Babywearing as a Powerful Practice to Combat Postpartum Depression

Postpartum depression (PPD) is the most common complication of childbirth, affecting millions of caregivers worldwide. However, it’s not just postpartum depression that needs attention—perinatal mood and anxiety disorders (PMADs) encompass a range of emotional and mental health challenges that can begin during pregnancy and persist well into the postpartum period.

While therapy, medication, and support groups are common interventions, they’re not always accessible to every parent. We need low-cost, easy-to-implement solutions that can make a real impact on mental health.

One intervention that’s gaining traction: BABYWEARING.

Research and experience have shown that babywearing is more than just a practical way to carry a baby. It can be a lifeline for parents navigating the challenges of PMADs, offering emotional and psychological support through the simplest of means: close physical contact with their baby.

How Babywearing Impacts PMADs

The connection between babywearing and mental health may seem intuitive to those of us who have seen its benefits firsthand. However, recent research has strengthened the case for babywearing as an effective intervention for PPD and PMADs.

Schoppmann et al.'s paper, “Infant Carrying is Associated with Reduced Maternal Repetitive Negative Thinking and Increased Maternal Mental Health,” explored maternal mental health while babywearing. “Repetitive negative thinking was significantly lower, and positive mental health was significantly higher when carrying while caring compared to overall levels.” The researchers noted that babywearing education was a key component of success. Concluding that “infant carrying could be a low threshold, easily monitored intervention method for maternal mental health problems.” 

A randomized controlled trial by E.E. Little et al. explored how providing infant carriers to mothers in low-income urban areas affected their mental health postpartum. Their findings? Mothers who received baby carriers experienced fewer depressive episodes at six weeks postpartum compared to those who did not receive carriers. The research suggests that wearing a baby may provide mothers with emotional resilience during a highly vulnerable time. 

These findings align with other studies, including work by Riem et al. (2021), which found that infant carrying enhances a parent’s sensitivity to their baby’s cries. This heightened awareness and responsiveness may help explain why babywearing positively affects maternal mental health—it fosters a sense of closeness and connection that can be grounding and emotionally stabilizing. 

Why Babywearing Works: Infant Contact and Mental Health

Babywearing promotes close, consistent contact with a baby, which triggers a cascade of positive physiological and emotional responses in both parent and child. This skin-to-skin closeness supports the release of oxytocin, also known as the “love hormone,” which has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety. Regular infant carrying can help mothers feel more attuned to their babies' needs, fostering confidence in their parenting abilities and reducing feelings of overwhelm that can exacerbate PPD.

Additionally, the act of carrying a baby in a carrier can free a parent’s hands, allowing them to engage in daily tasks, care for themselves, connect with the outside world, or practice mindfulness, all of which contribute to a greater sense of well-being. For parents struggling with PMADs, having this flexibility can be a lifeline, helping them stay connected to both their baby and their own mental health needs.

Babywearing as a Low-Cost, Accessible Intervention

One of the most potent aspects of babywearing is how accessible it is. Babywearing is not just for those who can afford expensive carriers—many carriers can be found secondhand, borrowed, or even homemade. This makes it a viable solution for many families, regardless of socioeconomic background. 

Additionally, babywearing can be incorporated into daily life with minimal effort. Parents can wear their babies while attending to other children, working around the house, or even walking outside for fresh air. This ease of integration is key, as it provides constant, ongoing contact that has been shown to reduce anxiety, improve bonding, and foster emotional well-being. 

How Perinatal Professionals and Babywearing Consultants Can Support This Work

As perinatal professionals and babywearing consultants, it’s critical to introduce babywearing as a supportive practice for mental health early in pregnancy. By helping parents discover, choose, and learn babywearing techniques and rationale prenatally, you give them the tools and the space they need to navigate postpartum challenges with greater confidence.

Education is crucial and the biggest hurdle—providing information on the mental health benefits of babywearing and offering hands-on guidance can make a world of difference for your clients. Providing a wide range of services and opportunities for families to find babywearing help and assistance when needed is essential. Access to a babywearing consultant should be easy and accessible, embedded into current community parenting programs, and available through the hospital before discharge or via doctor’s offices.

Until then, here are a few ways to integrate babywearing as a mental health intervention into your practice:

• Prenatal Classes and Consultations: Discuss the mental health benefits of babywearing with expecting parents and recommend that they consider it as part of their postpartum plan. Offer resources like babywearing classes or support groups to give them the confidence they need to start.
• Early Postpartum Support: If babywearing were easy and intuitive, everyone would do it, but that isn’t the case. Ensure parents have the resources and guidance they need to start babywearing in those critical first few weeks after birth. Whether you’re providing in-person help or virtual consultations, this early support can set the stage for successful babywearing and reduced postpartum stress.
• Collaborate with Mental Health Professionals: If you work with a team that includes mental health providers, consider suggesting babywearing as a complementary intervention for parents experiencing PMADs. The holistic benefits of babywearing can be a valuable addition to other therapeutic treatments.
• Provide Babywearing Resources: Offering downloadable resources or handouts can help solidify your role as a trusted guide for babywearing education. Whether your clients are prenatal or postpartum, having easy-to-access information on hand can be invaluable.

Babywearing is much more than a practical way to keep a baby close—it’s a practice that can support maternal mental health, ease the transition into parenthood, and build strong bonds between parent and child. For perinatal professionals, it’s helpful to know and partner with your local babywearing consultants; it’s critical to position babywearing not just as a parenting technique but as a go-to intervention for parents dealing with PMADs.

By making babywearing support an integral part of your practice, you can help your clients find relief, connection, and confidence during one of the most transformative times in their lives. Let’s support families with accessible, low-cost interventions that make a real difference—one carrier at a time.

References:

Firk, C., & Großheinrich, N. (2024). Infant carrying: Associations with parental reflective functioning, parental bonding and parental responses to infant crying. Infant Mental Health Journal, 45, 263–275. https://doi.org/10.1002/imhj.22106

Little EE, Bain L, Hahn-Holbrook J. Randomized controlled trial to prevent postpartum depressive symptomatology: An infant carrier intervention. J Affect Disord. 2023 Nov 1;340:871-876. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2023.08.044 Epub 2023 Aug 15. PMID: 37586649.

Madelon M.E. Riem, Anna M. Lotz, Lisa I. Horstman, Maaike Cima, Martine W.F.T. Verhees, Kim Alyousefi-van Dijk, Marinus H. van IJzendoorn, Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg, A soft baby carrier intervention enhances amygdala responses to infant crying in fathers: A randomized controlled trial, Psychoneuroendocrinology, Volume 132, 2021, 105380, ISSN 0306-4530, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105380

Schoppmann, J., Teismann, T., Holleck-Weithmann, V. A., Hundertmark, E., Jandewerth, K., Obereiner, P., … Seehagen, S. (2021). Infant carrying is associated with reduced maternal repetitive negative thinking and increased maternal mental health. Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 41(4), 456–469. https://doi.org/10.1080/02646838.2021.2012647

Williams, L. R., & Turner, P. R. (2020). Infant carrying as a tool to promote secure attachments in young mothers: Comparing intervention and control infants during the still-face paradigm. Infant Behavior and Development, 58, 101413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infbeh.2019.101413