Carried Away

Quality time with your child is an important activity that helps parents bond with their little ones.  It starts immediately upon birth in the hospital with what they are calling "skin-to-skin" time.  The moment the child comes into the world they are placed on the mother's bare chest, allowing contact between the mother and full length of the infant's body.  In the case of twins, mom holds one and dad holds one.  Just a note, I asked during my prenatal class, dad is wearing a shirt under the hospital gown and the baby is slipped under both the gown and the shirt.  I have to remember to wear an old shirt that day, because new born babies are covered in goo, and they don't get hosed off before being handed to you...

Once you get home from the hospital keeping the babies close is just as important.  Having twins means twice the carry time.  It also means twice the laundry, twice the cleaning, twice the everything...a solution that has been suggested to us to allow both bonding time and free hands is a baby carrier, not just for outside excursions, but for around the house as well.  I spent an afternoon trying out several different carriers before making a decision.  I'm going to discuss three of the products below...

The Moby Wrap, is simply a long piece of stretchy fabric that you wind about your body in such a manner as to create a protective baby-carrying pouch.  This one frightened me at first, it seemed a throw back to a time or place before technology existed.  But to be honest, the store clerk took me through the winding process and it wasn't very difficult at all.  The cloth is held in the middle against your stomach, then wrapped around your back.  You cross the ends of the fabric then draw them up and over your shoulders.  The ends are pushed through the pocket you created in the front and then crossed over once more.  Lastly, it's wrapped about your waist again and tied off at your hip or back.  The wrap is very secure, as long as you have done it properly.  It was quite comfortable as well and made me feel very pretty...I think I'm man enough to wear a decorative wrap, but the advertising for this product was definitely aimed at women.  I asked the store clerk and he confirmed that the product is mostly sold to women, but that you are starting to see more men wearing them too.  Am I a trend setter or do I need a more manly product in a house painted pink and filled with stuffed animals and pretty ladies?

The Moby is the least expensive option in the carriers I'm reviewing.  At $60 it had a lot of great qualities.  All the carriers were rated for newborns, but the Moby was the only one without a weight restriction, so it would be great from the minute you bring your baby home (the other carriers stated 8 pounds and up).  It's machine washable and comes in a variety of colours.  I'm sure the wrap is made of a breathable material, but you still have several meters of it wrapped around your body, so for outdoor use in cooler months I think it would be great.  I anticipated a heat problem indoors or in the summer, however.

The other two carriers I want to discuss are models of the Ergo and the Baby Bjorn.  Neither of these are wraps.  These products are specially designed packs, with shoulder and back support.  The main difference appeared to me to be the position the baby is in while being carried about. 

When I was trying it on, the Ergo was priced at $120.  This carrier can be configured to be worn on your front, your back, or your hip and is rated to carry up to 40 pounds.  The baby's placement is such that the child is always facing towards you.  As well, the baby is seated with their legs wrapped around your body, rather than dangling like the Baby Bjorn.  There is a internet war raging over the seated or dangling configuration, but they both have their advantages.  Supposedly the advantage to the seated design, is comfort.  I have no idea if this is true, and the one baby I was able to ask wouldn't give me a straight answer...

I wasn't very impressed with the back support of the Ergo model I tried on.  In fact, it was really non-existent, consisting simply of a quick release buckle up high near the neck; the function of which appeared more for holding the shoulder straps together rather than support.  The weight of the baby is distributed between your hips, shoulders and neck.  Carrying 40 pounds of wriggling fury with no real back support kind of turned me off this product.  There was a built in rain/sun hood that was easily accessible if worn in the front or on the hip.

I found the Ergo less comfortable then the Moby, and I think I would suffer from the same overheating drawbacks.

Lastly, the Baby Bjorn was priced at a bank breaking $200 (for the Synergy model I tried on).  This product was easy to put on and take off had excellent, fully adjustable back, shoulder and hip support and was made of a lightweight, breathable, machine washable mesh.  The buckles were all easy to reach and secure.

This product can only be worn on your front, but the baby can be positioned to face you (with additional neck support for the baby) when the child is very small, or positioned to face outward for stimulation as they get older and can support the weight of their own head.  The Baby Bjorn products are being labelled "crotch danglers" on the internet because of the way that the baby is placed inside (pressure between their legs as opposed to on their bum when seated in the Ergo).  It is precisely this design however, that allows you face your child towards or away from you.

I found the Baby Bjorn to be the most comfortable of the carriers, and did not anticipate the overheating that I would expect with the other products.


We posed the question on several of the twins message boards "How long did you use your baby carrier?" with varying responses.  Some women found that they only used their carriers for a few months, but that this had more to do with their children's tolerance rather than any other factor like personal comfort.  Others suggested that they used their carriers for over a year.

I personally purchased a new Baby Bjorn Synergy for the comfort and breathable mesh, but immediately experienced buyer's remorse.  I'm now considering returning the product and looking for one online instead.  My babies will be small enough to carry mostly through the winter months, so outdoor use will be limited.  It's nice to purchase everything new, but with twins, I'm just not sure it's economically feasible.  I know people selling their Baby Bjorns for as little as $25, a completely reasonable price for something I might only use for a few months in the house.  Either way, in my mind, having a baby carrier is essential (one for each of us, my wife and I actually).  It will allow me to spend quality time with my baby girls and yet keep my hands free to still do things like fry bacon or cut the lawn.