Falling whilst babywearing

As you may have read in our previous blogs, babywearing is the same as all parenting decisions we make and involves a risk assessment.

When you fall you brace yourself, usually with your arms/hands. If you have your child in your arms when this happens, you no longer have your arms available to aid you as you fall. You will likely instead wrap your arms around your child and brace for impact, or you may be at risk of dropping your child as you fall. This could lead to other injuries to areas of both of your bodies that may have been avoided without carrying something. The same applies if you were carrying anything else too.

So really it’s about weighing up the risk. If a child is safely secured in a carrier, your arms and hands are likely going to be available to help you land better. The two of you will fall together. Again you may make a decision to wrap your arms around your child instead, protecting them.

What if I am back carrying?

In general, falling forward is likely to be more common because you will have momentum in that you will be moving forward more often than backwards. Falling backwards occurs more often when sitting down (trying to stand), or when you slip. Tripping and falling require momentum and gravity to occur, meaning the chances are that you will fall forward. As the child will be on your back, you might risk assess that to be safer, leaving you free to brace your fall.

Unfortunately, aside from general health and safety decisions you can make such as keeping floors clear or wearing suitable footwear for your activity, trips and falls do happen and can sometimes be unavoidable. This leaves you with the risk assessment of babywearing to decide if you feel at risk of injuring your child as opposed to a scenario not involving a sling.

Not much can feel simple with parenting huh?! If you would like to be shown how to safely carry your child in a sling, you can book a 1:1 consultation at our parent hub, The PoD. We offer online options if you aren’t local also.