I’ve had the most fantastic weekend at the Corinbank Festival! I was there to teach babywearing in the Green Kulture village, but I also spent lots of time spotting slings while sipping chai, playing Scrabble, learning about clay-balling, watching circus acts, avoiding infringement notices from the Fashion Police, eating vegetarian feasts, asking chicks in the line for Tableaux Vivants (live nude show - and I spotted a baby in ring sling being breastfed in the audience) if her dreads require much maintenance, listening to Ash Grunwald and heaps of other great bands… well, you get the picture. It was a general festival of family-friendly fun with as little environmental impact as possible. I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story:

Left: Dominique is wearing an Australian brand pouch sling - and her baby is probably keen to grab that coffee because it might have chilli in it from the Mayan Coffee stall!

Centre: Katoomba mum with her big girl chilling out in a blue SSC (soft structured carrier). See, babywearing isn’t just for babies!

Right: I recognised this as an organic Eyes Of The World print fabric (I used to have a woven wrap in this fabric). Turns out this pouch sling was made in Canberra!

Circus Playground looked like a lot of fun - and if you look closely, you might spot a dad with a baby in a camel-coloured SSC on his back!

I had lots of fun demonstrating Ninja Babywearing to save your baby from the invading zombie hoard who want to eat your brain… or just get your baby on your back so you can get on with washing, cooking, chasing other kids, or generally looking good. Even wore my ninja babywearing t-shirt while I did the job I also showed people how to carry a baby with a tablecloth, shawl, or bedsheet so you can rock on at the main stage without losing your toddler, or settle a cranky baby to sleep even when you’re camping in the Brindabella mountains outside Canberra. I had great help from Morgyn (who works at the coolest baby shop in Canberra), plus Moira and Kate from the Canberra Babywearers, who gave me lunch break time. Thanks ladies!

So what did I miss with my camera? A very cool mei tai with feature panel in a brown print, ring slings (only spotted black and blue, where were all the stripes and prints?), and several stretchy wraps and SSC’s. Oh, but I did catch the Fashion Police from Ruby Bloomers Women’s Circus:

In between issuing infringement notices for fashion crimes, these rocking chicks also issued encouragement notices for babywearing and public breastfeeding. And looked damn fine in their leather corsets and stripey tights
I’m already thinking about a bigger and better Corinbank 2011 - what would you want to see in a babywearing demo at a music/arts festival?

Did you go to a Walk Against Warming 2009 event on Saturday 12 December? ABC News says there were more than 90,000 people at rallies around Australia, including over 2,000 at the Parliament House rally in Canberra. I spotted ring slings (hemp and cotton), soft structured carriers (SSCs), and stretchy wraps at the Canberra rally. Check out what the tweeps thought with tags #waw09 or #walkagainstwarming. So what does this have to do with babywearing?

Babywearing is, without a doubt, more environmentally friendly than using a stroller or pram. A good quality baby sling or baby carrier is made from biodegradable, natural materials: cotton, hemp, silk, and wool are the most popular fabrics. Some carriers use padding made from bamboo, cotton, or recycled PET. Other carriers include metal or plastic rings, or hard plastic clips. While PET padding, aluminium rings, and hard plastic clips are not biodegradable at end-of-life, they will take up far less landfill space than the amount of plastic or metal in a stroller.

Traditional-style baby carriers can also support economic development programs in developing countries. Hand-woven cloth, such as the slings made in Guatemala or Timor Leste, or traditional printing techniques such as those used in India and Indonesia, preserve traditional craft skills and usually make use of renewable materials in the artisan’s local area. Making carriers from this cloth also enables artisans to earn a real wage from their work. This means they have an alternative to forms of work that may be less environmentally sustainable.

But the best thing about babywearing is how easy it is to get into nature with the kids. I can’t take a stroller up Mount Taylor, but I can carry a three year old on my back in an SSC when her legs get tired. I can’t push a pram around the cracked footpaths and dirt tracks through the reserve in my suburb, but I can put the newborn in a ring sling and walk him to sleep in the evening. You don’t need the knowledge of a park ranger or make the effort to plan guided activities on bushwalks. Simply being in a place with real trees and grass, checking out birds and lizards and bugs, will pique most children’s curiosity about the world they live in. By showing them there’s a world of living creatures and growing plants, children can begin to understand that their actions have an impact beyond the four walls of their house.

On a babywearing blog, I suppose the argument I’m going to make here isn’t that surprising. It’s the cure, not the cause.

