Babies who are carried in a sling cry 43 per cent less overall than those who are not
WALK THROUGH any shopping centre and you are likely to see at least one mother pushing an empty buggy and carrying a baby who just doesn't want to be put down.
"I was that mother," says Sarah Lynch, whose nine-month-old daughter Freya never liked being in a buggy. "I spent a grand on a buggy and have not used it in four months. She likes to be carried and be at face level with me."
When Lynch was pregnant, she was interested in the idea of strapping the baby to her but it was only through discussion boards on parenting websites that she found out this was called "babywearing".
Of course that's just a new-fangled name for a centuries-old tradition. It is common in many Third World cultures, where mothers don't have the luxury of maternity leave and are expected to get on with their lives hours after giving birth.
Lynch bought a couple of pouches but, in hindsight, she says they didn't fit her and she did not use them when Freya was born.
"At the beginning she was very clingy and colicky but I didn't have a carrier I liked," says Lynch. "She just wanted to be on top of me on the couch."
Then Lynch discovered the new website of Babywearing Ireland, which supports parents who want to carry their babies, whether in a sling, pouch, carrier or wrap. It organises meet-ups around the State for interested parents and operates a "sling library" through which they can test the wide range of options available.
The wrong type of carrier, or an ill-fitting one, is not only uncomfortable for parent and baby but could also cause long-term physical damage to both. So it's important to get the right advice and choose carefully.
If the carer has any shoulder, neck or back problems, it's important that the sling they wear is appropriate for them and that it distributes the weight evenly, says Judy Mahon, chairwoman of the chartered physiotherapists in paediatrics clinical interest group.
"Provided the sling is fitted correctly, it is a better distribution of weight than, say, on one side when carrying the baby in a car seat."
Whatever sling you wear it must provide sufficient support relative to the age of the baby. "You want to make sure weight is distributed through the baby's hips and along the thighs, rather than just through the posterior," she adds. "The older they are, the more postural control they have and they will be able to shift their own weight."
Very dedicated babywearers will use slings and wraps as long as other people use buggies - until the child can walk a reasonable distance. But, even with the best-designed carrier, lugging around a three- or four-year-old must be hard work.
When Freya was nearly three months old, Lynch went to a babywearing meet-up and, with the help of more experienced parents, found a sling that she liked. "It changed my life," she says. "I am able to do things!
"I was able to leave the house. Before when we took her in the buggy, we wouldn't get five minutes down the road and she would get upset. It wasn't fun."
Once Lynch started using a sling, Freya became a contented baby. "She hardly ever cries now and people say she is a lovely, placid child."
Canadian research shows that extra carrying of babies markedly reduces the amount they cry.
Six weeks of age is the peak time for normal crying by babies (in industrialised societies) and the Montreal trial found that infants who receive extra carrying, in addition to that for feeding and in response to crying, fuss and cry 43 per cent less overall.
During the hours 4pm to midnight, when babies cry and fuss most, it is 51 per cent less. Similar but smaller decreases occur in babies at four, eight and 12 weeks of age.
Psychologist Dr Kate Byrne, co-founder of Babywearing Ireland and mother of seven children aged 18 to two, was introduced to the idea when living in South Africa, where many women carry their babies in slings.
"A lot of the anxiety of being a new mum goes because your baby is there and you know what is going on," she says. "You are responding to their needs instinctively because they are close to you.
"You get to know them a lot better."
A reduction in crying is a big thing for new mothers, she says, giving them more confidence in what they're doing. Being carried can also help babies keep milk down.
"I have had a couple of serious pukers. I didn't wind them. You just feed them, put them in a sling upright and they don't puke."
She is still comfortable carrying her youngest child Tadhg, who is now two and goes on her back. It enables her to get on with her busy life, knowing he is safe.
Being carried up high also benefits the child, points out Byrne, who lives in Celbridge, Co Kildare. "They are nearly by your face, watching and learning from facial reactions and social interactions. You see a hell of a lot more up by someone's face than down by someone's crotch."
Research published last month on the psychological effects of buggies would seem to back this up. A study commissioned by the National Literacy Trust in Britain found that children in front-facing varieties are significantly less likely to talk, laugh and interact with their parents than those in buggies that face the pusher.
The results of a smaller study by the same research team indicated that babies' average heart rates fell slightly in a parent-facing buggy, and babies were also twice as likely to fall asleep in this orientation, suggesting they may be more stressed when in away-facing buggies.
It makes sense to conclude that putting a baby in a sling, where s/he can not only see the parent but also feel the body heat and the heart beat, would be even better than a parent-facing buggy.
