June 2020

3 common worries about babywearing

This week I have started visiting mum and baby groups in my local area again. It feels so good to be out in the community again and being able to talk to new parents about safe babywearing. Seeing the happy faces when I can confirm that the fit of a carrier is perfect. Hearing the grateful “thank yous” when I give little hints and show small tweaks to get a better fit.

In most groups, there will be a few parents with common worries about babywearing. And because I do get those questions asked a lot, I decided to type up my answers and put them in this little blog post for all of you.

Why is it better to try before buying a Soft Structured Carrier?

One of the reasons, why I am so passionate about volunteering at my local babywearing library (Babywearing Nelson) is that a babywearing library gives everyone the opportunity to try different carriers.

Especially in New Zealand there are not many walk-in stores which sell a wide range of carriers. So even, if you do have a store close by, they may only be able to have a small number of carriers available to try.

I personally started using a soft structured carrier (buckle carrier) quite late, when my daughter was about 8 months old already. Other carriers had worked fine for us so far, but we were about to head to Europe to visit our families in Germany and wanted to take a “easy to use” carrier with us, that even the grandparents could use if they wanted to. I was so glad we were able to try various carriers at the library and hire one of them for our overseas trip (check out this post if you would like to get some tips and tricks for babywearing when on holiday). The Manduca carrier was the one that worked best for us at the time. We even ended up buying one as my husband and I both really liked it.

For us, the Manduca carrier was a great fit, but since then I have helped many parents try out different soft structured carriers at the library and lots of them have preferred other carriers.

How can you carry your baby? – Part 3: Back Carry

It seems like the answer to this question should be straight forward. There are only so many ways how you can carry your baby: front carry, hip carry, and back carry. Those are the three basic carrying positions. But who is each carrying position best for and which carrier can you use?

This post is the third part of a three-part-series about carrying positions. Each post will give you an overview of the featured carrying position and some tips and tricks. You can find the first part of the series here and the second part here.

In the last part of this series, I would like to introduce you to the back carry. Now that my girl is nearly four years old, I am only ever carrying her on my back – not that I do carry her much anymore. I started back carrying her when she was about 8 months old. At that time, it was mainly when I wanted to cook dinner and she would have been in the way on my front. Later I enjoyed carrying her on my back, when being out on walks. This was much easier on my back and she had the advantage of seeing what I was seeing.

How can you carry your baby? – Part 2: Hip Carry

It seems like the answer to this question should be straight forward. There are only so many ways how you can carry your baby: front carry, hip carry, and back carry. Those are the three basic carrying positions. But who is each carrying position best for and which carrier can you use?

This post is the second part of a three-part-series about carrying positions. Each post will give you an overview of the featured carrying position and some tips and tricks. You can find the first part of the series here.

In the second part of this series, I would like to introduce you to the hip carry. I started carrying my daughter on the hip when she was about 5 or 6 months old. I’ve had a beautiful ring sling gifted to me before her birth and tried to use it when she was little. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the sling to be comfortable for myself. A few months later I tried again and suddenly it was nice and comfortable. The ring sling was the only carrier I used to carry my girl on the hip, and I did so until she was about one year old. In the last few months, I mainly used a hip carry for quick up and downs at home.