How to wear your baby to work
nature.com
nature.com
But I did frequently wear both our babies in a sling during lots of other activities. Hiking, cross country skiing, strolling around town, doing small projects around the house, or just sitting down to read a book, are all really nice activities to do while wearing baby. All parents should try it. It's a closeness to your baby that is hard to convey if you haven't experienced it.
Personally I found carrying a baby on shoulders a heck of a lot more convenient and comfortable than carrying them on my chest. Also then the whole time you are walking around the baby is further strengthening their muscles and improving their balance.
Admittedly, I’m not great with kids: I don’t have the instincts yet. But I can recognize that childcare isn’t something that someone can schedule as a 4-hour bloc to be one-and-done in the evening (if they can’t or don’t want to hand their child to some hired service): it’s interwoven throughout a parent’s day. Sure, there will be crying and other noises, but I can deal with that. It seems to me artificial to make the 9am-5pm workday so sterile and devoid of organic human activity.
I’m young and was a child of a single working mother not very long ago. I remember it being difficult for her. But I am now grown and — in a nod to my mother and other parents like her — favor a parent-friendly work culture.
I hope this trend continues past the pandemic.
Socialization wise I can see it being a win potentially for bonding and experience for the kid certainly assuming it doesn't turn into "crying baby on an airplane but everywhere" situation which would hinder adoption.
Nothing to do with baby wearing (which I am a huge proponent of) but this sounds miserable. Still a postdoc after three years and going in to the lab two weeks after giving birth? We are producing way too many grad students.
No, you're lacking adequate protection for fresh parents, mothers and fathers alike.
At the moment career market forces have the upper hand - they can select for those who are willing to go back to the lab two weeks postpartum. If it were mandatory that all new parents had six months postpartum time off, the situation would be different.
Clearly. And universities are not pressured to extend those protections to postdocs because of the oversupply Ph.Ds.
https://www.universityaffairs.ca/features/feature-article/pa...
One reason I was going to work was because I love my research, but if I could have taken six months off, paid, without worrying about career progression, then I probably would have spent a whole lot more of that babywearing time reading novels or going for walks outside.
And while this is true, it is also worth pointing out that many parents don't want to pause their adult/career goals for 3-6 months because of a new baby. I recently had my first child and while she was little (now 10 months) she would sleep/sit on my lap while I wrote code/ran numerical experiments. I had paternity leave, but I needed to keep working on something because I have an active mind. Now I only worked 4ish hours a day instead of my usual 8-10 (and on side projects instead of work), but I wanted to continue working. My wife who does graphic/web design consulting continued after the birth because it feels good to do adult things. And she didn't stop just because the baby was born she just dropped to 5ish hours a week which has slowly crept back up.
I chose to do this because I did not find it to be miserable, although it definitely wouldn’t work for everybody.
In my field (biology), it is typical to postdoc for 3-6 years so I’m actually on the early side. That postdocs take so long is definitely something that needs to be addressed, though.
I was lucky that when my first was born my institution began a policy of a semester of paid leave for the mother or partner. As others have pointed out though, it seems to have a drawback that partners are more likely to use it for extra research time, which tends to raise tenure standards for everyone, including mothers.
I think the problem is larger than a policy can address. We need a culture change.
And enjoy the baby wearing! Mine are too big now and I miss it dearly.
It was also great exercise to wear the baby while doing physical activity. I once carried her through the streets and museums of Paris for an entire day, and was barely sore.
If you're a mom or dad I highly encourage it. In fact, it's a great way for dad to help out while mom's body recovers from birth.
I'm going to be a dad in mid 21 and want to carry the child with me a lot. I've seen people use entire plastic products they attach to their upper torso that seem great, as (1) I'm not confident on my knot making skills (and I have a lot to learn already) and (2) maybe that stuff distributes the weight around better?
But: maybe slings built out of whole cloth like the one shown in the picture are better somehow for parental attachment, and the structured kangaroo carrier is halfway a stroller. Maybe that's not even the tradeoff and there are other health and hazard considerations (e.g. sometimes I get hyperfocused enough that I can forgo lunch; should I carry my child on my chest rather than my back so I'm better aware of her status?)
I want to know a lot about this subject and don't even know what questions to ask.
Yet also, your baby will attach to you even in stroller, don't worry. Wearing baby is super practical definitely, but go with device that is most comfortable to you. The more comfortable, the more you will do it.
I'm not sure what kind of baby carrier to use, but will give cloth a try at first. I also like carrying my son on my shoulders but given how big he's getting I'm starting to worry about what that fall would be like if something were to happen...
The baby bjorn I adjusted once and it was good for months. It had clips to make it easy to take the baby in and out and for quick release when going through things like airport security.
My only complaint was that it was hard to do the clip in the back because I think it is designed for women who have a lot of experience clipping things behind their backs.
Yes, there are a zillion ways to wrap a long piece of cloth (people have been doing this for at least thousands of years), and there must surely be one of them that works for any body shape. The wrap takes a bit of practice and is definitely slightly slower to put on/off than some of the carriers though (maybe an extra 1 minute).
There a many different styles of carriers so it is worth reading about and, if you can, trying out some different styles. Ring slings and stretchy wraps are great for newborns and are pretty easy to use. Woven wraps like I prefer are great for all ages and very comfortable but there is definitely a learning curve so keep that in mind and don’t get discouraged if it takes a while to get a good fit. There are buckle style carriers that can fit at any age. My personal favorite is the Kinderpack by Kindercarry.
I went with a sling/wrap, and could easily snug a bottle under it for them to nurse on while I worked. (I'm a man, making me ill-equipped to do so otherwise).
I hope things could be better when she become 2-year old, but not really confident on that.
My 4-year-old is finally getting a bit more independent now though. Now that he is able to read books, draw pictures, build things with construction toys, etc. that can keep him independently engaged for a good while with intermittent encouragement.
> I started wearing number 2 to the lab two weeks after she was born, because I was planning to apply for faculty jobs, and I was worried that taking time off would weaken my applications.
Also a good way to show you are a "no BS just gets things done" kind of person. Also selects out places that aren't tolerant of anything unusual, but given the number of post docs and faculty positions many may be afraid of this.
My favorite memory is being on a call with a few lawyers while carrying my 5 month old trying to move enough to prevent the baby from being bored/crying while simultaneously explaining our claim structure strategy.
That was a tiring 90 minute meeting.