Do you know the facts on babywearing?
- In the wearing of newborns in particular, the mothers’ oxytocin levels are increased through the physical contact with the infant, leading to a more intimate maternal bond, easier breastfeeding and better care, thus lowering the incidence of post partum depression and psycho somatic in the mother; similarly, the father carrying the baby has benefits for the paternal bond.
- Infants who are carried are generally calmer because all of their primal/survival needs are met. The caregiver can be seen, heard, smelled, touched, tasted, provide feeding and the motion necessary for continuing neural development gastrointestinal and respiratory health and to establish balance (inner ear development) and muscle tone is constant.
Parental rhythms (walking, heartbeat, etc.) can have balancing and soothing effects on infants.
- Babies are closer to people and can study facial expressions, learn languages faster and be familiar with body language
- Independence is established earlier.
- Attachment between child and caregiver is more secure.
- Decreases risk of positional plagiocephaly (“flat head syndrome”) caused by extended time spent in a car seat and by sleeping on the back. Sleeping on the back is recommended to decrease the risk of SIDS ( Sudden Infant death Syndrome) Cranial distortion resulting from non-vehicular time in car seats has shown to be more severe than in children who develop plagiocephaly from back-lying on a mattress. Concern over plagiocephaly has also led the American Academy of Pediatrics to recommend that infants “should spend minimal time in car seats (when not a passenger in a vehicle) or other seating that maintains supine positioning.” None of the babywearing positions require infants to lie supine while being carried. Infants can even be worn while they sleep, also decreasing sleeping time spent in a supine position.
Studies of parent-child attachment, parental satisfaction and infant crying all point to babywearing as an ideal solution for parents to provide an optimum environment for attachment between parent and child. Baby carriers and slings help increase the number of hours a day an infant is held, and there is an inverse relationship between the number of hours spent crying and the number of hours a child is held in a given day. Even three hours per day of babywearing reduces infant crying significantly, and at 13 months, babies who have been in soft carriers regularly are significantly more likely to be securely attached than babies who are carried in hard carriers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babywearing
http://www.schoolofbabywearing.com/Images/TICKS.pdf
- http://babywearinginternational.org/pages/safety.php
- http://babywearinginternational.org/pages/InfantSlingSafety.php
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