Here’s my story: I have a high needs baby.  She’s mindblowing. There is only one person she wants to hold her (and, sometimes, touch her): me. At 11 months, it’s been a long and draining year so far. At first I wore her because it was the only way she could be comfortable. She can sit independently and move around quite a bit these days, her reflux is largely resolved, so I don’t have to wear her so often and as such haven’t been (see the injured shoulder saga).

But she’s still very, very anxious with other people and is unwilling to let anyone else care for her. Funnily enough, on the days I wear her all day long (she comes to work with me once a week), she’s as happy as a clam.

Here’s my plan: I’m going to wear her. I’m going to wear her every opportunity I get- not just when she asks for it, not just when she needs it. I’m going to actively hold her as much as she’ll permit. If holding my clingy baby is the cause of her anxiety, then her behaviour won’t change. However, if (as is my theory) responding to her need to be near me and embracing it will help her grow through this stage, we should see some improvement soon.

I’ll report back soon and let you know how it’s going. (Wish me luck!)

Do you have a high-needs child? How do you cope? What’s your strategy for dealing with a child who needs you All. The. Time.? Leave a comment and let us know!

She’s a’coming and she’s going to be a biggun.

Where: Parliament House, Canberra (Australia)

When: 7th September, 2009,  11:30 am.

Why: It’s Homebirth Australia’s rally.

It turns out that a lot of babywearers are either homebirthers or supportive of a woman’s right to birth at home. Many of us are going. Are you coming too?

Most babywearing manufacturers are adamant that swimming is not something you should be doing while babywearing. If it was something that ever came up, swimming in a shark-infested tank would definitely be high on the verboten list. However, a family wedding is, essentially, a shark-infested evening, complete with a pair of shoes that cut into your feet and canapes. Frankly, I wouldn’t dream of leaving my sling behind, no matter how many sharks there are. Sharks are one thing, a tired heavy baby is an altogether different danger.

Family weddings are dangerous. We all know this. Family weddings are the coral reefs of  our social lives: vibrant, colourful, dependent on weather patterns and full of creatures with an insatiable desire to attack weaker prey. You need to be aware of how you can be in danger during this event and how to protect yourself. To this end, I have compiled a list of some of the most common strategies employed by the sharks in this habitat and offered some advice on how you can deal with them.

Danger #1: When they attack from behind

They circle in silently, grey faced and grim; intent on their prey: YOU. Then, when you least expect it BAM! They grab your carrier as you’re trying to get your little one on your back, give a yank and you end up slipping a disc trying to stop the baby from landing on its head.

Statistics show that 99.9% of relatives are invariably well meaning. So, whenever they see a poor soul “struggling” with any sort of carrier, they circle in to help. Without telling you, they grab anything that looks like it ought to be grabbed. We all know how dangerous this can be. The reason for this curious behaviour is really quite simple, they never had “those things” in “their days”. (Looms, apparently, are a new invention!) They’re interested, that’s all.

The only way to protect yourself is to either swim in a school (i.e. have your partner or a trustworthy person designated as a sentry) or, to get your child onto your back with your back against the wall or an item of furniture. Be aware of this kind of sneak attack- vigilence or a safe place to toss the baby is your only hope!

Danger #2: The feeding frenzy

This is when there’s a group of them, each taking a bite from the victim one at a time. It goes something like this:

Shark One: “Ohhh, I’ve never seen that before, where did you get it?”

Shark Two: “Aren’t you worried that he/she will never learn to crawl/walk/solve differential equations if you use that thing?”

Shark Three: “Oh, I’m sure he/she will learn to [insert vital milestone here] in spite of that contraption! But doesn’t it hurt your back?”

Shark One: “Oh, I’m sure his/her back is fine. It’s a young back. But you won’t be able to do that for much longer!”

Shark Two: “So how many of those things do you have?”

Shark Three: “More than one?! My goodness, we are a hedonistic, narcissitic, consumerist spendthrift, aren’t we?”

And so on.

Protecting yourself in these circumstances is difficult, as you’re being mauled one bite at a time. There are only two options: fight or flight.

The flight option goes something like this: move very quickly away from the school of sharks while saying over your shoulder, “Oh, dear, nappy to change, must go, you’re absolutely right, everyone else is a better parent than me and my children will almost certainly drop out of highschool/do drugs/become inveterate criminals but I’d like to cuddle them as much as possible before their inevitable death by firing squad in a small despotic African nation.”

The fight option requires you to stand your ground and punch the sharks in the nose one at a time. To take our example above, the correct response is: “On the internet. No. No. As long as we both want to. Lots. Yes and bite me.”

Your preferred strategy is, of course, up to you.