Suzanne Zeedyk of Dundee University's school of psychology, who carried out the research, told the Guardian: "If babies are spending significant amounts of time in a baby buggy that undermines their ability to communicate with their parent, at an age when the brain is developing more than it will ever again, then this has to impact negatively on their development."
When IT engineer James Burke's wife, Erika Csibi, decided to try babywearing after their first child, Alexandra, was born, he thought it was a passing fad. "I had seen a lot of non-Irish people wearing them and I thought that was their culture, I never thought of it as something Irish people do."
Two years later he swears by baby slings and he was one of the key speakers at the first national babywearing conference in Portlaoise last month.
He thinks more people should know about babywearing and consider it, especially men who might be more reluctant than their partners. "Anything that allows you to be close to your child is fantastic. Either you want to bond with your children or you don't."
He also points out how handy it is: "The ultimate hands-free kit." And he's not averse to the "Oh my God that's so cute" remarks he often receives when he's out and about with his daughter.
Burke advises prospective babywearers to talk to people who are using slings, rather than selling them. His wife is a committee member of Babywearing Ireland and they have hosted meet-ups in their Blackrock home in Co Dublin "for four or five hours at a time".
About an hour of talking about slings is enough for the men, he admits: "Then we stand outside and talk Star Warsand computers!"
• For more information, see babywearingireland.com
swayman@irish-times.ie
US firms suffer wrath of babywearing brigade
You don't mess with the babywearing community, as the US manufacturer of the painkiller Motrin found to its cost.
Within hours of putting an advert on its website last month that portrayed a babywearing mother apparently in need of its product, hordes of mummy bloggers were typing their outrage into cyber space.
The offending 20-second advert featured a female voiceover referring to how "wearing your baby seems to be in fashion" and is a "good idea in theory".
It continued: "They say that babies carried close to the body tend to cry less than others. But what about me? Do moms that wear their babies cry more than those who don't. I sure do!
"These things put a ton of strain on your back, your neck, your shoulders . . . I mean, I'll put up with the pain because it's a good kind of pain; it's for my kid. Plus, it totally makes me look like an official mom. And so if I look tired and crazy, people will understand why."
The online mothers were highly indignant at the suggestion that they carry their babies to be "fashionable" and at the idea that they look "crazy", not to mention the undermining of the whole idea of babywearing. They called for a boycott of the brand and alerted the mainstream media.
Within less than 48 hours, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the maker of Motrin, took the advertisement down from its website, and posted a grovelling message from its vice-president and "mom of three daughters", Kathy Widmer.
Apologising for "disappointing" mothers, she explained that "we had intended to demonstrate genuine sympathy and appreciation for all that parents do for their babies".
Fling with a sling: advocating babywearing for the ultimate hands-free hug
Shauna Busto Gilligan rejects the common perception that you have to be "a certain type of mother" to use a sling. "You can be a professional woman working during the day and a babywearer in the evening and at weekends!"
She went back to her job in adult education at NUI Maynooth after maternity leave last February, when her son Fionn was 14 months. The moment she returned home from work in the evenings, he would pick up a sling and come to her for a cuddle.
"He associated it with comfort and close time. He still associates it with that."
She and her Spanish husband, Xuan, had occasionally used a sling for their first child Isolina, now aged five, mainly when out walking. But it was just another item of baby paraphernalia and she had not heard of "attachment parenting".
However, when Fionn arrived, he proved to be a very different child from his sister. "He just wanted to be held all the time. We had bought him a cute little seat but there was no way he wanted to be put down in it." He "went nuts" too when he was put in a buggy.
She got out the sling to carry him around in but admits: "I questioned myself. What if he always wants to be in this thing?"
Still, it was handy to have two hands free to do things at home with Isolina and to hold her hand out walking, knowing Fionn was content and secure. "It's the ultimate hands-free hug."
The sling she had was cumbersome and slow to put on, which wasn't helpful with a toddler in tow. But a chance meeting with Kate Byrne of Babywearing Ireland in Celbridge, where they both live, introduced her to the ring sling, which she "fell in love with".
Busto Gilligan now embraces the whole philosophy of babywearing, which is all about keeping your baby close and goes hand-in-hand with co-sleeping.
In Fionn's first year, she carried him every day for several hours a day.
"I did not have a master plan. It was a mixture of practical needs and baby needs. I was not prepared to let him cry it out to learn."
She has no doubt that it is good for the child as well. "I can see a difference in the two children. He has a deeper confidence."
