, but in other cultures, crying is measured in minutes. We have been led to believe that it is "normal" for babies to cry a lot, but in other cultures this is not accepted as the norm. In these cultures, babies are normally "up" in arms and are put down only to sleep – next to the mother. When the parent must attend to her own needs, the baby is in someone else's arms.
2. Sling babies learn more. If infants spend less time crying and fussing, what do they do with the free time? They learn! Sling babies spend more time in the state of quiet alertness . This is the behavioral state in which an infant is most content and best able to interact with his environment. It may be called the optimal state of learning for a baby. Researchers have also reported that carried babies show enhanced visual and auditory alertness.
The behavioral state of quiet alertness also gives parents a better opportunity to interact with their baby. Notice how mother and baby position their faces in order to achieve this optimal visually interactive plane. The human face, especially in this position, is a potent stimulator for interpersonal bonding. In the kangaroo carry, baby has a 180-degree view of her environment and is able to scan her world. She learns to choose, picking out what she wishes to look at and shutting out what she doesn't. This ability to make choices enhances learning. A sling baby learns a lot in the arms of a busy caregiver.
3. Sling babies are more organized. It's easier to understand babywearing when you think of a baby's gestation as lasting eighteen months – nine months inside the womb and at least nine more months outside. The womb environment automatically regulates baby's systems. Birth temporarily disrupts this organization. The more quickly, however, baby gets outside help with organizing these systems, the more easily he adapts to the puzzle of life outside the womb. By extending the womb experience, the babywearing mother (and father) provides an external regulating system that balances the irregular and disorganized tendencies of the baby. Picture how these regulating systems work. Mother's rhythmic walk, for example, (which baby has been feeling for nine months) reminds baby of the womb experience. This familiar rhythm, imprinted on baby's mind in the womb, now reappears in the "outside womb" and calms baby. As baby places her ear against her mother's chest, mother's heartbeat, beautifully regular and familiar, reminds baby of the sounds of the womb. As another biological regulator, baby senses mother's rhythmic breathing while worn tummy- to-tummy, chest-to-chest. Simply stated, regular parental rhythms have a balancing effect on the infant's irregular rhythms. Babywearing "reminds" the baby of and continues the motion and balance he enjoyed in the womb.