Book recommendation | Ode to Connection by Urška Podvršič
Feb 12, 2026
Carrying What Matters
A Conversation on Connection with Urška Podvršič
“Families have never been this isolated in human history.”
Urška said this quietly, almost in passing, but it sat like a stone in the center of our recent Community Hours.
Urška Podvršič, psychologist, longtime babywearing educator, and new author, joined us from Slovenia to share about her book Ode to Connection.
The book began as a technical guide. Chapters on positioning. Carriers. Research citations. Then she wrote the introduction, and everything shifted.
Instead of technique, she found herself writing about loneliness, belonging, and her time in Ladakh watching how community shapes care. She saw clearly how much modern families are carrying alone.
“We expect parents to do everything. But so much of the pressure they feel is not theirs. It is the way society functions now.”
Why babywearing matters now more than ever
Urška has been in this work for almost 20 years, long before carriers became a marketplace.
She joked that most baby gear creates distance. Swings. Bouncers. Seats. Gadgets. Carriers are one of the few tools that pull people together.
But carriers are not the magic. Proximity is.
Research shows that when parents understand the benefits of babywearing, attachment strengthens. Not because they wrapped perfectly, but because they trusted what closeness meant.
Do not overcomplicate what humans have always known how to do.
We live in a culture where parenting can feel like a test filled with trick questions. When families feel they are failing, guilt disconnects them from their instincts.
In her workshops, Urška asks parents to imagine giving birth, holding their baby, and then being told to immediately put the baby down. The room shifts every time.
“You can see it in their eyes. Something in them says, this is not natural.”
Her point is not about one specific carrier. It is about how deeply wired humans are for closeness, and how modern advice often pulls people away from that wiring.
“You are the best parent for your baby.”
People cry when they hear that. Because nobody tells them.
What she hopes to give families
This is not a book of carrier instructions.
She hopes parents walk away with less guilt, more trust in themselves, and the understanding that struggling is not a personal failure.
For educators and professionals, her hope is simple:
“We cannot give parents connection. But we can give them the space to find it again.”
Why this conversation matters to our community
Two decades into this work, Joanna still says the same thing: we have to meet families earlier.
So much of what educators do is repair. Urška’s work is about prevention. Changing the story before families reach the breaking point.
Babywearing is not just a technique.
Community is not optional.
Parents deserve support long before crisis.
