Baby Bistro Babywearing

At Baby Bistro, we currently support pregnant and postpartum women and their families with free, qualified breastfeeding support. I, Eimear, the Chairperson, have been volunteering as a Breastfeeding Counsellor and Certified Breastfeeding Specialist for 6 years now and have completed internationally recognised certification. I believe that families need free-to-access support, a safe space to discuss their antenatal and postnatal experiences, and a place to meet other mothers and families and connect. We know that the UK has some of the lowest rates of breastfeeding in the world, and I am passionate about supporting mothers who want to breastfeed in their journey to do so. We also welcome mothers and families who formula feed and need support or guidance as mothers formula feeding generally do not receive a huge amount of support other, and often struggle with issues any feeding parent has around colic, reflux, sleep deprivation. At Baby Bistro, everyone is welcome and support is available for all. What we now hope to do is to expand our support. Myself and our Secretary, Elin, would like to undertake formal, recognised training to become Babywearing Consultants and offer free fourth trimester consultations to families. All families with a baby born in Scotland are entitled to a Baby Box, which contains a sling. However, there is only a sheet of paper with printed instructions inside and we have discovered over the last 14 months of Baby Bistro that many many families have been bringing their slings to us to ask if we can help them to use them. We are all aware of the incredibly heartbreaking stories in recent months of babies suffocating from incorrect babywearing and Elin and I feel very strongly that, as a country who offer slings to all families, we should be able to offer them safe, 1:1 support on how to wear the sling provided in our Government-issued box, but also support with the many other slings and carriers that parents buy or are gifted.

Who Benefits

There will be no set end date to this- it will be an ongoing weekly service. Parents, both mothers AND fathers (many, many fathers carry their babies in slings and babies will often sleep better and for longer when being carried in a sling by a male) will find this invaluable, especially parents who have other children and need the use of their hands to help other toddlers. Slings provide a safe space for a colicky/ refluxy baby and can help with reducing postpartum depression as it can lead to happier, calmer, more content babies. It can also help with bonding for both mothers and fathers, can lead to improved oxytocin production through skin-to-skin, which can lead to improved feeding outcomes, better weight gain in babies, fewer illnesses, better body temperature regulation for baby, calmer heart rate regulation for baby... the benefits are almost endless. This funding will pay for mine and Elin's training and a selection of slings that we can loan to families.