Potential Therapeutic Benefits of Babywearing

Abstract

Babywearing is defined as the act or practice of keeping an infant close to an adult's torso by using a supporting device that straps to the front of the adult's body (Merriam-Webster, n.d.). The practice of babywearing as an adjunct to therapy is likely to be beneficial to children and caregivers. Although research on babywearing is limited, the therapeutic benefits of "skin-to-skin care" or "kangaroo care" have been empirically established. Building on this research, this article attempts to raise awareness about babywearing by elucidating the likely therapeutic benefits for children with disabilities or special needs and areas for future research.

Parental satisfaction with infusion carrier in child care

“…The selection of infusion slings with the form M position is an ergonomic position for the baby where the sling supports the baby from the knee to the neck so that head control is maintained. Both baby's legs should be supported in the knee and held M position is useful for being a strong grip on the back and keeping the knee joint from the arterial obstruction in the popliteal fossa, the safest for the m-position hip joint where the knee is higher than the baby's buttocks [5,6].…”

Haecceity of Becoming-Mother: A Diffractive Analysis of Babywearing Through a Global Pandemic

“…Indeed, the practice is often associated with “attachment parenting” a philosophy parenting that promotes physical closeness between parent and child to create a responsive style of parenting (Granju & Kennedy, 1999) which also includes breastfeeding and co-sleeping. The benefits of babywearing are aligned to the importance of touch and the scientific evidence of “skin to skin care” (Reynolds Miller, 2016; Reynolds Miller et al, 2020). The role of the bodies of the mother and child are centralized here and Hallenbeck (2018) points out that while babywearing disrupts the usual mother-pram assemblage and offers the potential for “feminist world-making” (p. 367), this aspect remains underexplored.…”

Cultural and Contextual Factors of Infancy Through Early Childhood

“…They stay regulated with skin-to-skin contact, being held with their ear against the heart so they can hear it beating, on-demand breastfeeding, shooshing white noise and swaying movement like they experienced all throughout gestation (Cleveland et al, 2017); this is especially critical for pre-term babies, though is widely beneficial for all babies (Campbell-Yeo et al, 2015;Heidarzadeh et al, 2013;Sharma et al, 2018). Babywearing, or carrying the baby against the caregiver's body in a sling, papoose, or other material wrap, is common in Africa, Asia, and among the First Nations of the Americas to facilitate co-regulation of these needs while caregivers simultaneously tend to other responsibilities, and Western researchers have found babies do stay regulated for higher portions of time when tended to with sensitive care in this proximity (Hunziker & Barr, 1986;Reynolds-Miller, 2016). A longitudinal study has found 20-year benefits for babies who were worn compared to those who were not (Charpak et al, 2017).…”