Babywearing and Us
It’s International Babywearing Week and babywearers all over are sharing their stories of slings and carriers. My own babywearing tale starts with a very little Isabel who liked to be held to feed, held to sleep, held awake. I wanted to meet my daughters needs but had a desperately numb bum from spending so much time sat down.
And so, from our much loved stretchy wrap loaned from a local sling-making mum, to our ever growing stash of wraps; from a tiny 8lb 6-weeker to a 20lb 11-monther…
There’s nothing quite like being able to pop on and off a bus, wander up a cobbled street, visit a muddy working farm, or slide between the packed rails of my local hip n’ trendy high street clothing retailer, leaving buggy-pushing parents in the dust. (Smug, me? Never!)
With Isabel’s recent nursing strike, the slings have come into their element as I’ve danced around the living room singing nursery rhymes while I hold my baby skin to skin.
My ‘stash’, though not yet on a par with some, is now verging on the obsessive (I have 4 wraps, a ring sling, mei tai and the soft structured carrier pictured above) but given that Isabel is worn every single day for different reasons and in different situations, I don’t think we’re OTT! :D
Unfortunately, as with all things in life, not all slings are created equally. After the deaths of 3 babies in bag slings the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) enforced a product recall of the affected slings, finally listening to the babywearing community who’d noticed the issues years before. Although this is good news for prospective buyers of the bag slings in question, the CPSC are now trying to extend the recall to another type of sling, produced by a major manufacturer, despite having proved it safe in a previous investigation.
The affected company have stopped trading, but are under threat of a recall going back 10 years. The CPSC have not provided evidence of danger in the use of the product and are ignoring baby carrier industry standards (which they helped to create). If this recall goes ahead, it could have repercussions on the entire sling industry — and babywearing community — in the States.
The CPSC shouldn’t be allowed to bully retailers in this way, nor should consumers be dictated to when no evidence of danger or problems exist.
I’m a proud babywearer. I love the closeness and comfort slinging my baby gives us both, and I would find it very difficult to get out and about without a sling or two. I am celebrating International Babywearing Week by… wearing my baby! And you too can celebrate, even if you’re not a babywearer, by spreading the word: Baby Carrier Industry Alliance needs YOU!