Safety

Using a sling incorrectly is not unlike using an infant car seat without proper installation, infant positioning, and restraints.

Do:     Check to ensure that your baby is not curled up tightly in a chin-to-chest position
Do:     Make sure your baby's back is straight and supported
Do:     Make sure that your baby is "close enough to kiss".
          
Don't:      Never jog, run, jump on a trampoline, or do any other activity that subjects your baby to similar shaking or bouncing motion

Benefits

·        Babywearing reduces infant crying significantly.
·        Babywearing helps infants fall asleep more easily and sleep longer, both of which also reduce the mother’s stress.
·        Babywearing promotes bonding between the mother and infant.
·        Babywearing allows a mother to care for her baby while attending the daily tasks of living.

Types of Carriers

· Wraparound Slings
A simple strip of cloth that is used to wrap and tie around the baby.  Wraparound slings can be short, for quick one-shoulder carries, or longer, to distribute the baby's weight evenly over two shoulders and the caregiver's torso and hips.

· Ring Slings
A ring sling is a shawl with a pair of rings attached to one end. Some ring slings have padding where the sling rests on the caregiver's shoulder or along the edges of the sling, and some depart further from traditional shawl carriers by having the fabric at the end of the sling folded and stitched into a rope-like tail.

· Pouch Slings
Simply a tube of fabric with a curved seam. Pouches are sized to the adult wearer, and what they lack in adjust-ability they make up for in convenience. Few carriers take up less space in a diaper bag or are as quick to put on and take off as a pouch.

· Mei Tais
The modern take on a traditional Chinese baby carrier with a body panel, shoulder straps, and waist straps still carries the traditional name, "mei tai". The new-generation mei tais typically have either wide, padded shoulder straps, or extra-wide, wrap-style, unpadded straps for the wearer's comfort. They also offer a variety of features such as headrests or sleeping hoods for the baby, pockets for diapers or other essentials, and fabric choices that range from strictly utilitarian to truly luxurious.

· Soft Structured Carriers
Also with a body panel and shoulder and waist straps, soft structured carriers replace knots with buckles and add a thickly padded waistband and shoulder straps. The result is a different weight distribution and overall different look and feel from a mei tai, putting this style of carrier into a category of its own. Soft structured carriers offer the convenience of buckles yet are vastly different from framed backpacks in that they hold the baby securely against the wearer's body. Unlike framed backpacks, soft structured carriers are suitable from birth through toddlerhood and provide the benefits of body-to-body contact for the baby.