Chicago Hosts First Ever World Babywearing Education Day

To celebrate the growing natural parenting and babywearing communities, the

inaugural World Babywearing Education Day kicks off in Chicago on Thursday May 26, 2016. World Babywearing Education Day leads up to Wear: A Babywearing Conference – a first-of- its-kind event for parents and medical practitioners who embrace the social and psychological benefits of babywearing – taking place Friday May 27 through Sunday May 29, 2016 at The Westin Hotel on Michigan Avenue. “The natural parenting movement has grown significantly over the past 5 years,” Xza Higgins said, Wear Conference organizer and MommyCon Founder. “Babywearing is a big part of this philosophy. The purpose of World Babywearing Education Day and the WEAR conference is to normalize babywearing and de-bunk the myths surrounding it, educating families about its crucial role in child development. We also want to celebrate babywearing educators who work tirelessly to educate families on a local, national and international level.”

Babywearing is an ancient practice used worldwide. In North America, an increasing number of caregivers are now searching for babywearing information and products out of necessity and convenience, encouraged by findings that the use of carriers can support healthy physical and emotional development in infants and the adults who "wear" them..

“Over the past decades, we have witnessed a dramatic increase in the sophistication of investigatory methods of how both parents and children develop in co-dependence”, says Dr. Henrik Norholt, Chief Science Officer, Ergobaby Inc. “Modern measures comprise behavior, hormones, physiological regulation and brain imaging. We see a common

denominator amongst the multifarious studies, investigating the effects of early parent-infant physical contact: Both the parents and the child are put on a more positive developmental trajectory as regards vital domains, such as socio-emotional skills, stress regulation, sleep organization, cognitive control, parent-child relations and parental mental health. Longitudinal studies demonstrate that such children stay ahead of the curve across childhood, so early positive effects are not just transient, but appear to be permanent and long-lasting.”

Wear: A Babywearing Conference includes more than 50 workshops, interactive sessions with industry experts and healthcare professionals, a range of high profile speakers including world-renowned child development researcher Dr. Henrik Norholt. Other prominent speakers include Jennifer Labit, CEO & Founder of Cotton Babies, speaking on Babies at Work, Jessica Martin-Weber of The Leaky Boob speaking about the bond of babywearing, and Karin Frost, Founder of Ergobaby sharing The Ergobaby Story. Other talks and workshops include Using Babywearing To Support Breastfeeding Goals, The Babywearing Guide to Hiking, Babywearing Posture: A Chiropractic Perspective, and Babywearing for Children on the Spectrum. There will also be a one-on- one consultation room; babywearing fitness classes, including Babywearing Yoga and Babywearing Bellydance; and a WEAR dance party.