Babywearing
Good for you and for your baby
Babywearing is a necessity for women all over the world who carry their babies while they work and do domestic tasks. This practice has been around for centuries, but has seen a dramatic resurgence in popularity in recent years. Why? Because they make it easier to take care of a baby, and because touch is good for us.
The benefits of touch
According to a study in Pediatrics, babies who are carried cry less. Babywearing for three hours a day reduced infant crying by 43% overall and 54% during the evening hours.
A study at Columbia University compared the attachment of babies carried in a baby carrier with babies carried in a car seat. After 13 months, the babies who had been transported in wearable carriers were significantly more attached to their mothers.
Ashley Montagu was the first to remind us of the power of touch in his 1971 classic, Touching: The Human Significance of the Skin. According to Dr. Montagu, touch is important for infants because of their developmental vulnerability:
“This intensification of cutaneous stimulations is especially necessary in the human fetus because…
