5+1 reasons to wear your baby
Babywearing—carrying your baby on you in an ergonomic soft carrier—has been gaining ground rapidly in recent years. More and more new parents are turning to babywearing and insist that “they couldn’t have managed without it”!
Let’s look at some of the main reasons why:
1. It’s practical!
You can go with your baby where strollers can’t go—up stairs, through narrow or rotating doors, into small elevators, across sand or grassy parks! Your hands are free to push the shopping cart, hold your dog’s leash, or guide your older child by the hand. It’s super easy to get in and out of your car without dragging out a heavy stroller from the trunk each time! Don’t you just love that kind of freedom?
Bonus benefit: It’s also budget-friendly! With a good carrier, you might not even need to buy a bassinet or stroller. They’re not necessarily mutually exclusive—many parents use both. But plenty of others never bought a stroller because they realized they didn’t need it!
2. You’ll communicate better with your baby!
In the carrier, your baby sees your face up close—your expressions, how your lips move when you speak, how your eyes change when you laugh. Through your reactions, your baby learns to smile, express relief or discomfort, and recognize what’s safe or risky in their environment. And you’ll notice every little movement—when they tense up, get annoyed, or fully relax.
Bonus benefit: babywearing makes breastfeeding incredibly easier!
3. It’s good for your baby!
Of course you want the best for your baby. Why not give them the best possible start to learn easily, be happy, and build healthy relationships as they grow? It’s been proven (e.g., in the Romanian orphanage studies) that children who were emotionally neglected (even when their physical needs were met) developed smaller brains than those raised with love and affection. The prefrontal cortex (the area responsible for social behavior and personality) was not equally developed[1]. Similarly, a baby’s brain is permanently affected by the constant presence of cortisol (the stress hormone).
Bonus benefit: babywearing helps premature or low birth weight babies gain weight faster!
4. It’s good for you!
Having your baby close to you is the best way to ease your worries, feel calmer, regulate your hormones and avoid—or recover more easily from—those “baby blues” that many new moms go through! And let’s not forget how good it is for you to walk, to get out of the house more easily, and to stop feeling stuck on the couch and dependent on others around you for help.
Bonus benefit: walking while gradually carrying more weight, perfectly distributed close to your body, is great exercise! 💪
5. Peace and quiet!
You can’t bear the sound of your baby crying, right? Calm is something both you and your family really need during this time. Babies cry when we leave them. Separation from their parent causes strong protest—they cry and suffer. They ask for our attention in the only way they know how. Even if your baby isn’t hungry, cold, or hot, they’re telling you they need something else just as important: to feel safe, to not feel lonely or abandoned.
Bonus benefit: babywearing is the most valuable tool for soothing (and even preventing!) colic!
And one last point: Babywearing is in our nature!
Our babies need it! No, we’re not “spoiling” our babies, and no, they’re not being “manipulative” when they ask for our arms. It’s a basic need and a primal instinct. Don’t listen to those who say you’re “spoiling” the baby! For nine months, your baby learned to feel you, hear you, and have you whenever they needed you. They were born already knowing how to be held in your arms!
Read more about this in the article “Why holding our babies in our arms is natural.”
[1] Gerhardt S. Why Love Matters: How Affection Shapes a Baby’s Brain. Routledge: New York, 2004
