By CARL E. FEATHER - Lifestyle Editor - cfeather@starbeacon.com
Ever since Priti Rane started wearing her baby, Shubh, to work, it’s taken longer for her to do interviews with clients at the Ashtabula County Women, Infants, Children (WIC) program.
Ditto for those quick visits to the store. That shock of black hair and pair of dark eyes peeping contentedly above the blue sling on Rane’s chest elicits predictable comments and questions that cause her to pause, listen and respond.
“’You’re so lucky.’ ‘Your baby is good.’ ” says Rane, sharing the most common comments she hears.
As a practitioner and evangelist for baby wearing and breast-feeding, Rane welcomes the questions. And as lead Dietitian for the Ashtabula WIC program, Rane practices what she preaches by wearing her 5 1/2-month-old baby in a sling as she goes about her duties at the WIC office. Lunch and snacks are always on mom.
Since most of her work is done at a desk, the snoozing bundle rarely interferes with work. Every couple of hours Shubh gets to stretch and play on a blanket Rane spreads on the floor near her desk.
“It’s modeling for other moms who come through the door,” says Diana Brook, health services director for the program.
The arrangement is facilitated by a very mom-friendly breast-feeding policy adopted by the local program. Brook says the Ohio Department of Health has, since 2003, promoted breast-feeding friendly workplace policies. In developing a policy for their office, Brook and the staff worked together to establish one that allowed mothers to bring their breast-fed babies to the job.
The policy is open-ended. “We decided not to set a definite time frame because each baby and mom are different,” Brook says.
In sync with Mom
Laurie DeVivo, a breast-feeding peer helper, was the first employee to both use the provision and adopt baby wearing as a component. Several months after her fourth child, Ellie, was born two years ago, DeVivo attended a breast-feeding conference where a vendor was selling baby slings. She purchased one and started wearing Ellie, 3 months old, to work.
Although DeVivo stopped bringing Ellie to work at 10 months, she continues to wear the baby around the house, on shopping trips and during many other activities.
“It’s wonderful,” she says. “It’s the most comfortable thing, even at this age, it’s very comfortable.”
DeVivo says the sling is primarily about bonding, although it has many other benefits to both baby and mother.
“The baby becomes part of our world,” DeVivo says. “They share our communication; that baby is not set off to the side.”
She dreads the day when the sling will eventually have to be retired.
“I love wearing her,” DeVivo says. “I’ll miss that.”
Rane noticed DeVivo’s success and enthusiasm for the sling, but was skeptical she could do it with her baby. Nevertheless, Rane purchased a sling.
She put it to the test after three weeks of doing things the traditional way. Rane says Shubh was a “perfect little angel” as long as he was held. “Between nursing and holding him most times of the day, I could hardly get anything done,” she recalls. “He also started getting fussy in the evenings and nothing seemed to calm him down.”
One of those fussy evenings, Rane decided to try the sling. “As soon as I got him settled in it properly, he instantly quieted down and fell asleep. I was amazed,” she says.
Rane has been wearing her son ever since – except for those times her husband takes over. She says fathers who wear their babies report a sense of empowerment and involvement otherwise unattainable, especially when the mother is breast-feeding.
“It’s not just me and the baby,” Rane says. “He can do so much more with him than just play.”
Indeed, baby wearing is not just for parents. Rane says grandparents, aunts, uncles and any other family member who wants to bond with the baby can do so by wearing it.
Slings can accommodate babies up to 35 pounds, which raises one of the most common questions Rane gets – “Doesn’t your back ache?” But Rane and DeVivo say a properly seated sling distributes the weight evenly over the back and shoulders.
“My body has adapted to it. I haven’t had any back issues at all,” says Rane, who wears the 15-pound baby for up to 10 hours at work. She feels that baby wearing has actually helped her lose some of the extra weight that comes with pregnancy and helped her overall physical well-being.
Enthusiasm for the sling is so strong among the WIC office workers, they started offering the slings to clients and non-clients alike because there was no local source for them. They’ve sold nearly a dozen since opening the option two months ago.
Cost is $56 for moms who do not qualify for WIC; $35 for WIC clients (profits from the sale of slings subsidize the sling cost for WIC clients). A DVD provides instruction on how to properly adjust and wear the cloth device.
Rane says the key is to wear the sling high and tight. “It’s snug; you can feel it,” she says. “This baby is not going anywhere.”
The baby can be worn facing the mother for times of sleep and breast-feeding or facing the world for awake times. About the only time it’s not practical to wear the baby is when cooking or performing chores involving risk of bumping into an object.
At least one book has been written about the subject, “Babywearing” by Maria Blois, and there are numerous Web sites that extol the system’s benefits.
“It is the best money I ever spent on a baby-related thing,” DeVivo says.
