Excerpt from Natural Baby and Childcare

The use of handmade devices to carry a baby is as old as parenting itself. In many cultures, babies are strapped onto parents, allowing parents to keep their baby safe and warm while they work, cook, or walk. Similar to the concept of swaddling, wearing and carrying your baby in a sling simulates the feeling of being nestled in the womb and replicates the natural motions experienced for nine months in utero.

Many child care experts talk about the eighteen-month gestational period-nine months in the womb and nine months without-and the swaddling and carrying of your baby is effective in providing just this kind of extended womb experience. And baby carrying offers benefits to parents and infants alike: studies have shown that infants who are frequently carried cry and fuss 43% less than babies who are kept in a stroller or crib. In cultures that practice natural child-rearing, most mothers or caregivers carry babies for months before their little feet literally touch the ground.

Many parents here, on the other hand, worry that wearing their baby consistently will be an impediment. Often, however, quite the opposite proves true. Newborns worn in a sling are often quiet and unobtrusive company. When Étienne was six weeks old, we were at a friend's party in a restaurant and I was wearing Étienne in the sling. One of the guests exclaimed that she did not realize there was a baby in there until she saw a little hand emerge.