A QUIE T P L AC E
A call to arms
| by Peggy O’Mara, Editor and Publisher
On March 12, the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning regarding the use of baby slings. The CPSC asserts that slings pose a suffocation risk for infants younger than four months old, and that caution should be exercised when carrying babies of this age group in slings. On March 24, the CPSC got more specific by announcing a
But even
car seats
can be
dangerous if used
incorrectly;
as they
should with any baby product, parents
must know
how to
properly
use slings
and baby carriers.
recall of the Infantino SlingRider, citing three infants who died in this particular sling. In addition, the CPSC called for mandatory standards for slings because no standards of any kind, mandato- ry or otherwise, now exist for slings. The CPSC is currently work- ing with the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), Infantino, other sling manufacturers, consumer advocates, and test labs, among others, to develop voluntary standards that can be used as the basis for industry-wide, third-party certification. If a standard is approved, it will most likely be incorporated into the certification program of the Juvenile Products Manufactur- ers Association (JPMA). The recalled Infantino SlingRider has a deep pouch, exces-
sive fabric, and elastic around the edges. Like other “bag slings,” it puts a baby at risk for becoming curled up tightly, chin to chest—a position that can restrict breathing, especially in babies who are not yet able to hold up their heads. Babywearing has seen a dramatic increase in the last five
years; from 2006 to 2008 alone, sales of slings increased 43 percent, to over $21 million, according to CBS News. Along with this increase in use has come a rush to manufacture new slings, which are now sold at Babies-R-Us, Target, and Walmart. Three years ago, when several sling manufacturers, including
Hotslings, Zolowear, Ellaroo and MayaWrap, became concerned about the lack of safety standards for new sling products, they approached the JPMA, a national trade organization, to ask them to create standards. But while the concern for sling safety standards is new, babywearing is not. It has been around for centuries, and is a necessity for parents all over the world who carry their babies while they work and do domestic tasks. American Indians prefer a cradleboard. Among the Inuit,
babies are carried in an amautik. Latin Americans use a rebozo, and Koreans like a podaegi. In Japan, babies are wrapped in the traditional kimono sash, or obi. Among the Hmong, baby carri- ers incorporate intricate designs intended to protect the infant’s soul from evil spirits. And in Tanzania, carriers are made of kanga or kitenge textiles. When I was a young mother in the early 1970s, I carried my babies in a red corduroy Snugli front pack and a frame backpack that I sewed from a Kelty kit. As a mother of two babies under 18 months, I was inspired by photos I’d seen of women in traditional societies who wore their babies as they went about their lives. By 1980, three makers of baby carriers—Andrea’s Baby Pack,
Tot Toter, and Heather’s Handmades—were advertising in Moth- ering. These were all home businesses selling products designed and made by moms. The 1980s saw almost a “call to arms” as that generation of mothers discovered the book The Continuum Con-
cept: In Search of Happiness Lost, by Jean Liedloff (Perseus Books,
1975), and took seriously a term she coined: the in-arms phase. Liedloff’s book details her experience living with a stone-
Right:
Easter 1976—
Peggy with her son Finnie in a Snugli. Daughter
Lally ponders her Easter egg in the background.
12 mothering | May–June 2010
age tribe in the South American jungle. The Yequana care for their babies as all our early ancestors did: marsupial style. They carry their babies almost everywhere they go, seldom putting them down—and when they do, they pick them up again as soon as they stir. Contrary to Western concerns that this type of parenting spoils infants, Yequana infants grow into children with an emotional security and confidence rarely seen in the modern world, according to Liedloff. In our Winter 1985 issue we published Linda Dawson’s “The
Baby Sling,” though the article was actually about a wrap (in those days, babywearing terminology had yet to be standard- ized). Over the Shoulder Baby Holder was founded in 1987, and in 1988 was the first company to place in Mothering a display ad for a baby carrier. A young doctor, Bill Sears, wrote an article,
REEVE TAYLOR
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