About Held Babywearing

Held Babywearing is run by me, Emma Woods. I'm a Slingababy trained babywearing consultant.

My full babywearing story is below but if you want the short version; I LOVE babywearing, but that doesn't mean it came naturally or easily to me. It took time, patience and a lot of support from an amazing babywearing community.

I want to share my knowledge and experience of carrying kids with others to spread the gift of babywearing.

Held babywearing is an LGBTIQ+, neurodivergent friendly social enterprise. You can find more information on this here.

Once I was comfortable front carrying with wovens, Arte (former sling librarian, wonderful doula turned Crystal healer) taught me how to back carry with a woven and wow! I was (and still am) blown away by the versatility of woven wraps.

The world of woven wraps can be a bit bewildering; all the different lengths, fabrics, colour and then there's the carries, fancy finishes, front carries, back carries, hip carries etc. I started to experiment and explore. Once I felt confident and strong enough post partum I tried carrying both kids at the same time - tandem carrying.

As my kids have got older carrying has become less frequent as they have naturally wanted more independence, but we still take slings with us when we know the kids are likely to get tired, want to be close to us or need our help coregulating.

As my confidence grew I started to share my love of babywearing with friends and family, helping them to overcome concerns and anxieties especially if they hadn't carried children before.

Training to be a babywearing consultant and volunteering at Chesterfield

What next?

When my daughter was around 4 weeks old I had another sling consultation where I was introduced to the world of woven wraps. I was warned it was a rabbit hole and I fell in quickly!

Not long after I was a bridesmaid for a good friend who happily agreed to let me carry my daughter down the aisle...

My son and I attempted a stretchy a few times but I got so hot and stressed he wailed and hated it. We kept trying. I eventually booked a consultation at Sheffield Sling Spot where they gently encouraged me to try a few different slings, and babywearing slowly started to click.

My son was growing quickly and by the time he was 4 months old I was struggling to carry him on my front. Another sling consultation later and they had shown me the wonder of early back carrying. I shared my new found knowledge with my husband, but I struggled to explain how to do it, especially as we are completely different body shapes. We headed back to the Sling Spot for a consultation for him.

Over the next few months Covid restrictions eased and we started to get more confident using slings; our first holiday as a family of three, registering my son's birth, trips to the hospital and lots and lots of contact naps.

I continued carrying my son until I was around 20 weeks pregnant with my daughter.

My daughter arrived just before my son turned 2. With a toddler and a newborn, babywearing kept my daugher close whilst keeping my hands free to play with my son.

My carrying confidence had grown and I carried my daughter almost everyday from birth.

With two under two my husband often carried our son to help him with the transition to becoming an older brother.