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Babywearing is the practice of wearing or carrying a baby in a sling or in another form of carrier. Babywearing has been practiced for centuries around the world. In the industrialized world, babywearing has gained popularity in recent decades. Part of the reason for this shift is due to the influence of advocates of attachment parenting. Babywearing is a form of baby transport which can be enjoyed for as long as mutually desired, often until toddlerhood and beyond .〔Blois, M, MD. (2005). ''Babywearing: The Benefits and Beauty of This Ancient Tradition''. Pharmasoft Publishing.〕 As with any acquired skill, babywearing can take some practice in the early days, but the benefits are soon, if not immediately recognized, and it is seen by many proponents as an enjoyable and practical art. ==Benefits== Dr. William Sears, a pediatrician, coined the phrase ''attachment parenting''. One of Sears' principles of attachment parenting is babywearing and he attributes many benefits to babywearing and the in-arms style of parenting. The benefits of babywearing include: * In the wearing of newborns in particular, the mothers' oxytocin levels are increased through the physical contact with the infant, leading to a more intimate maternal bond, easier breastfeeding and better care, thus lowering the incidence of postpartum depression and psychosomatic illness in the mother;〔(""Regulation of anxiety during the postpartum period"" ), Lonstein, Joseph S., ''Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology'', Volume 28, Issues 2-3, August–September 2007, Accessed 2009-05-09〕 similarly, the father carrying the baby has benefits for the paternal bond. * Infants who are carried are generally calmer because all of their primal/survival needs are met. The caregiver can be seen, heard, smelled, touched, tasted, provide feeding and the motion necessary for continuing neural development, gastrointestinal and respiratory health and to establish balance (inner ear development) and muscle tone is constant.〔Morris, D. (1992). What Comforts a Baby? In ''Babywatching (pp 80-82)''. New York: Crown Publishers Inc.〕 * Parental rhythms (walking, heartbeat, etc.) can have balancing and soothing effects on infants. * Infants are "humanized" earlier by developing socially. Babies are closer to people and can study facial expressions, learn languages faster and be familiar with body language.〔Kitzinger, Sheila. (1989). ''The Crying Baby''. Penguin Books.〕 * Independence is established earlier.〔 * Attachment between child and caregiver is more secure.〔Anisfeld, E., Casper, V., Nozyce, M., & Cunningham, N. (Oct., 1990). Does Infant Carrying Promote Attachment? An Experimental Study of the Effects of Increased Physical Contact on the Development of Attachment. ''Child Development, Vol. 61, No. 5'', 1617-1627.〕 * Decreases risk of positional plagiocephaly ("flat head syndrome") caused by extended time spent in a car seat and by sleeping on the back. Cranial distortion resulting from non-vehicular time in car seats has shown to be more severe than in children who develop plagiocephaly from back-lying on a mattress.〔Littlefield, Timothy R. "Car Seats, Infant Carriers, and Swings: Their Role in Deformational Plagiocephaly," Journal of Prosthetics & Orthotics 15, no. 3 (2003): 102-106.〕 Concern over plagiocephaly has also led the American Academy of Pediatrics to recommend that infants “should spend minimal time in car seats (when not a passenger in a vehicle) or other seating that maintains supine positioning."〔John Persing, MD, et al., American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Practice and Ambulatory Medicine, Section on Plastic Surgery and Section on Neurological Surgery, "Prevention and Management of Positional Skull Deformities in Infants," Pediatrics 112, no. 1 (July 2003): 199-202..〕 None of the babywearing positions require infants to lie supine while being carried. Infants can even be worn while they sleep, also decreasing sleeping time spent in a supine position. Studies of parent-child attachment, parental satisfaction and infant crying all point to babywearing as an ideal solution for parents to provide an optimum environment for attachment between parent and child. Baby carriers and slings help increase the number of hours a day an infant is held, and there is an inverse relationship between the number of hours spent crying and the number of hours a child is held in a given day. Even three hours per day of babywearing reduces infant crying significantly, and at 13 months, babies who have been in soft carriers regularly are significantly more likely to be securely attached than babies who are carried in hard carriers.〔Klaus, M., Kennell, J., Klause, P: ''Bonding'', pp 126,204-5. Addison Wesley Publishing Company, 1995.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Babywearing」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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