The human infant is born earlier than other mammals. Most mammals are born and able to stand, and therefore run from predators, sometimes just moments after birth. It’s true a human infant given the right environment can crawl his way to his mother’s breast and feed, but he cannot run. He needs his mother’s arms.
He does still possess an intuitive grip in his hands, but it fades quickly, and unlike the apes he descended from he cannot reliably grip to his mother’s back.
And so, mothers have found ways in which to carry their infants. Perhaps those early women used animal skins, it’s much easier to gather food, and hunt or run from an enemy carrying your infant on your hip or back than it would be in arms.
There are those that think that perhaps the baby sling was indeed one of the first human tools, it certainly seems a possibility.
Baby slings vary across the world and throughout time from the simple (and beautiful) pieces of cloth used in many parts of Africa and South America, The cradle boards of the Native Americans, intricately and expertly cut Amauti of the Inuit, the woollen shawls used in Wales, brightly embroidered Mei Tais of China, the list goes on.
A baby sling has been and still is an indispensable tool for parents the world over.
