Baby Wearing – Ancient Wisdom Embraces the Present

Increasing numbers of parents are breaking the mould of cultural habit, and humbly learning form the wisdom of age-old cultures.

In the book, Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent, anthropologist Meredith Small writes, “In most cultures – and over most of human history – babies spend almost all their time carried in a sling on the side or back of adults. In these positions, babies see the world as adults do: the rhythm of adult walking is also physically soothing.”

Baby wearing in a sling significantly extends the in utero experience, producing a far calmer, more secure child. Once again, there is a oneness of baby and mother. Research at Tulane University finds that, “Baby slings offer the single most successful method for optimal neurological development in infants.” A writer in the Time Literary Supplement of London sees the wearing of the baby sling as possibly a greater step forward for humanity than the microchip.

A pram or a cot can separate: a baby sling unites, as baby snuggles close to your body. Our western material values separate individuals form each other. Much education neglects the heart; our troubled bodies and minds separate the spirit. Likewise, we separate ourselves from some of the deepest human bonding needs between parent and infant. For a baby in a sling, mother’s breast milk is easy to see and find. A parent (including fast growing numbers of fathers) is all the more likely to hold baby, because her or his hands are free for other activities.

In our own culture’s non-wearing of babies, are we, then, missing some of the deeper joys of bonding? For example, it is known that baby wearing stimulates levels of the mothering hormone prolactin. In not following the baby wearing practice of so many old cultures, are we seriously depriving our children of one of the greatest of benefits to childhood development?

A baby’s brain grows phenomenally – from 25% of its adult weight at birth to 50% at six months and 90% at one year. Ever since the classic studies of childhood bonding of half a century ago (John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth, et al.), the incredible importance of the first year (yes, the first year!) of an infant’s life to the quality of the remainder of the life has been well noted. Do our child rearing practices truly honour such findings?

In touch with the natural rhythms of life, tribal and other more communal peoples knew – from experience – the value of baby wearing. A state childhood experts called “quiet alertness” replaces crying and fussiness. A sling distributes the broad weight from shoulders and hips, aligning the baby’s centre of gravity close to the wearer. Many scientific studies now show how a carried baby receives the exact essentials of pressure, motion, pleasure, warmth, security and sound.

These are crucial to the development of the vestibular nervous system. This system relates to the cranial and spinal nerves, the sense of kinesthetic equilibrium, development of motor skills and claming deep pressure touch and stimulation. Baby carrying stimulates optimal development of the cerebellum of the brain. This is the only part of the brain that continually increases in cells, as the baby gets older. Voluntary muscle tone – as related to posture, balance and equilibrium – is similarly controlled by this vital part of the brain. All motor activity, from hitting a tennis ball to fingering a violin, depends on the cerebellum.

Research further shows that carried babies sleep comfortably and for longer periods of time. They often are better able to complete their uterogestation period. Sling use tones muscles, increases cardiac output that increase circulation, promotes respiration and digestion. Infants experience reduces rate of wind and colic. Neck and shoulder muscles are stronger, there is less head lag, and infants walk on their own by ten months. In marked contrast, the average North American walking age is eleven and a half (or more) months. The standing / stepping reflex present from birth, with which infants push themselves up and grab the adult, is retained. Such advanced motor development is typical of the carried baby.

Parental sounds are most important – voice timbre, heartbeat and breathing. The resultant state, called “entrainment”, assists a baby’s heartbeat and breathing, which can be fast and irregular, especially in newborns, premature babies, and distressed and crying infants. Baby wearing encourages the form of deep sleep known as the “quiet sleep state” so vital to brain maturation.

Sling worn infants are at the centre of activity – a precondition for the development of empathy and esteem of both self and others, rather than a laying of foundations for life long egocentricity. This has profound spiritual implications. From a sling, a baby can see, hear and touch far more effectively. This creates greatly enriched environmental experiences. Owing to more secure attachment to the parent, the period of infant dependency is shortened. One of several sling carrying positions is reclining, looking at the parent’s face, especially in this position, powerfully stimulates interpersonal bonding.

The highly influential “The Baby Book” by William and Martha Sears (parents of eight children) has a whole chapter on baby wearing. Here are just some of the many points the Sears make about baby wearing: it frees a parent’s hands to care for older siblings. Some babies, particularly those who are tense or tend to arch their backs, breastfeed better while moving. Proximity to mum encourages babies to eat more frequently. A 1986 study of 99 mother-infant pairs (reported in Pediatrics) showed that carrying babies at least three hours a day reduces crying and fussing 43% during the day and 51% at night. The development of mutual reading of cues is encouraged and speeded. Speech development is greater, due to more environmental experiences and conversations. The “state of quietness” so enhanced by baby wearing is the optimal behavioural stat of learning. 

Our mechanistic culture does anything but allow us to get in touch with our natural endowments. Far too often, we, as children, learn to be awkward and fearful of physical intimacy and closeness. Writing in Midwifery Today magazine (Issues 41 & 42), American midwife Jennifer Rosenberg says, “we need to reclaim the wisdom of carrying our babies, and share it with our clients and our children.”