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: 

• 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!

We are incredibly grateful to have Mama Ballroom as a Gold Level Sponsor for International Babywearing Week!

Run by Monica, who dances with her adorable son Oscar, this class is great fun and a great workout. It’s perfect for expectant moms looking to move and stay in shape or for new moms looking for some fun exercise they can do WITH baby. Mama Ballroom has classes in three locations: Cambridge, Framingham and Sudbury and is looking to branch out even more in the near future.

It was fabulous to have Monica join our August meeting to give a demo class at the absolute last minute when our yoga speaker had a family emergency. Thanks so much for joining us Monica! We got a couple pictures of the demo class:

Mama Ballroom has also generously donated to our raffle. Be sure to get some tickets for your chance to win a gift certificate for 4 one hour dance classes.

If you missed her at our meeting, Mama Ballroom is offering 2 free workshops coming up soon. Check her website for more info and details to register for a workshop: www.mamaballroom.com.

Free Workshop at Barefoot Books, Concord, MA
When: Tue, September 25, 1:30pm – 2:30pm
Where: Barefoot Books, 89 Thoreau Street Concord

Free Workshop at Goodnow Library, Sudbury, MA
When: Tue, October 2, 10:30am – 11:30am
Where: Goodnow Library, 21 Concord Road, Sudbury

Don’t miss Mama Ballroom at our big Babywearing Bash on Saturday, October 13! She may even be demonstrating some dance moves.

Did you know that this year, Boston Babywearers’ has corporate sponsors for International Babywearing Week? These generous sponsors have helped us be able to bring even more fun and exciting things to our Babywearing Bash that concludes the week!

BBW is thrilled to have Diaper Lab in Somerville as one of these Gold Level Sponsors. Support from our members and local businesses is how we thrive as an organization.

If you cloth diaper your child then you have probably heard about Diaper Lab before, since they are one of the few stores in the area that sell all types of cloth diapers. Their website offers tons of information regarding all the types of cloth diapers out there which can be very confusing to a newbie! And they have a great sampler rental program so you can even try out different styles before you commit to an entire diaper stash.

But even if you don’t cloth diaper, you can get great info on baby products. They can answer questions ranging from diaper bags, swim diapers to even baby carriers.

We’ve been very excited to watch Diaper Lab grow over the years, because as they have expanded they have become one of the most versatile sources for baby carriers in greater Boston. This is wonderful since it’s difficult to actually find a place that has several options so you can check them out before you buy them (excluding of course BBW’s extensive lending library). Diaper Lab carries several well known brands and covers every major style of carrier: Boba, Beco, BabyHawk, Sakura Bloom, GoZoZo, Dolcino (woven wrap!!!) and Moby.

In addition to being a sponsor Diaper Lab has generously donated four prize packages to our raffle.

Prize Pack #1  (retail value $68.95)
-  3 Smart Bottoms All In One Diapers
-  1 Pack of Smart Bottoms Hemp Wipes

Prize Pack #2  (retail value $65.00)
-  Boba Air Carrier

Prize Pack #3  ($131.95)
-  Kate Quinn Organic Sleep Sack
-  GoZoZo Pouch Carrier

Prize Pack #4  (retail value $52.95)
-  1 Baby Kicks One Size Basic Pocket Diaper
-  1 Baby Kicks One Size Premium Pocket Diaper
-  1 Pack of Baby Kicks Hemp Washies

For more information or to check out their selections, visit Diaper Lab at 200 Elm St.Somerville, MA 02144 or online at www.diaperlab.com.

Stay tuned to hear about another sponsor next week!