Baby carrying has many positive effects on a baby's psychological development. The body closeness from baby carrying provides warmth as well as reassuring and familiar sounds and movement. Children feel relieved when their need for contact is met. As a result they do not have to devote their energy to their protection and survival (secretion of stress hormones). They can focus their energy on their development and discover their environment while being cradled in a protective cocoon. This close physical contact provides children with the body contact and affection that they need. Body-to-body contact is particularly important during the first few moments after birth. 

Firstly, children need physical contact in order to bond with the mother, this helps them to separate better later on. Being assured of limitless love will help the child to become a more self-assured and confident individual, who will later become that much more independent. Children are reassured by this close contact and as a result they cry less and fall asleep more easily. Furthermore, having been cradled in the mother’s womb for nine months, the baby naturally wants to regain this soft floating feeling. The tiny human is a parent-clinger and this is proved by the gripping and finger-curling reflexes present from birth. Thus physical contact brings the child feelings of well-being.

Secondly, dialogue with the parent and resulting social skills are key elements in the baby’s psychological development and future well being. Parents are more likely to talk to children carried at adult height than to children in strollers, for example. This increased dialogue encourages language development, which can especially benefit children with speech difficulties. This closeness also helps to stimulate the baby’s relational and emotional life. Babies learn from their parents that they are worthy of love, and that in life there are always people close by ready to give comfort and help when it is needed.

 

Baby carrying can have significant advantages to you from a physical and psychological point of view. You can find more information related to the ERGObaby Carrier here. First of all, the ERGObaby Carrier is light (690 g) and its ergonomic design ensures that it does not strain the adult’s back. The child's weight is perfectly distributed across the adult's body, from the shoulders down to the hips. The wide waist belt is designed to protect the woman’s perineum, which is significantly slackened after giving birth. When the baby is carried correctly, swaddled against the adult, baby carrying strengthens the wearer’s back muscles which provides additional protection to the back. Baby carrying can help you to get back in shape. 

Then from a psychological point of view, the production of oxytocin is stimulated by touch during baby carrying. Oxytocin is a hormone that promotes bonding between parents and children, it causes relaxation and trust within parents. Those who experience this bonding are less likely to suffer from postnatal depression and other postnatal conditions. As there is no fabric separating the baby from the wearer, the mother can easily breastfeed her child while the child remains in the carrier. This body-to-body contact has a positive effect on the quality of the parent-child relationship and, consequently, for the well-being of all around them.

The term “dysplasia” is a combination of plasia, which stems from the Greek “plasis” and means “process of a development/formation” and the prefix dys, stemming from the Greek “dus”, which expresses the absence of something. Thus, a dysplasia is a malformation in the development of a tissue or an organ. Hip dysplasia, CDH for short (for congenital dysplasia of the hip), is an umbrella term for congenital or acquired false positions or disorders of the ossification of the newborn’s hip joint. 

The following illustrations show a normally to heavily damaged hip joint:


Illustration A: normal hip joint
Illustration B: hip joint affected by dysplasia
Illustration C: hip joint affected by subluxation 
Illustration D: hip joint affected by subluxation 
Illustration E:
The greater the impairment the wider (a) and higher (b) the femoral head is situated out of the joint socket or acetabulum, the more askew is the roof of the acetabulum (c) and the more blunted is its rim (d). 


DIAGNOSIS
In most cases, this matter is about a single dysplasia, affecting considerably more girls than boys (80 %) and appears 90 % on the left side. The frequent appearance in one and the same family leaves us to conclude that hip dysplasia is inheritable. 

Ever since the introduction of sonographic screening in infants, it has been possible to considerably improve a prognoses of hip dysplasia. 
Early detection means, first of all, that a clinical examination is undertaken for various reasons, for example because of family precedence (a hereditary risk exists); because of the geographical point of origin (in France, for instance, the Bretagne is the region where hip dysplasia most frequently occurs); because of some birth complications (breech delivery, malformation or false position of legs or feet); in cases of asymmetrical thigh skin folds; in cases of an askew pelvis or a protruding hip or a hip with restricted mobility. 

The ultrasound examination of the hip helps the diagnosis. During the first four and a half months, it is very reliable and evaluates the stability of the joints in real time. From four and a half months onwards, frontal X-ray pictures confirm a potentially serious or risky diagnosis. If, even if hip dysplasia is suspected, the X-ray turns out normal, then the diagnosis can also be determined by means of other radiation examinations like MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), scintigraphy or possibly CT (computer tomography).

THERAPY
The measures available for treatment are of orthopaedic as well as of surgical character. An orthopaedic treatment is mostly the first step; changing the newborn in a position as to keep the legs apart, or using orthopaedic aids as abduction pants that spread the baby’s thighs (von Rosen splint, Pavlik harness, and so on). If the diagnosis is made later, then the child is treated by means of an abduction plaster, i.e., putting the child in a cast on the affected side from foot to hip. The intention is to achieve the final ossification of the hip joint that occurs between the third and the sixth month in a position that is healthy for the hip joint. Thanks to all these aids and early detection measures, an operation (osteotomy of the pelvis and / or the femur) seldom becomes necessary.

If severe cases of CDH cannot be treated then the result is permanent damage of the hip joint. Effects include pain or walking dysfunctions like limping; during the final stage CDH can even lead to arthrosis of the hip joint. Less severe forms are not painful. 

CARRYING IN THE ANATOMICALLY CORRECT NATURAL SITTING POSITION AS A PRECAUTIONARY MEASURE
Hip dysplasia occurs very often in the Mediterranean and in Scandinavia. In Germany for instance, hip dysplasia is with 4 % the most frequent congenital maldevelopment of the skeleton. In other parts of the world, however, particularly in China or Africa, it is largely unknown. This is, among other reasons, due to the carrying culture that exists in those countries, where peoples carry their children close to their body, in a position such that their legs are kept bent and spread, almost all day. 

Since the sitting position that the baby assumes when carried in this way corresponds exactly with the spreading and bending that is achieved by the recommended orthopaedic aids here, we can safely assume that carrying a baby in this position, called the anatomically correct natural sitting position, is a good measure to prevent hip joint dysplasia.