Why baby wearing can make life easier (not harder)

Getting in sync with your baby makes life easier, not harder

The science tells us clearly that

• Being (more or less) in sync with your baby helps make your life in these incredibly demanding early weeks and months easier, not harder. When a woman and her baby aren't able to get in sync together emotionally and physically (whether it's with sleep, or breastfeeding, or because the baby cries alot), she is more likely to find herself dealing with the challenge of postnatal depression. This can be true for fathers or other carers too.

• Getting in sync at the very beginning sets your little one on a healthy trajectory towards independence and self-regulation, as childhood progresses. Problems with getting in sync early on can actually make it harder for children to learn self-regulation as they develop, which of course can make family life harder overall, too.

• Getting in sync is a very physical thing. It involves your body, your sleep, your breastfeeding (if you are able to breastfeed) and the way physical closeness affects your nervous system and your hormones, including oxytocin. It also involves your baby's body, her sleep, her feeds, and the way physical closeness affects her nervous system and her hormones.

Baby wearing is one powerful way of getting in sync with your baby. There is an article on four ways to baby wear easily from birth here, and how to use baby carriers safely from birth here.

Keeping a physical distance from your baby a lot of the time was once viewed as best for you and best for baby, but this is outdated

There was a time when health professionals in the West worried that carrying or wearing the baby would make mothers even more tired. This is why our health systems warned against too much physical contact, or advised physical distancing between mothers and babies, for example, with sleep. Not so long ago, health professionals and researchers believed that keeping quite a lot of physical distance from baby

• Protected the mother when she didn't have much help or support

• Was best for baby's development, because it helped baby become independent just as soon as possible.

Yet all the new neuroscience, sleep science and lactation science tell us that that these beliefs are outdated. It's actually the other way around. Getting in sync with your baby is easiest for you, and best for your baby.

Why wearing your baby doesn't make you more tired, but makes life easier

The research shows that baby wearing is good for parents and carers because it allows for

• Less metabolic energy use, compared to carrying your baby in arms

• Easy, incidental responses and communications, without you having to try (which helps you feel bonded with your baby)

• Multi-tasking (because your hands are more or less free).

One great thing about baby wearing is that it can be provided by various loving adults, whether it is your baby's other parent, grandparents, carers, or friends and people who care about your family. Even older siblings might help out, depending on their age. In the three decades since I had my own babies, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of parents out on the streets, in cafes, at parkruns, at community events who wear their baby in a carrier.

You can find out about wearing your baby safely and in a way that protects your own back and shoulders here.

Why wearing your baby is good for your baby

It's not always possible to have your baby in a carrier. It's also not always possible to be holding your baby. Life with a baby is very much about workability, not perfection! But the research does tell us that babies who spend plenty of time held up close to a carer's body in some kind of carrying device have

• Less crying

• Better motor development

• Better hip development

• Better breastfeeding

• More incidental responses and interactions with a parent, which results in improved

  • Bonding

  • Language development.

It also seems likely that wearing or holding your newborn as much as you and other carers sensibly can from birth lessens the chance of a flat spot on the back of your baby's skull, though this hasn't been been investigated in studies yet.

Why is babywearing an easy way to support your baby's motor development and meet your baby's sensory motor needs?

There are three main ways wearing your baby is good for her development. Of course, if you're not one to baby wear, that's ok, she will meet these needs in other ways. But many parents find that lots of baby wearing makes everything simpler.

1. Evolutionary anthropologists propose that tools to carry infants (that is, slings or carrying devices) must have been developed around the time our ancestors stood on two feet. The dialling down of the baby which occurs when carers walk either holding or wearing a baby is explained in evolutionary biology as the 'transport response'. Biologically, the human baby expects to be carried up close to a loving carer's body to dial down physiologically, for easy nurturance of motor development, and to feel safe.

2. Against your body, your baby has the opportunity to constantly adjust in tiny ways against gravity as you move around. You can find out about this here.

3. When your baby makes a movement against your body, no matter how small, she encounters sensory feedback. There is a big difference in the sensory input received by a baby who is lying on a mat or mattress, and a baby who is held up close to a loving adult body. Against you, he not only hears your heartbeat, your voice, your breathing, he feels your heartbeat, your voice, your breathing as vibrations or movement. He feels your warmth. He inhales your scent.

