Baby Wearing and Bonding with Baby
So many middle-aged women are fascinated with my baby in her carrier. They twitter over it, exclaiming how great an invention it is, and how they definitely should have had them back when they had babies. Indeed my carrier is a great thing. I love it. It is indispensible, and I wouldn’t be able to nurture my daughter as much as possible without it. But ‘they’ certainly did have baby carriers ‘back then.’ Babies have been carried on their mothers’ bodies for as long as humans have existed on this planet. Baby wearing is certainly not a novel concept.
Biologically, humans are the sort of primates that carry their young on their bodies rather than stow them in the nest while they are out and about. Because of our bipedal nature, infants are born less neurologically developed than other primates. In humans, the gestational period doesn’t actually end at 9 ½ months but rather extends outside of the uterus for at least another nine months, making human gestation a total of at least 18 months from conception. At the end of the true gestation human babies are beginning to crawl and are typically at the level of neurological and muscular development that our closest relatives, the great apes are at their physical birth. Carrying your child on your body helps to continue and maximize the close, womb-like nature for several months past the actual birth of your baby.
Baby wearing does many good things for the baby-mother pair. It gives mothers the use of two hands to get things done. It saves time. Despite what the baby-toy companies would like mothers to believe it isn’t babies’ nature to be entertained. They would rather be in the midst of their mothers’ daily activities, observing them from her view level. Worn babies spend much of their time in quiet observation while their mothers go about their day. They have easy, frequent access to the breast (and studies have shown that primates that carry their babies on their bodies have the longest breastfeeding duration) thereby nurturing a healthy breastfeeding relationship. Babies feel secure next to their mothers’ heartbeats and rocked by their motion. Baby wearing helps calm a fussy child, and is an easy way to get an over-stimulated baby to sleep.
Many feel that wearing a baby most of the day will create a child who is overly-attached to his mother. First of all, that premise is actually not a bad thing. Mother is baby’s life-source and his protector. It makes sense that a young child would need to have that close physical contact for his very survival. However, it really is not the case that a baby who is worn much of the time becomes clingy. It truly is the opposite. Wearing your baby creates a child who is secure in his trust of you and allows the child to make his own ventures into independence, rather than forcing it upon him.
Our western consumerist culture has led parents to think that they need a plethora of baby gear to make their lives easier. Cribs, prams, swings, bassinets, bouncy seats, walkers, exer-saucers, and jumper harnesses- how can such a list of items make one’s life easier? They just complicate things. They also shrink one’s wallet. The only necessary item needed (besides a car seat) is a baby carrier. Parents switch baby from contraption to contraption in an attempt to pacify him. An infant doesn’t want to be enclosed in cold plastic but seeks the rightness that he feels cradled next to the warmth of his mother’s body. Baby wearing makes him feel right and proper. It is in his mother’s arms that an infant is made to thrive best.
