It’s not often that we hear about ghost stories with infants as the protagonists, I’ve heard a couple (the disembodied crying baby or weirdness with baby monitors), but usually, if it’s a halfling ghost, it’ll be a child. But that wasn’t the case in Needham, Massachusetts in 1839– Just past […]
Did they really feed sick babies sunless tanner in the 1950’s?
Today we’re looking at baby carriers in William Hogarth’s The March of the Guards to Finchley from 1750. The March of the Guards to Finchley, depicts a fictional troop of buffoonish British troops in Tottenham Court Road, in London, on their way to fight the Jacobean forces in the uprising […]
Learn more about the first book in English on pregnancy, birth, and newborn care: The Byrth of Mankynde, 1540.
In 1913, breastfeeding was highly recommended by medical professionals due to the high infant mortality associated with cow milk substitutes. But how were new mothers educated about breastfeeding? The recommendations might surprise you. Boracic acid, anyone?
Learn how the Aymara tradition of carrying their babies is reflected in their concept of time and language– and how infant carriers built empires.
Can an infant carrier stop your baby’s cry hole? Science says… probably not. But it might make you feel better.
Human feet are unique in the ape family, made for walking instead of grasping. For our babies this means two fewer grasping limbs to help cling to their mother, which means that during the evolution of bipedalism, infants had a harder time hanging on. How did our ancestors survive?
This work is part of my project, The Evolution of Babywearing, which explores the evolutionary origins of the infant carrier and how it has shaped humanity as we know it. Many moons ago at a family gathering, a relative was complaining about her baby’s fussing, “He won’t let me put […]
