Babywearing: A Physio’s
Perspective
Part 7: Posture for Babywearers
By Stephanie Cox, BSc (Physio), APAM
As a physio who has worked in Orthopaedic
Outpatients, Paediatrics, Women’s Health,
Occupational Health and more, I doubt that
a single work-day has gone by without me
advising a patient to attend to their posture.
And we’ve all heard about it, in various forms.
Your mother: “Stop slouching!”
Your embarrassing Aunt: “Pull your
shoulders back – stick out your boobs!”
Your Grandmother: “When I was a
girl, I had to walk around with the Bible
on my head...”
Teachers: “No-one will ever offer you a
job if you sit like that in an interview!”
The new car salesman: “And this is
the button for the electronic lumbar
support...”
OH&S representative at work:
“Here’s your brand new ergonomic
workstation, let me show you how to
adjust everything perfectly for yourself.”
Ok, so that last one has never
actually happened. But what does
posture mean? What makes it good
or bad? Does it really matter? And
where does posture come into
babywearing?
What does
posture mean?
Posture is simply the official term for
the position that your body is in. It
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relates to the whole body, not just
the spine, and we use it particularly
when we are talking about sustained
(or held) positions.
What makes it
good or bad?
As with many things in life, there is no
defining line bet ween good and bad
posture. It is a continuum on which
we can almost always improve, but
knowing what you are aiming for helps
you to see where that improvement
can occur. You are aiming for a
balanced position in which all of your
muscles have to work the least possible
amount in order to maintain that
position AND no joint is at the end of
its range of motion.
As an example, ‘locking’ your knees
would push your knees backward
from this vertical line, so it’s not ideal.
Although it reduces how hard your
quadriceps (front of thigh muscles)
have to work to hold you upright,
your knees are fully hyper-extended,
i.e., at the end of their range of
motion in that direction. This puts
carried away | Spring 2015 | Babywearing: A Physio’s Perspective
standing with locked knees down
towards the ‘bad’ end of the ‘posture
continuum’. Add an extra load, like a
baby on your back, and your knees
might start to give you pain after
some time.
Even the classic directives like ‘chin
up, shoulders back, chest out’ can
result in bad posture too, as shown in
the picture below.
The most common ‘bad posture’ we
regularly see around us is a common
sitting posture... it involves chins
poking forward, shoulder-blades
rolled forward, upper back rounded,
lower back slouched, feet up on a
stool with ankles crossed and knees
locked. Sound familiar at all? An
evening in front of the telly, anyone?
Sitting up in bed using your tablet?
Put your feet down on the floor,
and suddenly it looks like feeding a
baby, or how many of us sit at our
computer desks.
Poor sitting posture and how to correct it.
How bad your poor posture is for you
depends on how long you hold it for,
how often you do it, and how much
extra load you’re carrying at the time.
Slouching for 20 seconds to thread a
needle isn’t too bad, but spending 8
hours a day at your laptop in the same
position is likely to lead to problems
pretty quickly. Leaning forward to
scratch your knee is totally fine, but
holding that forward-bent position for
several minutes while you wrangle a
wriggly toddler on to your back while
learning to back carry might cause
pain and strain.
‘Repetitive Strain Injury’ type pains,
and many more. Poor posture can
cause pain and dysfunction in the
short term, but also contributes to
problems over the longer term, which
are often harder to address. Often
enough, it is the activities in which
you have poor posture which are most
likely to be limited by those problems.
Where does
posture come into
babywearing?
One way or another, babywearing
is going to change your posture.
Placing a load on your front, back or
hip is going to alter the position in
which your joints and muscles are
in the best balance. If you already
have any postural faults, adding
the weight of a baby might well be
enough to make these faults start
causing problems.
Firstly, take the strain off your lower
back. Make sure that when you
bend forward, you hold your back
the same position as when you are
upright, ie, with a gentle inward
curve in your lower back. You do this
by keeping your knees slightly bent
and tilting your pelvis like you are
sticking out your tail. This allows the
muscles to work more efficiently,
it reduces strain on your joints,
including the discs and ligaments,
and also means you’re more likely
to have tensioned things correctly
when you stand up again. And
of course, you should be actively
engaging your core muscles - back,
abdominals, and pelvic floor, along
with breathing.
A poorly adjusted SSC or a sloppy
wrap job might pull your body into
a poorer posture, which you might
tolerate for a short period of time,
but for the longer term, you are
much better off learning to adjust
your carrier correctly or to wrap with
good technique.
Let’s look at some specific examples
of where you might need to improve
your babywearing posture.
Getting baby on your back is a
common time for babywearers to
notice some muscle fatigue, which
Aim to keep a gentle inward curve in
your neck and lower back, a gentle
outward curve in your upper back, and
your shoulders, elbows, hips and knees
in a loose, comfortable position which
is not fully bent or fully straight.
Does it really matter?
Yes. There is a very strong correlation
between poor posture and certain
musculoskeletal conditions, including
headache, neck pain, back pain,
can quickly degenerate into strain,
tissue damage and pain.
‘Poor posture with loss of the inward
lumbar curve
Good posture with the inward
lumbar curve maintained
Secondly, don’t spend longer
that you have to bent forwards!
Become familiar with your carrier by
practising front carries first. Know
where to reach to adjust all the
buckles, and which way they pull.
If you are wrapping, you need to
master strand by strand tightening,
making a seat, etc, in front carries,
before tackling these challenges in a
back carry. Practise the carry with a
doll or teddy until your body knows
exactly how to move, and what
sequence to go through to complete
the carry. All of this minimises
the time spent in a forward bent
position.
Continued page 12
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Babywearing: A Physio’s Perspective