Did you know that this will be the 5th year that Babywearing International has celebrated International Babywearing Week, and the third celebration in Boston?
Babywearing has been around for as long as babies---lots of different cultures have different ways to keep babies close and comfortable. (Flickr has a pool of great pictures of traditional/"ethnic" baby carriers) But in the United States, babywearing is a relatively new trend. Many American parents rely and have relied on strollers, carseats, swings, and cradles to soothe their babies. These can all be useful---but many babies are not fooled by "mechanical mothers", and would rather be held by their actual parents/caregivers. Babywearing allows those caregivers to keep baby close and safe, while having hands free for chasing older kids, laundry, dishes, blogging, and everything else the modern parent is expected to keep up with in a typical day.
But babywearing was not completely unknown in the Americas, even in the
1960s: The Canadian Broadcast Company recently published a video from it's archives of an interview with a Canadian mother showing off her collection of baby carriers, explaining that she loves "baby toting". Check it out:
http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/lifestyle/homemaking/homemaking-general/baby-toting-in-1963.html
This year, there are groups celebrating International Babywearing Week all over. These are all the other groups registerred (so far) as celebrating International Babywearing Week with us:
And, of course, don't forget to check out our IBW events and get your raffle tickets! There are a lot of great prizes from our IBW sponsors!
Babywearing has been around for as long as babies---lots of different cultures have different ways to keep babies close and comfortable. (Flickr has a pool of great pictures of traditional/"ethnic" baby carriers) But in the United States, babywearing is a relatively new trend. Many American parents rely and have relied on strollers, carseats, swings, and cradles to soothe their babies. These can all be useful---but many babies are not fooled by "mechanical mothers", and would rather be held by their actual parents/caregivers. Babywearing allows those caregivers to keep baby close and safe, while having hands free for chasing older kids, laundry, dishes, blogging, and everything else the modern parent is expected to keep up with in a typical day.
But babywearing was not completely unknown in the Americas, even in the
1960s: The Canadian Broadcast Company recently published a video from it's archives of an interview with a Canadian mother showing off her collection of baby carriers, explaining that she loves "baby toting". Check it out:
http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/lifestyle/homemaking/homemaking-general/baby-toting-in-1963.html
This year, there are groups celebrating International Babywearing Week all over. These are all the other groups registerred (so far) as celebrating International Babywearing Week with us:
- Atlanta Babywearers
- BWI of Phoenix
- Materno Infantil de Mallorca (Spain)
- Central Coast Babywears (Australia)
- Corvallis Babywearers (Oregon)
- Central West NSW (Australia)
- KangaMamas (Rhode Island)
- Babywearing Association South Africa
- BWI of the Triangle (NC)
- Kingston Area Babywearing Group (Canada)
- Malvern Sling Meet (Worcestershire, UK)
- Up, Please! East of the River Babywearers (CT)
- Associoació Mareus (Spain)
- Malaysian Babywearers
- BWI Chicagoland
- BWI of South Jersey
- BWI of Delmarva
- BWI of DC-MD-VA
- The Babywearing Network (Eugene/Springfield)
- lbebaba: Association of Babywearing Advocates in Hungary
- BWI of Central Maryland
- Boston Babywearers/BWI of Greater Boston!
- Sheffield Babywearers
- Bolton Sling Meet (UK)
- BWI of Kansas City
- Asteraki Slings (Greece)
- NCT Stafford Babywearers & Nappucino (UK)
- DuPage Slingers (IL)
- Babywearing North Shore (New Zealand)
- Whangarei Babywearers (New Zealand)
- DevonAPI & Baby Tiponi (UK)
- Keyiflibebek (Turkey)
- Bangkok Babywearing Club (Thailand)
- Filipino Association of Babywearers
- San Antonio Area Babywearers (TX)
- Babywearers of Central Vermont
- Sheffield Slings (UK)
- Mamaroo Babywearing (OR)
- BWB - Babywearing Brasil
- Wear Bears (NH)
- Newcastle Attachment Parenting (Australia)
- North London Sling Meet (UK)
- BWI of Central New York
- sling.md babywearing in Moldova
- Babywearers of Northern NJ
- Columbia SC Babywearers (Babywearing International of Columbia, SC)
- Babywearing UK
- BWI of Greater Austin
- Fundacja Centrum Aktywnosci Tworczej (Poland)
- BWI of the Bay Area (CA)
- Isle of Wight Sling Library (England)
- BWI Birmingham
- Black Hills Babywearers (SD)
- BWI of Peoria (Illinois)
- Manchester Sling Meet (UK)
- Babywearing Hauraki (New Zealand)
And, of course, don't forget to check out our IBW events and get your raffle tickets! There are a lot of great prizes from our IBW sponsors!