Today was the Inner North Community Fair in Canberra, celebrating the wetlands to be built on Hawdon Oval in Dickson. And it looked almost as much like Babywearer Central as the Homebirth Rally at Parliament House back in September 2009.

Most of what I spotted were SSCs in every colour they’ve ever been made in, one metal-frame backpack, and a few stretchy wraps. But I also saw a pretty woven wrap, a lesser-known SSC brand custom-made to impress the wearer’s teenage son, and a few very funky mei tais. Oh, and the prettiest green hemp silk ring sling in town, with a sleeping toddler boy in it. With the huge number of dogs, bikes, and walking adults, baby carriers were a very sensible choice for walking over the uneven ground, dodging unicorn poo (not your average pony rides), grooving to the funky free music, and checking out all things environmentally sustainable in our local community. Much easier than pushing a pram on the grass, and with built-in sun protection for kids who throw their hats overboard.

But… could babywearers outrun the Daleks? I reckon it’s much easier to run up stairs with your baby in an SSC than a pram, so that’s a yes!

Tags: canberra, mei tai, ring sling, ssc, wrap

Here’s the official Australian government notice about the Infantino Sling Rider and Wendy Bellissimo slings having been recalled by their Australian distributor.

This follows a US safety warning on slings - read all about it here. The important thing to note here is that the warning applies only to slings that make it difficult to keep a newborn’s airways clear while lying in a cradle hold position, or where it is difficult to monitor a newborn’s position in the sling (ie you can’t see the baby easily in the sling to make sure they’re still in a good position). Babies who are newborn, premature, or have health issues are at higher risk in these carriers.

Ring slings, pouches, and wraps are often used to carry newborns in a cradle carry position, and it’s quite safe to do. In fact, some babies prefer this position when they’re sleeping. It also makes it easy to breastfeed baby in the sling. But it is also important to make sure you use your sling properly. If in doubt, get advice from an experienced babywearer at a sling meet in your local area, use internet forums to find experienced babywearers near you who can give you some help, or drop by a shop that provides a professional fitting/demonstration service for the type of sling you’re using. You can also check out videos on YouTube, or get a copy of the Tummy2Tummy babywearing DVD to get help on newborn positioning, and there’s also a Newborn Correct Positioning article available here.

Tags: advocacy, infants, injury, newborn, pouch, ring sling, wrap

If you’ve been following the Baby Carriers Downunder blog, you may have noticed we don’t write a lot of posts along the lines of “OMG! I so love [insert brand here]“. In fact, we don’t have any posts that sing the praises of a particular brand. It’s not because we don’t want the sponsorship dollars, or because we are all hard-core DIY-only babywearers. It’s because Baby Carriers Downunder is independent. And to quote Stan Lee, “with great power comes great responsibility”. Which is far more relevant than my other favourite thing to tell my kids, “with pants comes dignity”.

Being independent means we can talk about the features that make a carrier fabulous or FAIL, or the ways to use and abuse a particular style of carrier. But because we don’t name brands, we have no financial incentive to promote one carrier over another, nor risk the wrath of a manufacturer for suggesting a variation on their instructions. And we can more easily get Baby Carriers Downunder working with other non-profit parent support organisations, because we’re here to promote ALL forms of babywearing that support healthy babies and parents/carers.

If you’ve been following my posts on this blog for a while, you might also have picked up that I work in the industry. And yet I cannot post about my own business here. So why do I spend time writing for Baby Carriers Downunder? Because every person that is helped along the way to successful babywearing is a good thing, regardless of where they get their gear. I’m an addict that wants to get more users hooked, and I don’t care what dealer they go to.

Babywearing needs to become mainstream, it needs to be normalised, if we are to have a viable long term industry. More importantly, babywearing needs to be normalised so that parents can more easily find and use a tool that makes their job easier. Nothing makes me happier than having someone tell me how much better their baby sleeps, or that they no longer wear baby chuck five times a day, or that they can now get out of the house with their baby, or simply that their back feels good now that they have a good sling and the skills to use it.

If we’re going to normalise babywearing, we need independent blogs and support groups. It’s not hard to tout your own brand all over the interwebz. But we have bigger things to consider here. Things like the concept behind babywearing, safety tips that apply to ALL carriers, and what makes a well-constructed carrier at home or in a commercial factory. People who want to discuss the many brands do so in our Google Group forum. But as bloggers, we realise that what we say carries a different level of credibility, and is rated differently by search engines. We want blog readers to take this material as a starting point in their search for the perfect sling for their needs - not just look up a list of the Top 5 Best Baby Carriers Ever and buy the one that’s in their price range.

So if your comment recommending a brand name carrier disappears from our blog, or we don’t bother publishing your media release about your new baby carrier product, please don’t be offended. We’re just enjoying our babywearing independence in a brand-free zone. And if you’re looking for the Top 5 Best Baby Carriers Ever, here’s the list in my personal order of preference (which will change tomorrow, as I feel about baby carriers the way most women feel about shoes):

• Mei Tai
• Short Wrap
• Soft Structured Carrier (SSC)
• Long Wrap
• Ring Sling

Oh look, useful information without brand names! See, it is possible Now go argue the crap out of my top 5 list…

Tags: advocacy, marketing

If you’ve got an addiction to good quality baby carriers and slings (c’mon, I know I’m not the only one…) then you’ve probably bought from more than a few WAHMs in your time. WAHMs - work at home mums - are the backbone of the baby carrier and sling industry in Australia. They’re the ones who come up with innovations in design, source the to-die-for fabrics that make a regular carrier something special enough for a wedding or christening, and are sometimes willing to vary their design ever so slightly to make it fit you just right. So what does it take to be a WAHM, and why do women want to do it?

