Brr ... weather's changed again. After a few glorious autumnal days of sunshine, we're back to winter woollies again.

Life in Melbourne is never predictable when it comes to the elements. Thankfully babies can stay warm and dry while the family go about life despite the weather. #babywearing keeps them dry and cosy without you needing to drag a pram through muddy puddles!

In Australia, the Facebook group Babywearing Buy, Swap, Sell is the biggest community for pre-loved baby carriers.

For members of Southern Natural Parenting Network, the members-only group SNPN Exchange includes baby carriers in the items offers.

Elsewhere, contact your local babywearing group to find out what is available to you.

Why do we not honour the truth about what our newborns need?

As Kittie Franz put it so beautifully:

"Remember, you are not managing an inconvenience; You are raising a human being"

"By the 1930s, mothers were sternly warned not to pick up their babies except at very specific times. When babies cried, the mothers cried too, but the word from the experts was that it was forbidden to pick up or even touch their babies. This would spoil them. One Canadian paediatrician even wrote that picking up a 2 week old who was crying was the first step to juvenile court." #drjacknewman

The pressure put upon mothers in the past to ignore their babies crying, to resist the temptation to pick them up, to refrain from cuddling and holding them was huge. Decades later, tears still form as they describe standing outside the closed bedroom door while their child cried.

Children need to see themselves reflected in books and other media. It helps them develop a sense of identity.

This book has been a favourite of the carried children in our family and is a regular at bedtime storytime.

You can find this and other suggested titles on our Book Shelf.

Around the time the British were invading this land they called Australia, an ancestor of mine (wonderfully named Jinkin Jenkins) crossed the border from Wales into England and established the family in that country. It is likely Jinkin was carried in a Welsh nursing shawl as a baby, as his mother went about her daily work. You can still buy these siol fagu today - I really must order one from Wales to add to my collection!

Argh! There are so many baby carriers! How do I choose?

Yep - it's a minefield out there. How on earth can you decide, when you don't even understand why they are so different?

So - here's the thing: baby carriers fall into some basic categories:

Wraps = woven or stretch fabrics

Ring slings = fabric with rings

Soft-structured carriers = buckles

Meh Dais = traditional Asian carriers

he design of prams and strollers has always frustrated me. But as a grandmother that frustration has become annoyance.

I really struggle to communicate with my grandchildren when they are facing away from me, especially in crowded or noisy environments (not that we have been in many of those since covid-19!) This makes interaction really hard and conversation disjointed.

Thankfully, baby carriers aren't as "precious" as they might appear. Because babies tend to create messes, most can be washed in your washing machine. Always check the care instructions first, for recommendations around detergents and temperatures.

The attraction of breastfeeding a baby supported in a baby carrier is very appealing when a new sibling comes to join the family. With an active toddler to monitor and occupy, the idea of sitting in a chair all day breastfeeding a newborn seems laughable!

Breastfeeding and babywearing have allowed women to multitask for millennia. Here's a few things it helps to keep in mind:

We sometimes see babies whose heads are completely covered by the fabric of their carrier. It's important to understand you can support their head while sleeping while still keeping them visible and kissable.

Baby's chin should be pointing up from their chest, with their head gently tipping back. You will have full view of their face, from forehead to chin.

The child's need for physical contact is well-established. Research shows it is important for development.

Sometimes, you just have to laugh. As others cast dire predictions of the rods you are creating for your own back, the ridiculousness of it all gets you through.

Who are these shadowy beings who were carried too long, breastfed too long, bed-shared too long? Your aunt's cousin's next door neighbour's friend's son ... really? The urban legend continues to be trotted out by people who judge your values because your actions challenge their own.

Before independence must come dependence. Only through secure attachment with the primary caregiver - bio-typically the birth mother - can a human infant learn the skills of life to take forward into independence. It takes 8-9 years for an orang-utan to reach maturity and wean, skilled in selecting safe foods and able to live independently.

The human brain matures around 25 years.

Getting a baby carrier fitted correctly will mean both adult and child are comfortable. It's not a test you have to pass with perfection and you won't get it right first time ... or even every time. There are some basic safety factors you need to keep in mind, as you do using a cot, pram, high chair or car restraint nobody is judging your skill or expertise.

If you ask for a fit check, we are looking for the most common areas which can be tweaked for comfort. We all learn practical skills through practice and you will too. Don't give up on a carrier because you can't get it to look "perfect"! As long as the baby is safe, you can work on the technique again and again.

Babywearing

There's more to it than simply using a baby carrier. #babywearing is part of an approach to parenting which sees the maternal body - or that of another primary or secondary caregiver - as an infant's natural habitat.

As Martha Sears described it so well way back in the 80s, a baby carrier is something you wear like a piece of clothing and your baby returns to this base after the physical care of feeding and changing is done. The baby carrier is simply a tool allowing for continuous contact with the newborn with hands free for other tasks.

reastfeeding enhances natural bonding between mother and baby. A major factor in that is the release of the "love hormone" oxytocin each time the baby comes to the breast: this hormone is responsible for the milk ejection or let-down reflex, which releases the milk.

However, females don't have exclusive access to oxytocin and research has shown that fathers levels of oxytocin also increase in the newborn period! Touch and connection are the ideal conditions for stimulating this and babywearing is perfect for this.

Skin-to-skin contact is a wonderful way for fathers and other non-breastfeeding caregivers to maximise this. A baby carrier snuggling baby against a bare or partially exposed chest is great for bonding.

Even those children who begged for a baby brother or sister can feel short-changed once the novelty wears off.

We don't relinquish our place as the baby of the family: we are rather abruptly moved along a conveyor belt of birth place. And it is very normal for older children to crave the connection they see between their mother and the new baby.

Babywearing is more than just using a baby carrier.

Although humans have constructed tools to transport and protect their infants for millennia, #babywearing is a term coined by Dr William Sears in the 1980s to reference using these carriers as part of an intentional parenting philosophy he called Attachment Parenting.

Attachment Parenting is not defined by the practices which support it. That is not the case.

Growing up in a #babywearing family, children see it is natural to support babies needs for connection and touch. What they see in their community, they replicate in play. And what they normalise through play, they take into adult life.