Why Wear Your Baby?
Gillian, owner of G Slings, answers...

There are several reasons why I wear my baby. First and foremost, it makes my baby happy. He has never, ever cried while in a sling, not even when he was brand new. I’m positive it makes him feel safe and sound being so close to me, being able to smell me and feel my breath and hear my voice.

Second, it’s convenient. I never have to struggle with a bulky stroller on a bus or in a restaurant, I can still push around a grocery cart and not have to put my baby in the filthy baby seat or seat him in the front of the cart (now that he’s older). I can walk around crowded stores (think antiques!) and not have to worry about narrow pathways or banging into things or around corners.

Third, I get to hug my baby all the time! I will never complain about that.

Fourth, my hands are free. I have my hands free to carry shopping bags, talk with my hands, push my grocery cart, and do whatever I want to! It’s very liberating! On a solo trip to Georgia I kept my son in his sling for the entire commute through the airport- rushing to gates and being able to push my luggage cart with both hands. I don't know how I would have handled a stroller AND my luggage. It was the most valuable thing I brought with me for the trip.

Fifth, my son learns more by being out in the open than he does strapped into a stroller. I constantly hear how "alert" my son is when he's in his sling (and NEVER when he's in his stroller, strangely enough).

Other people also have other wonderfully valid points to make. If you Google, "why wear your baby," you're met with hundreds of sites with lots of great reasons. Here are few of them:

Wearing your baby promotes his/her physical development.
When your baby rides in a sling attached to your body, she is in tune with the rhythm of your breathing, the sound of your heartbeat, and the movements you make – walking, bending, reaching. This stimulation helps her regulate her own physical responses, and also exercises her vestibular system, which controls balance. The sling is in essence a "transitional womb" for the new baby, who has difficulty controlling her bodily functions and movements. Premature babies who are touched and held gain weight faster and are healthier than babies who are not. Mechanical swings and other holding devices do not provide these same benefits.

Babywearing is good exercise for you!
It's hard to find time to exercise when you are a new mother, but if you carry your baby around with you most of the day or go for a brisk walk with your baby in her sling, you will be doing your body good. A long walk in the sling is also an excellent way to put a child to sleep.

Babywearing helps you and your baby to communicate better with each other.
The more competent you feel as a parent, the more you can relax and enjoy your child. And a large part of feeling confident in your parenting is being able to read your baby's cues successfully. When your baby is held close to you in a sling, you become very sensitive to each other's gestures and facial expressions. Many babywearing parents report that they never learn to distinguish their baby's cries (as mainstream parenting books say they should) – because their babies are able to communicate effectively without crying! Each time your baby is able to let you know she is hungry, bored or wet without crying, her trust in you is boosted and your confidence in yourself as a parent is reinforced. This positive cycle of interactions builds upon itself, enhances your mutual attachment and makes life more enjoyable for everyone.

Slings are a bonding tool for fathers, grandparents and other caregivers.
Slings are a useful tool for everyone in baby's life. It makes me smile every time I see a dad going for a walk with his baby in a sling. Baby is becoming used to his voice, heartbeat, movements and facial expressions and the two are forging a strong attachment of their own. Fathers don't get the automatic head start on bonding that comes with gestation, but that doesn't mean they can't make up for this once baby is born. The same goes for babysitters, grandparents and anyone else the baby comes into contact with. Cuddling up close in the sling is a wonderful way to get to know the baby in your life, and for the baby to get to know you.

Slings are a safe place for a child to be.
Instead of being pushed along the street inhaling exhaust fumes in a stroller or running around loose in a busy parking lot, a child in a sling is held safe and secure right next to your body. Slings also provide emotional safety, so that children can venture into the world and become independent at their own pace.

Slings save you money.
Apart from being easy to use, slings cost far less than those big boat-like strollers, designer front-carriers or baby backpacks. In fact, once you start using one you'll probably find it among your most useful and economical possessions.

(From http://www.wearsthebaby.com)

Dr. Sears, the highly respected pediatrician who coined the term “babywearing,” has a lot of wonderful things to say about wearing your baby. Some of his best points are as follows:

Sling babies learn more.
If infants spend less time crying and fussing, what do they do with the free time? They learn! Sling babies spend more time in the state of quiet alertness. This is the behavioral state in which an infant is most content and best able to interact with his environment. It may be called the optimal state of learning for a baby. Researchers have also reported that carried babies show enhanced visual and auditory alertness.

The behavioral state of quiet alertness also gives parents a better opportunity to interact with their baby. Notice how mother and baby position their faces in order to achieve this optimal visually interactive plane. The human face, especially in this position, is a potent stimulator for interpersonal bonding. In the kangaroo carry, baby has a 180-degree view of her environment and is able to scan her world. She learns to choose, picking out what she wishes to look at and shutting out what she doesn't. This ability to make choices enhances learning. A sling baby learns a lot in the arms of a busy caregiver.

Sling babies are more organized.
It's easier to understand babywearing when you think of a baby's gestation as lasting eighteen months – nine months inside the womb and at least nine more months outside. The womb environment automatically regulates baby's systems. Birth temporarily disrupts this organization. The more quickly, however, baby gets outside help with organizing these systems, the more easily he adapts to the puzzle of life outside the womb. By extending the womb experience, the babywearing mother (and father) provides an external regulating system that balances the irregular and disorganized tendencies of the baby. Picture how these regulating systems work. Mother's rhythmic walk, for example, (which baby has been feeling for nine months) reminds baby of the womb experience. This familiar rhythm, imprinted on baby's mind in the womb, now reappears in the "outside womb" and calms baby. As baby places her ear against her mother's chest, mother's heartbeat, beautifully regular and familiar, reminds baby of the sounds of the womb. As another biological regulator, baby senses mother's rhythmic breathing while worn tummy- to-tummy, chest-to-chest. Simply stated, regular parental rhythms have a balancing effect on the infant's irregular rhythms. Babywearing "reminds" the baby of and continues the motion and balance he enjoyed in the womb.

Sling babies get "humanized" earlier.
Another reason that babywearing enhances learning is that baby is intimately involved in the caregiver's world. Baby sees what mother or father sees, hears what they hear, and in some ways feels what they feel. Carried babies become more aware of their parents' faces, walking rhythms, and scents. Baby becomes aware of, and learns from, all the subtle facial expressions, body language, voice inflections and tones, breathing patterns and emotions of the caregiver. A parent will relate to the baby a lot more often, because baby is sitting right under her nose. Proximity increases interaction, and baby can constantly be learning how to be human. Carried babies are intimately involved in their parents' world because they participate in what mother and father are doing. A baby worn while a parent washes dishes, for example, hears, smells, sees, and experiences in-depth the adult world. He is more exposed to and involved in what is going on around him. Baby learns much in the arms of a busy person.

Sling babies are smarter.
Environmental experiences stimulate nerves to branch out and connect with other nerves, which helps the brain grow and develop. Babywearing helps the infant's developing brain make the right connections. Because baby is intimately involved in the mother and father's world, she is exposed to, and participates in, the environmental stimuli that mother selects and is protected from those stimuli that bombard or overload her developing nervous system. She so intimately participates in what mother is doing that her developing brain stores a myriad of experiences, called patterns of behavior. These experiences can be thought of as thousands of tiny short-run movies that are filed in the infant's neurological library to be rerun when baby is exposed to a similar situation that reminds her of the making of the original "movie." For example, mothers often tell me, "As soon as I pick up the sling and put it on, my baby lights up and raises his arms as if in anticipation that he will soon be in my arms and in my world."