Being a WAHM isn’t going to make you a millionaire. In fact, you’ll be lucky to get more than a bit of occasional pocket money from it. But it can be very personally rewarding, more flexible than other forms of paid work, and a bit of extra pocket money will help pay for your own sling stash (or at least justify your fabric stash). To be a successful WAHM in the babywearing industry, you’ll need:

• Skills. If you can sew, then you can be a sling manufacturer. If you can do marketing and publicity but can’t sew, perhaps you’re better off as an importer or retailer rather than manufacturing.
• Time. Don’t kid yourself that you can run a successful WAHM business while the kids are napping or sleeping at night - unless you plan on never getting any sleep yourself. You need to find at least 2-3 blocks of time each week to sew, market your business, do the taxes and administrivia, and pack and post orders. That means setting aside times when someone else is supervising small children, kids are at school, or the kids are busy with their own activities and likely to not interrupt your work every 20 seconds with “muuuuuu-um”.
• Cash. You can start a business with just a few hundred dollars in cash, but you do need to carefully plan for how you’ll fund the start-up and growth of your venture. Don’t rely on credit cards to fund it - the interest rates are a killer. Look at using savings, mortgage redraw, or micro-loan credit schemes if there are any in your area (the ACT Government has recently started one).
• Willingness to prioritise. It is not humanly possible to be a perfect mother, partner, house cleaner, cook, and whatever other roles you fulfil. If you’re adding business owner to your list of roles, consider what you can give up to make time for the business. You may need to cook quicker, simpler dinners. Do less cleaning. Access childcare or babysitting, or let the kids watch more TV. Have less time with your partner after the kids go to bed at night. If you’re not willing to give up or change anything else in your life, then you need to seriously reconsider whether you have room in your life to be a WAHM. Even a hobby-level business is time-consuming, and a business that you intend to provide for your family adds an additional layer of stress if you’re stretching yourself too thin.

But there’s also a lot of rewards to being a babywearing WAHM:

• Being able to fit your work around your family’s needs. You can attend that school assembly at 10am, and catch up on the sewing or emails at 8pm if you’re willing to be flexible about your hours.
• Building a business that is yours, and being the chief decision-maker.
• Lower overheads than most businesses - no need to lease an office or factory, or buy expensive equipment, until your business outgrows the dining room table or spare room.
• Supporting a passion for babywearing, and spreading the babywearing love to other parents.

So are you a WAHM or considering it? What is it that you love about the WAHM lifestyle? What have you learned on your journey?

Tags: advocacy, WAHM

You might have heard that the US CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) published a warning this week about the safety of infant slings. In particular, there have been a number of deaths reported when babies have been carried in bag-style slings where the baby’s face was not visible, or where the baby was able to get into a chin-on-chest position that blocked their airway. The CPSC warning included this useful example of right and wrong ways to position baby in a soft sling:

If you’ve been wondering whether it’s safe to use a baby sling at all with your newborn, don’t panic! Baby slings have been successfully used for thousands of years, in cultures all over the world. Babywearing can help newborn babies (especially premmies) regulate their temperature and breathing, increase milk supply for breastfeeding mothers with low supply, help parents or carers bond with their baby, and help settle babies (especially those with colic or reflux).

What we haven’t had in modern Western society is the knowledge passed on from our mothers and grandmothers about how to use a piece of cloth to carry our babies safely. It’s not enough just to rely on manufacturers to make a sling that is safe to use without instruction.

If you’re looking at getting a sling for your newborn, check out these newborn babywearing videos and instructions to start with; go along to a babywearing meet in your local area; get active on forums like Baby Carriers Downunder, The Babywearer, Intuitive Parenting, or Natural Parenting where there are experienced babywearers to answer your questions; or visit a shop where the staff have been trained in how to position newborns safely in soft slings. Generic Viagra 100 Mg
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Tags: infants, injury, newborn, pouch, ring sling, safety

I have a pretty small stash by babywearing addict standards - more than 20, but not by much. Still, it would be nice to have a better storage solution than bags in the spare cupboard, or leaving them lying around the house and car. The keys to sling storage are holding in straps that want to escape, and visibility. I don’t want to be opening drawers at random when I’m searching for a specific sling in a hurry, and I tend to forget I have other beautiful slings when I can’t see them.

Here’s some ideas for small storage solutions to go in the spare cupboard:

Left: Clear storage bins from IKEA - the angled lid at the front means you can reach in and grab slings when the containers are stacked on top of each other.

Middle: Storage boxes with clear windows on the front from IKEA - the only downside is that I have different sling types that are very similar colours (eg green ring slings and green mei tais, or blue long wraps and blue shortie wraps).

Right: Hanging storage from IKEA - hang it in the wardrobe where sticky toddler hands can’t easily rearrange your wraps.

And if I had the budget, here’s some ideas for larger storage furniture pieces:

Left: Glass-front cabinet from IKEA

Middle: Shelves from Fantastic Furniture - great for storing carriers in the kids bedroom, and you can write on the front what’s inside

Right: Ladder shelf from IKEA - you could also use an actual ladder - shock! Yes, it is possible to use things for something other than their originally intended purpose, like babywearers who co-opt tablecloths as shortie wraps…

And finally, a lockable cabinet for those who are lucky enough to have a stash that includes a long wrap handwoven on a hundred year old loom in Eastern Europe. If you’ve spent your budget on slings and can’t stretch it to the IKEA version shown above, you can pick up a cheaper, boring grey version from the ex-government warehouse and paint it in whatever shade of enamel rocks your boat.

So what do you like? Or do you already have your own perfect sling storage solution?

Tags: fashion, stash, storage