If you haven’t met Melissa at Nurtured yet, I strongly urge you to come down and see her. You’ll find her here some Thursday evenings, most Friday evenings, and Sundays, as well as the odd Saturday. Melissa has worked at natural parenting stores across Canada and has a lot to teach all of us here in Halifax where natural parenting is still in its infancy in a lot of ways. She has a wealth of knowledge about baby carriers, is our resident wool expert, and also knits in her “spare” time. She is mom to a four year old and a two year old and has a personality that is bubbling over with enthusiasm. Melissa left a comment on our last post about how using a sling improved her parenting experience, and she sent along some photos to share as well. In celebration of International Babywearing Week, here are some great photos of sling love…

:: Daddy walking at night with a fussy newborn so mommy can get some rest…April’s note: why didn’t I think of that? Also, I notice that the position the baby is in right now, belly to belly and feet near the pelvic bone, is actually the perfect position for a really great breastfeeding latch as taught by Rebecca Glover, one of my favourite breastfeeding advocates!

:: The end result of daddy’s midnight walks…a happily sleeping baby.

:: Mommy and toddler in what he now calls “The Big Hug”.
Thank you, Melissa for the photos and for sharing your story!

Parenting, for me, has been a work in progress. I did not know going into my parenting journey that I was an Attachment Parent, it came through intuition and instinct on what seemed to work best for my daughter. I used a number of baby carrier styles with her, from pouch slings to a mei tai to a wrap to a ring sling. When my son came along, breastfeeding on the go became a true necessity and I found that the best way to facilitate this, despite the large number and styles of baby carriers available to me, was a ring sling.

What felt right to me was a ring sling with a deep pouch that allowed my son to be belly to belly in an upright position while he slept, nursed, and snuggled close to mommy. I felt that my son was safe, secure, and kept close to my body, allowing us so much time for bonding.

For anyone who came into their parenting role knowing that attachment parenting was their style might have also learned about the use of slings from The Baby Book by William Sears, M.D. And Martha Sears, R.N., arguably the best baby book I’ve ever read!

Earlier in 2010, there was a recall on “bag style” pouch slings including the Infantino Slingrider. These slings are poorly designed to ride low on mom’s body, keeping baby curled in a “C” shape in the bottom of a deep pouch that does not allow you to easily see baby’s face. The “C” shape does not promote proper posture and, as the recall indicated, can cause occlusion and constrict baby’s feeding.

“Over the last year, much misinformation and unwarranted fear has been cast on sling style carriers through announcements by Consumer Reports and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). [There is, in fact research indicating the] overwhelming benefit of baby carriers and…that the view that sling carriers are unsafe is wholly inaccurate. In fact, the chance of an individual being struck by lightening is twice that of the mortality rate of children while being worn in baby slings.”-Baby Carrier Industry Alliance

A ring sling, by its very design, allows you to wear your baby in positions that are much less likely to cause this occlusion.

As a result of the recall with regard to “bag style” slings, consumer groups in both Canada and the US (Health Canada, Consumer Products Safety Commission) are attempting to paint all baby slings with the same brush. As a result, we are potentially facing a future in the Canada and the US in which baby slings DO NOT EXIST in the marketplace.

Nurtured has been engaged in active conversation with sling manufacturers, babywearing advocates and educators including The Baby Carrier Industry Alliance about the future of slings in the US and Canada. The Baby Carrier Industry Alliance has gathered decades of research on the benefits and safety of babywearing. If you care about your choices in the marketplace, if you are concerned about the future of babywearing, I urge you to read the Baby Carrier Industry Alliance Position Paper on Babywearing/Kangaoo Care and/or get involved with the Baby Carrier Industry Alliance.

We’d love to hear your experiences with slings. We’ve had amazing feedback to our Facebook page with regard to our customers’ experiences with slings. They have made my parenting experience so much more positive, and you will hear positive experiences from a lot of the ladies at Nurtured with regard to their use of slings. Let’s make sure these attachment parenting tools do not disappear from the marketplace.