A Free Guide to Baby Wearing and Slings
Why babywearing?
Carrying your baby in a sling is a natural act, and for many parents, babywearing is a way of life. Babies thrive when being held close to their parents, it helps them feel calm, secure, and content. The closeness helps forge a strong bond between a baby and their parents.
Slings promote responsive parenting, they enable parents to be close to their baby, pick up on their cues easily and answer their babies’ needs swiftly, whether it is feeding, sleeping, over-stimulation or any other needs.
Babies can be carried in slings in a comfortable, safe and secure manner from birth until toddlerhood and beyond and the benefits of babywearing are countless. Think ‘hands-free’ naps on the go and stress-free transport amongst many others.
Which sling is the ‘best’ sling?
There are lots of different types of slings; style, brands, material and options. The world of slings combined with a large amount of choice can be overwhelming and confusing when trying to find a sling.
There isn’t a ‘best’ sling and the best sling certainly isn’t the most expensive, the one all the other parents and your friends have, or the one everybody recommends or wants to give you.
The ‘best’ sling is simply the sling that works best for you, your baby and your family. It could be a stretchy wrap, a woven wrap, a ring sling, a meh dai, a podaeghi, an onbuhimo, a pouch, a half-buckle carrier or a buckle carrier. It could even an old tablecloth you turned into a sling to carry your baby!
The best sling is the one that is comfortable, supportive, that enables you to do everything you need it for and is safe, check out T.I.C.K.S. for safe babywearing.
Always try before you buy!
So, how do I choose a sling? Always try slings on before you buy one and try a few! Say no to offers of people buying a sling until you’ve made a choice as they all offer different types of comfort, support and carrying longevity.
Go to your local sling library/consultant, we love our job and love helping parents find ‘THE’ sling.
You can find your local consultant here.
When to get a sling?
There is no harm in trying on some slings while pregnant to get an idea of what’s out there, how slings feel and what you might like.
Once your baby arrives, you can go back to see your sling library to try the slings on with your baby, hire them out and see what works best for you.
And it’s never too late to start babywearing, so give it a go, you won’t regret it!
You can download a FREE shareable PDF of this and many other resources here and watch Mel demonstrating some of the more popular slings here.
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Mel is a mum of 2 boys based in Bethnal Green and runs Wrap a Hug Sling Library East London. She is a certified and experienced babywearing consultant with a real passion for supporting parents on their babywearing and parenthood journey. You will always find a warm welcome when booking a consultation with her.
She o-organises the Tower Hamlets Family Meet-up which is a parent support group where new parents come to meet and get free support from local perinatal experts.
Mel runs various sling library information sessions around east London and offers private consultations, face-to-face or online.
She will help you find the best sling for your family and has over 200 slings for you to try on and hire. Mel can also help you feed your little one in the slings, show you how to carry 2 babies and works with parents regardless of their physical ability.
She makes babywearing socks to keep your little ones’ toes nice and toasty in the cold weather!
Contact Mel for all your babywearing needs at mel.wrapahug@gmail.com or via text on 07916349685.
www.wrapahug.com
