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Benefits
1. Sling babies cry less. Parents in my practice commonly
report, "As long as I wear her, she`s content!" Parents of fussy babies
who try babywearing relate that their babies seem to forget to fuss.
This is more than just my own impression. In 1986, a team of
pediatricians in Montreal reported on a study of ninety-nine
mother-infant pairs. The first group of parents were provided with a
baby carrier and assigned to carry their babies for at least three
extra hours a day. They were encouraged to carry their infants
throughout the day, regardless of the state of the infant, not just in
response to crying or fussing. In the control, or noncarried group,
parents were not given any specific instructions about carrying. After
six weeks, the infants who received supplemental carrying cried and
fussed 43 percent less than the noncarried group.
Anthropologists
who travel throughout the world studying infant-care practices in other
cultures agree that infants in babywearing cultures cry much less. In
Western culture we measure a baby`s crying in hours, but in other
cultures, crying is measured in minutes. We have been led to believe
that it is "normal" for babies to cry a lot, but in other cultures this
is not accepted as the norm. In these cultures, babies are normally
"up" in arms and are put down only to sleep – next to the mother. When
the parent must attend to her own needs, the baby is in someone else`s
arms.
2. Sling babies learn more. If infants spend less time
crying and fussing, what do they do with the free time? They learn!
Sling babies spend more time in the state of quiet alertness . This is
the behavioral state in which an infant is most content and best able
to interact with his environment. It may be called the optimal state of
learning for a baby. Researchers have also reported that carried babies
show enhanced visual and auditory alertness.
The behavioral state
of quiet alertness also gives parents a better opportunity to interact
with their baby. Notice how mother and baby position their faces in
order to achieve this optimal visually interactive plane. The human
face, especially in this position, is a potent stimulator for
interpersonal bonding. In the kangaroo carry, baby has a 180-degree
view of her environment and is able to scan her world. She learns to
choose, picking out what she wishes to look at and shutting out what
she doesn`t. This ability to make choices enhances learning. A sling
baby learns a lot in the arms of a busy caregiver.
3. Sling babies are more organized. It`s easier to
understand babywearing when you think of a baby`s gestation as lasting
eighteen months – nine months inside the womb and at least nine more
months outside. The womb environment automatically regulates baby`s
systems. Birth temporarily disrupts this organization. The more
quickly, however, baby gets outside help with organizing these systems,
the more easily he adapts to the puzzle of life outside the womb. By
extending the womb experience, the babywearing mother (and father)
provides an external regulating system that balances the irregular and
disorganized tendencies of the baby. Picture how these regulating
systems work. Mother`s rhythmic walk, for example, (which baby has been
feeling for nine months) reminds baby of the womb experience. This
familiar rhythm, imprinted on baby`s mind in the womb, now reappears in
the "outside womb" and calms baby. As baby places her ear against her
mother`s chest, mother`s heartbeat, beautifully regular and familiar,
reminds baby of the sounds of the womb. As another biological
regulator, baby senses mother`s rhythmic breathing while worn tummy-
to-tummy, chest-to-chest. Simply stated, regular parental rhythms have
a balancing effect on the infant`s irregular rhythms. Babywearing
"reminds" the baby of and continues the motion and balance he enjoyed
in the womb.
What may happen if the baby spends most of his time
lying horizontally in a crib, attended to only for feeding and
comforting, and then again separated from mother? A newborn has an
inherent urge to become organized, to fit into his or her new
environment. If left to his own resources, without the regulating
presence of the mother, the infant may develop disorganized patterns of
behavior: colicky cries, jerky movements, disorganized self-rocking
behaviors, anxious thumb sucking, irregular breathing, and disturbed
sleep. The infant, who is forced to self-calm, wastes valuable energy
he could have used to grow and develop.
While there is a variety
of child-rearing theories, attachment researchers all agree on one
thing: In order for a baby`s emotional, intellectual, and physiological
systems to function optimally, the continued presence of the mother, as
during babywearing, is a necessary regulatory influence.
4. Sling babies get "humanized" earlier. Another reason
that babywearing enhances learning is that baby is intimately involved
in the caregiver`s world. Baby sees what mother or father sees, hears
what they hear, and in some ways feels what they feel. Carried babies
become more aware of their parents` faces, walking rhythms, and scents.
Baby becomes aware of, and learns from, all the subtle facial
expressions, body language, voice inflections and tones, breathing
patterns, and emotions of the caregiver. A parent will relate to the
baby a lot more often, because baby is sitting right under her nose.
Proximity increases interaction, and baby can constantly be learning
how to be human. Carried babies are intimately involved in their
parents` world because they participate in what mother and father are
doing. A baby worn while a parent washes dishes, for example, hears,
smells, sees, and experiences in depth the adult world. He is more
exposed to and involved in what is going on around him. Baby learns
much in the arms of a busy person.
5. Sling babies are smarter. Environmental experiences
stimulate nerves to branch out and connect with other nerves, which
helps the brain grow and develop. Babywearing helps the infant`s
developing brain make the right connections. Because baby is intimately
involved in the mother and father`s world, she is exposed to, and
participates in, the environmental stimuli that mother selects and is
protected from those stimuli that bombard or overload her developing
nervous system. She so intimately participates in what mother is doing
that her developing brain stores a myriad of experiences, called
patterns of behavior. These experiences can be thought of as thousands
of tiny short-run movies that are filed in the infant`s neurological
library to be rerun when baby is exposed to a similar situation that
reminds her of the making of the original "movie." For example, mothers
often tell me, "As soon as I pick up the sling and put it on, my baby
lights up and raises his arms as if in anticipation that he will soon
be in my arms and in my world."
I have noticed that sling babies
seem more attentive, clicking into adult conversations as if they were
part of it. Babywearing enhances speech development. Because baby is up
at voice and eye level, he is more involved in conversations. He learns
a valuable speech lesson – the ability to listen.
Normal ambient
sounds, such as the noises of daily activities, may either have
learning value for the infant or disturb him. If baby is alone, sounds
may frighten him. If baby is worn, these sounds have learning value.
The mother filters out what she perceives as unsuitable for the baby
and gives the infant an "It`s okay" feeling when he is exposed to
unfamiliar sounds and experiences.
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