This is why babies are usually so much more dialled down in a carrier, snuggled up against you, soaking in the rich sensory nourishment of you, delighting in the visual kaleidoscope of colours and shapes which change constantly as you move with her through your world.

Recommended resources

BWBSS Aussie Babywearing Support Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/groups/BWBSSsupport/

Four ways of carring your baby from birth which make life easier not harder

How to use baby carriers safely from birth

What is sensory motor nourishment and why does it help with baby sleep?

Filling your baby's sensory tank

What your baby needs for best possible motor development

About positional plagiocephaly and motor development

The NDC evolutionary perspective on positional plagiocephaly, motor development and sleep

The holistic NDC or Possums 8-step approach to supporting baby's motor development

Selected references

Berecz B, Cyrille M, Casselbrant U, Oleksak S, Norholt H. Carrying human infants - an evolutionary heritage. Infant Behavior and Development. 2020;60:101460.

Bilgin A, Heinonen K, Girchenko P, Kajantie A. Early childhood multiple or persistent regulatory problems and diurnal salivary cortisol in young adulthood. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2024;161:106940.

Conde-Agudelo A, L D-RJ. Kangaroo mother care to reduce morbidity and mortality in low birthweight infants. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2016;2017(8):CD002771.

Cook F, Giallo R, Hiscock H, Mensah FK, Sanchez K, Reilly S. Infant regulation and child mental health concerns: a longitudinal study. Pediatics. 2019;143(3):e20180977.

De Barbaro K, Micheletti M, Khante P. Infant crying predicts real-time fluctuations in maternal mental health in ecologically valid home settings. Developmental Psychology. 2023;59(4):733-744.

Esposito G, Yoshida S, Ohnishi R, Tsuneoka Y, Rostagno MdC, Yokota S, et al. Infant calming responses during maternal carrying in humans and mice. Current Biology. 2013;23:739-745.

Firk C, Grossheinrich N. Infant carrying: associations with parental reflective functioning, parental bonding and parental responses to infant crying. Infant Mental Health Journal. 2024:DOI: 10.1002/imhj.22106.

Hunziker UA, Barr RG. Increased carrying reduces infant crying: a randomized controlled trial. Pediatrics. 1986;77(5):641-648.

Little EE, Legare CH, Carver LJ. Culture, carrying, and communication: beliefs and behavior associated with babywearing. Infant Behavior and Development. 2019;57:101320.

Moore ER, Berman N, Anderson GC, Medley N. Early skin-to-skin contact for mothers and their healthy newborn infants. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2016 Issue 11. Art.No.CD003519. DOI:10.1002/14651858.CD14003519.pub14651854.

Minckas N, Medvedev MM, Adejuyigbe EA. Preterm care during the COVID-19 pandemic: a comparative risk analysis of neonatal deaths averted by kangaroo mother care versus mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 infection. EClinicalMedicine. 2021;33:100733.

Riem M, ME, Lotz AM, Horstman LI. A soft baby carrier intervention enhances amygdala responses to infant crying in fathers: A randomized controlled trial. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2021;132:105380.

Rudzik A, Robinson-Smith L, Tugwell F, Ball H. Relationships between postpartum depression, sleep, and infant feeding in the early postpartum: an exploratory analysis. Frontiers in Psychiatry. 2023;14: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1133386.

Sidharthan S, Kehoe C, Dodwell EP-NPtBWtOSNtK. Post-natal positioning through babywearing: what the orthopaedic surgeon needs to know. Journal of the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America. 2020;2(3): https://doi.org/10.55275/JPOSNA-52020-55131

Wall-Scheffler CM, Geiger K, L S-NK. Infant carrying: the role of increased locomotory costs in early tool development. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 2007;133:841-846.

Williams KE, Berthelsen D, Walker S, Nicholson JM. A Developmental Cascade Model of behavioral sleep problems and emotional and attentional self-regulation across early childhood. Behav Sleep Med. 2017;15(1):1-21.

Winsper C, Wolke D. Infant and toddler crying, sleeping and feeding problems and trajectories of dysregulated behavior across childhood. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. 2014;42(5):831-843.

Yuen M, Hall OJ, Masters B. The effects of breastfeeding on maternal mental health: a systematic review. J Womens Health. 2022;31(6):DOI: 10.1089/jwh.2021.0504.