Danger #3: A stealthy predator

This situation means you don’t know you’re being attacked until the bite has been taken. The mauling occurs as disguised praise of another (innocent) relative who is parenting children. The upshot is either (a) because you’re doing it differently, you’re doing it wrong or (b) because you’re doing it differently, they’re doing it wrong and are therefore a bad parent, how could you say such a thing about Cousin Jackie?

No matter how often you explain that you’re doing it differently not better and that what works for your kids doesn’t necessarily work for everyone else’s; your sling, your stroller (or your lack of a stroller), your cot (or your lack of a cot), your cloth nappy (or your disposable or your lack of nappies altogether), your bottle or the fact that you have a breast which lactates is, inevitably a black mark (or a string of them) against you. There is only one option.

Shark fin soup.

Who loves a family wedding? Leave a comment and let us know!

No, this is not about putting a baby gorilla in a sling. You’ve probably heard of flash mobs, where a group meets in a public place at a precise time to do something that draws attention. And no doubt you know what guerilla gardening is, or you’ve at least seen the TV ads for the new show. Guerilla Babywearing is fun, free, and helps other families. It’s community advocacy on steroids.

The world’s coolest babywearing t-shirt by UK comic artist quigonjim

Wikipedia defines guerilla warfare as “the unconventional warfare and combat with which a small group of combatants use mobile tactics (ambushes, raids, etc.) to combat a larger and less mobile formal army. The guerrilla army uses ambush (stealth and surprise) and mobility (draw enemy forces to terrain unsuited to them) in attacking vulnerable targets in enemy territory.”

In Guerilla Babywearing, the small group of combatants is your local slingwearing group; the larger and less mobile army are the pram-pushers at the mall (obviously… ever tried to get past a twin stroller in the supermarket?). The basic ambush is to get your local babywearing group to meet up at the mall, in full combat uniform ie wearing your most attention-getting sling or carrier. Pamir may be expensive, but the colour scheme is too neutral to attract the attention of a Bugaboo-pushing parent - Earthy Rainbows would work better. The idea is to get out there and demonstrate how useful babywearing is, and that parents who use slings or carriers are not that much different to other parents. And to demonstrate this to the parents who most need this information - the parents who never get to see good quality baby carriers in use.

Before I got into babywearing myself, I didn’t personally know other babywearers. I had conversed with a few online, but they were all hard-core wrappers (I’m resisting the urge to add a bad music pun here). It wasn’t until I came across a local mum who used a padded-rail ring sling that I was able to get some help with the sling I already had, and from there I developed the confidence to try all kinds of slings. Imagine what a non-babywearer might think when they see parents of all shapes and sizes, both mums and dads and maybe grandparents too, with mei tais and wraps and pouches and ring slings… a whole new world opens up for them.

But it’s no good flash mobbing the local park, or the natural parenting mother’s group. Parents who have no idea about baby carriers don’t go to these places. It’s too hard to push a pram through the park, and mothers who join a natural parenting group are already open to concepts like babywearing. The people we need to reach are the ones who have no idea what they’re missing. And the best place to find them is the mall - easily accessible for pram users, lots of families per square inch, and your guerilla army can sit down with a soy latte or chai while doing their bit for the babywearing community.

If you want to make your guerilla babywearing event a success, here are a few tips:

• Get the participants to be on time. I know it’s hard to get parents of small babies to be on time for anything, but the bigger a group is, the more visual impact it has. Flash mobs synchronise their watches to the second for maximum impact. If you can at least get all your babywearers in the same place for a good twenty minutes, it will make for a great effect.
• Be bold in selecting your babywearing attire. If you can wear two, or even three, at once it’s even better. A good SSC might be an attractive option to a non-babywearer who has aching shoulders from their clip-on carrier, but an SSC convention (no matter how pretty the prints are) is just not as “out-there” as the other babywearing options. Bright colours, loud prints, and matching carry bags are all good looks.
• Make sure everyone has lots of cards for your local babywearing group. If you’re going to attract attention, do something useful with it. Assimilate the pram-pushers into the babywearing Borg. Resistance is futile!
• You could have prizes to encourage participation from your fellow babywearers: most cards handed out, best dressed etc.

I’m hoping the Canberra Babywearers will take up this idea for our next meeting. With four major shopping malls, two of them owned by Westfield, the biggest problem will probably be which mall to hit first. To quote Che Guevara, “Why does the guerrilla fighter fight? We must come to the inevitable conclusion that the guerrilla fighter is a social reformer, that he takes up arms responding to the angry protest of the people against their oppressors, and that he fights in order to change the social system that keeps all his unarmed brothers in ignominy and misery.”