Timeworn babywearing trend of wraapping tots in slings returns

In the food court of a Thane mall this Sunday morning, 'wraps' and 'rolls' hold very different meanings. They are things that come out of suitcases and settle on three dining tables, waiting to engulf some really short consumers. Among the women laying these fabrics out is Koshali Dalvi, whose body knows how to keep a secret. In her skinny white jeans and sailor stripes, the thin Dalvi looks like a college kid wearing a haversack in the front except there are two tiny legs dangling from it.
A rainbow-coloured kangaroo-pouch-like sling has secured her two-year-old son, Veer, to her chest, leaving Dalvi free to make calls, move chairs and point her elder son, Shaurya, in various directions.Last year, in the same hands-free pose, the babywearer had climbed 3,500 steps of a temple in the holy Palithana in Gujarat and right now, as she paces the food court, Dalvi casually brags: "You can't tell but I am nursing at the moment."
Around her today, there are at least eight other modern reminders of Rani Laxmibai. In Thane, this is the second meetup of the Mumbai Sling Library (MSL)--a pop-up mommy group that invites people in various parts of the city to learn about the ways and benefits of babywearing. In this group, SSC does not stand for Secondary School Certificate so much as soft-structured carriers.
Formed by Rashmee Gajra, MSL, a maternal club now comprising 100-odd working professionals such as teachers, doctors, bakers apart from homemakers bound online and offline--first met in Powai two years ago. However, the meetups dwindled later till last month, around six mums decided to not only revive the pop-ups but also spread their reach to Thane, Cuffe Parade, Jogeshwari and Navi Mumbai--four pockets where MSL now meets once a month.
Recently, in fact, their Cuffe Parade meetup even saw a few pregnant women -- the ideal time to step on the learning curve, according to these seasoned babywearers. And today, in the Thane mall, a bunch of new mothers have come in with bawling babies, lurking husbands and even a doting mother-in-law. Here, toddlers turn into props as parents learn how long pieces of hand-woven fabric can--through careful origami and knots -- turn into solid baby pouches with names like stretchy wraps and ring slings. Some of these, they realise, can even hold kids up to the age of seven.
A young father here volunteers to sport a pink wrap and wins major brownie points. At the other end, Prajakta, who is attending the meetup for the first time, has come in with her mother-in-law and four-month-old, Tweesha. "How do you all manage with two kids?" she asks Dalvi and another member, Anoopa George. "I have just one and I'm already fed up," she says. "Babywearing," they quip as if on cue, before buckling Prajakta up with an SSC, like bungee jumping operators.
Babywearing is not a new phenomenon. "Traditionally, people have been doing it since ages," says Yaman Banerji, who has been organising the revived meetups. "Look at adivasis and tea plantation workers, for instance," she says. A bit like the trajectory of Yoga though, babywearing travelled westwards to countries that discovered benefits such as increased lactation before returning to the east as an urban trend. "Abroad, many moms even wear it topless and it looks hot," says Banerji.
In India too, over the last two years, around 8 to 9 big and small sling brands have sprung up including Anmol, Almitra Tattva, KolKol, Dulaar and ZoliZhabla, all of whom depend on the active network of sling libraries in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad--to test, certify and, eventually, purchase their products. In its wake, this new industry has even spawned vendors who make sling accessories like drool pads, slip covers and roll-and-store bags. Of course, at prices ranging between Rs 1,500 and Rs 7,000, these slings aren't exactly cheap but their benefits are many, say members.
"Mothers of premature babies are told to replicate the womb-like atmosphere outside which slings do well," says Gajra, who fashioned a sling after her second child, Dev, was born and later, launched her own brand, Anmol Baby Carriers. "As babies get familiar with the heartbeats, sounds, smells and sights of the mother, they get smarter," says Gajra, adding that holding the baby close triggers hormones that in turn help the mother produce more milk.
As her one-year-old Saharsh smiles toothlessly and touches the Spiderman drool pad on his SSC, Pallavi Shanmugaraj says she has even been using the sling at home. "I have asthama so if I can't carry him for too long on one side. The sling helps with this," says Shanmugaraj, a dietitian. Her older son, Sarvesh, who knows the names of all the three slings at home, usually dictates the colour choice. "He'll kill me if I buy pink," smiles Shanmugaraj. For Banerji, on the other hand, who started using a sling when her 2-year-old daughter Ruhani was 4 months old, babywearing helped lose weight. "I started going on half-hour-long evening walks wearing my kid," says Banerji, who eventually lost ten kilos.
Of course, while out on Mumbai's streets, these modern versions of Rani Laxmibai have their own battles to choose from. Though many reactions are positive, comments such as "Hasn't she started walking yet?" or "Why are you mollycoddling him?" also come their way. "Some are even asked why they were carrying their baby like a monkey?" says Dalvi. The most resistance comes from a certain generation. "Tell your mom to put you down and make room for the second baby," a neighbouring "auntie" told a babywearer recently. In fact, their message was somewhat lost on a few at the Thane meetup too. Here, towards the end, the floor manager materialised and asked them to clear the occupied tables at the food court for lunch hour.
But pushing through such hurdles energizes them. This is why, not too long ago, the group performed a Zumba routine at a flash mob in a Kurla mall, with one mother, Prachi Shah danced with both her kids in a sling. Now, there is even a plan to participate in another Pinkathon like the one in which the babywearers recently ran with Milind Soman — a memory that triggers suggestive sounds from these mommies. Surely, those drool pads came in handy that day.