You Cannot Spoil A Newborn By Holding Him. The Science Of Babywearing

"Don't carry him so much, he'll get the habit."

If you've had a baby in an Indian household, you've heard that sentence — possibly this week, possibly from someone you can't argue with. Here's the short answer: you cannot spoil a newborn by holding him. And there's a randomised trial that shows what carrying actually does.

I'm a doctor and a mother, and this channel is about pregnancy, birth and the newborn months — without the endless list of everything that can go wrong. This is the first video in a full babywearing series.

In this video:
— Why a newborn's grip reflex and leg fold are him expecting a body
— The 1986 trial on carrying and crying (and the honest footnote about it)
— What happened to attachment scores when researchers handed mothers a carrier instead of an infant seat
— Why carriers changed how fathers' brains responded to a baby crying
— The two objections I hear constantly, answered
— The one safety rule you need from day one: high, upright, face visible

COMING UP IN THIS SERIES
Wrap vs sling vs buckle carrier · How to tie one, step by step · Babywearing in Indian heat · Back carrying · Wearing while you work · Safe positioning, in full

Stuck on something? Put it in the comments. I'd genuinely rather build this list from your questions than from mine.

THE RESEARCH
Hunziker & Barr, Pediatrics, 1986 — increased carrying and infant crying (randomised controlled trial)
Anisfeld et al., Child Development, 1990 — soft carrier vs infant seat and secure attachment at 13 months
WHO Immediate Kangaroo Mother Care Study Group, NEJM, 2021 — continuous skin-to-skin and mortality in low birth-weight infants
[+ add the citation for the father/amygdala imaging study you used in the script]

Hatch is made by Snugs — mysnugs.in

This video is general information for parents, not medical advice for your individual baby. Please speak to your paediatrician about your own child.

#babywearing #newbornbaby #indianparenting #babycarrier #newmom