Benefits of Babywearing

*Articles at TheBabyWearer.com

• Benefits of babywearing
• Peer-reviewed articles on the Web
• Scientifically based articles
• Historical and Cross-cultural Info
• Kangaroo Care
• Choosing a babycarrier
• Using your babycarrier
• Personal stories, interviews and humor

Benefits of babywearing

• Great things about wearing your baby *  Lots of good reasons in this list.
• Razőes para "usar" o seu bebé Portuguese translation of "Great things about wearing your baby", thanks to Alexa.
• The importance of the in-arms phase (at continuum-concept.org) by Jean Liedloff who first wrote about carrying babies in her book The Continuum Concept in 1975.
• Dr Eckhard Bonnet on how being carried affects babies (at didymos.de).

Peer-reviewed articles on the Web

• Increased carrying reduces infant crying  The original study by Hunziker and Barr (1986) (at portareipiccoli.com) is widely quoted and discovered an average reduction of 51% in crying and fussing during the evening hours, when babies were carried an extra 2 hours daily.
• Does infant carrying promote attachment?  The answer is "yes" according to this landmark study by Anisfeld, Casper, Nozyce and Cunningham (1990) which found that babies who are carried, are more likely to be securely attached to their caregiver. (Abstract only, at PubMed).
• The Origins of Human Love and Violence (1996) on the correlation between carrying babies and peaceful societies (among other things) by James Prescott (at violence.de). (2 shorter and perhaps more accessible articles by Prescott on the same topic are Body Pleasure and the Origins of Violence (1975) (at violence.de) and The Origins of Love and Violence (2002) (at touchthefuture.org)).
• Emotional Learning in Children by Michael Commons and Patrice Miller. (This is a pdf version and includes interviews with Commons and newspaper articles about the report, at tiac.net.) HTML version is just the article (at naturalchild.com).
• Can carrying babies cause damage to the spine? by Evelyn Kirkilionis, a researcher who has investigated the effects of carrying babies on their physical development. A summary translated from German (at didymos.de).
•  Does a baby in a babycarrier get enough air? The answer is "yes" according to research conducted by Dr Waltraud Stening et al. of the University of Cologne (Köln, Germany). Babies carried vertically and horizontally in a wraparound carrier were compared with babies lying down in a pram. (Abstract only, at pediatrics.aappublications.org.)

Scientifically based articles

• Rock a Bye Baby  Complete video can be viewed on-line (at violence.de). A Time Life documentary about the importance of movement and touch for proper infant development (focusing on primates).
• Developmental aspects of babycarriers by Rochelle Casses. A chiropractor theorises about a possible connection between spondylolisthesis and some vertical-style babycarriers (at ContinuumConcept.org).
• M. Ed thesis on developing a curriculum for Attachment Parenting by Tami Breazeale (at visi.com).

Historical and Cross-cultural Info

• How would Sacagawea have carried her son? (at US Mint).
• Traditional Carriers  A list of links from peppermint.com. (Scroll down their page to see list)
• History and Science of Carrying by Evelyn Kirkilionis in Papyrus Magazine translated (poorly) from the German article.
• Rebozo use in Mexico  An inspiring story by Barbara Wishingrad (at rebozoway.org).
• History of the ring sling  by Rayner Garner (the inventor).
  

Kangaroo Care

• Skin to Skin contact can make the world of difference for premature babies and their parents. KC is now also being recommended for full-term babies. Krisanne Larimer's page includes lots of links (at geocities.com/roopage).
• Prematurity.org and Babies Today on the benefits of Kangaroo Care.
• Personal stories from parents who have used KC (at geocities.com/roopage).
• Dr W. Stening discusses how wrap carriers are used with premature babies in a German hospital (following on from KC) (at didymos.de).