What does exploring 25 different baby, across multiple bodies, do to your perspective?
Jun 23, 2026
You know it’s a babywearing event because there’s laughter, lots of chatter, and ‘oohs + ahh’s’ over the smallest detail of a carrier.
So, of course, there was a lot of that in Vancouver!
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A few times each day, I asked the attendees to capture some of their thoughts. The things that jumped out at them, or a pattern they were seeing, or something they wanted to remember. We put these captured notes on boards around the room, so we could all share and see what others thought, too. After the event was done and I was home, I dug through these notes for themes.
For today, I will just share one theme, or it will become a dissertation…and who has time for that?
We explored 25 carriers in our carrier labs. Putting on carriers ourselves and then looking at a number of people wearing the same carrier simultaneously. We then had the community (allied health professionals, parents, caregivers, and babies) join us for the second day, and we repeated the exercise. So a rare opportunity, indeed!
Let me just shout out our Invited Brands, we couldn't do it without you! Thanks so much for accepting the invitation.
Some of the shares/takeaways are as follows:
Buckle carriers that fit a wide range of babies can have a lot of adjustments
Buckle carriers with more adjustments give more flexibility
The initial adjustments can make it feel hard, but putting it on a 2nd time is closer to lived reality
Different ways to adjust a carrier for your body
Functionality and ease of use are a hard balance
There is so much variability in carriers; there can never be a perfect carrier.
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Intellectually, you might know much of this already; it’s not that much of a leap. However, by immersing ourselves in exploring these carriers as a group of educators and taking the time to be thoughtful about what we see, each takeaway becomes even more pronounced. We see both the similarities and the uniqueness of each carrier. The subtle differences that can be outsized in application.
The dyad’s needs become the show, so to speak.
We found some happy accidents, too, that we’ll bring into our work with clients and our classes.
But perhaps the summary is:
We all take back to our spaces a deeper understanding, one that’s hard to sum up in words but that has strengthened our ability to serve a variety of people, faster, more easily, and with more confidence.
Additionally, a more intimate knowledge of many carriers will directly influence how comfortable these educators are when asked about a product or help someone with it. Invaluable. This type of knowledge might take months in group or 1-1 work.
Because the takeaways are so rich, I'm going to share just two more. I can't help myself:
Loved seeing all the carriers.
Love seeing all the different bodies.
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All the differences are what make our work fun, and of course, challenging as well. When someone is searching for a baby carrier, they often just choose what their friends or favorite influencers say is best. I get that, it's a shortcut. But we learned, in spades, that one person's favorite isn't going to be another's, even when from the outside they all looked like a good fit!
Curious about other takeaways? Check out this blog on how learning together shapes the experience for attendees!
I wonder what you would see, learn, and add to our group? Maybe (hopefully) I’ll see you in Nashville or wherever we land in 2027! Until then, remain curious and take notes on what you see and learn!
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