Carried Away Spring 2015 | Page 12

Wrapping doesn’t always go right first time! Low back pain is a common outcome of front carries with poorly tightened straps on an SSC, or top rail on a ring sling or wrap carry. The looseness of the top of the carrier allows baby to lean away from you, increasing the distance between your centre of gravity and baby’s. We compensate for this by leaning backwards, which increases the curve in our low back, compressing the joints and often deactivating the core muscles which should be supporting our joints. Correctly tightened straps, as per the T for Tight in TICKS, keep baby’s centre of gravity close to ours so that we can maintain a gently inward lumbar curve. (See images in orange box above.) Another common complaint is neck and shoulder pain in a ruck. Even the mo 7BW&fV7B'V6