Questions, answered

The clearest way to think about it is the difference between an advocate and an educator.

The 8-hour Newborn Babywearing Support Course makes you a well-informed advocate. It covers the most pressing issues you meet when working with newborn families, how to introduce babywearing to them, and how to answer the questions specific to the perinatal period, such as when to start carrying after a cesarean or which carrier suits a newborn. It does not teach babywearing technique. You will finish it able to talk about babywearing with confidence and point families in the right direction, not able to put a carrier on someone and troubleshoot the fit.

The 40+ hour Foundations in Babywearing Education Training is what makes you an educator. We work through a range of carrier types and carrying techniques, including newborn techniques, alongside how to teach effectively, the science and history of babywearing, how to structure learning in private or group consultations, and an in-depth exploration of safety. Foundations graduates are prepared to provide a high standard of care and guidance to the caregivers they serve.

We have written about this distinction at length. Peer supporter vs babywearing consultant and Beyond fit checks are both good places to start.

Foundations, in nearly every case.

Foundations is our flagship and our most developed training. It covers the whole foundation of babywearing education, and it is the only one that leads to certification. Most of what else we offer assumes you have it behind you.

The Newborn training is not a lighter version of Foundations, and the two are not interchangeable. Newborn is largely theoretical and leans heavily into scenarios. What a parent might ask you, how to think it through, how to respond. There is a small amount of overlap, since we touch on some of those situations in Foundations too, but Newborn goes much further into them. What it does not do is teach carrying. We do not teach a single carry in that training, so you will not come away from it with new techniques.

If you are right at the beginning, the Newborn training will teach you how to hold a useful conversation with a parent and how to recognize when to refer them to someone more experienced. That is a real skill and worth having. It is also a different thing from being the more experienced person. Foundations is what makes you the one others refer to.

If you already work as a babywearing consultant and want to deepen your understanding of what newborn families face, Newborn is a strong addition to your knowledge base. That was its original intent.

Foundations is the only training you need in order to be certified. Everything else exists for people who want to go deeper.

If you want the fullest version of this education, the path we would recommend is Foundations first, then the Newborn training, then Progressions. Each one adds depth in a different direction, and each one brings more support and more time with the people doing this work alongside you. That community is a large part of why people keep going.

It does not, and we do not offer exemptions from any part of Foundations for training taken elsewhere.

That is not a judgment on other programs. We have not seen their curricula and we do not take other trainings ourselves, so we are not in a position to compare them or to decide which parts of ours they replace. We would rather you take Foundations and form your own opinion than have us tell you how it measures up against something else.

What we can tell you is what ours is. We have been in this field since the early 2000s and our approach is evidence-based, and a large part of the training is not technique at all. It is a way of thinking about carrying. How to read a body, how to reason through a situation you have never met before, and how to teach that to someone else.

There is also something to be gained from hearing this work explained by a different voice. Joanna has taught in retail settings, worked as an educator, teacher, mentor, and course creator, and worked alongside carrier manufacturers both small and large, other educators, and hospital programs. People who arrive with years of experience behind them still tend to leave with something they had not met before.

Knowing how to babywear is the tip of the iceberg. To be a truly excellent consultant you will need much more. In both the Newborn training and Foundations we go beyond simple how-to to reach the heart of how to really affect families with this work. How to address situations outside your personal experience, how to structure learning effectively, how to advocate for babywearing in your community, how to discuss babywearing with professionals from different backgrounds, and how to listen and communicate with the intent to understand.

Many people who enter our courses already have experience with babywearing, and all of them graduate with a far deeper understanding of what it means to be a babywearing consultant. Technique is only one part of the puzzle.

We love your experience and we want you to keep it. We look forward to adding to it. We ourselves continue to learn and grow after 20+ years of this work, so whether you are a skilled babywearer of several years or one with decades of experience, we feel strongly that what we teach in Foundations is unique and significant in this field, and something we do not see provided elsewhere.

To make sure you leave with everything you need to be an excellent babywearing consultant, we require that you take part in the course before testing.

Having children is not a requirement for any of our trainings, or for babywearing, for that matter. Learning these skills without children of your own lets you focus and process the information in a different way, and it may give you a perspective your clients can benefit from, some of whom may also not have children yet.

Some of the best babywearing educators and consultants do not have children of their own. Some are aunts, nannies, teachers, and friends, and all are deeply skilled.

Partly, and the answer depends on who you hold your credential with. We would rather be straight with you about this before you enroll than have you find out afterward.

Lamaze. Foundations carries Lamaze contact hours. This applies to Foundations only. Our other trainings and workshops, including the Newborn training, do not carry CEU approval.

Doula and childbirth organizations. Bodies such as CAPPA and DONA will often accept a training that Lamaze has already approved, so Foundations may well count with them, but each of them sets its own rules and we cannot speak on their behalf. If you are certified through one of these organizations, check with them directly before you register.

Nursing, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. This one is harder. CEU approval for licensed clinicians is decided state by state, and in most states it requires a sponsoring organization that the state board has already approved. We are a small organization and we are not in a position to hold that approval in every state, so we are not going to tell you we do.

What we can do is give you a detailed course outline covering hours and content, which you can submit to your board or your employer for approval. Ask us and we will put it together for you.

Certification can be a tricky subject. Like lactation work and many other fields, babywearing consultation is not a regulated industry. There is no nationally accepted licensure holding all consultants to the same standard, and technically anyone can call themselves a babywearing consultant regardless of what training they have had.

By offering the option to become a certified babywearing consultant through Foundations, we communicate that our graduates are held to a higher standard and have demonstrated their knowledge and practical technique through rigorous standardized testing. That shows your community and your future clients that you worked to develop your craft.

The Newborn training does not provide certification, but you will receive a certificate of completion. To keep that course accessible as a self-paced, on-demand option, we are not able to do the live testing and standardization of practice that certification requires. Foundations is currently the only training we offer with the opportunity to test for certification.

If your employer or licensing body needs the exact wording, these are the titles:

• Foundations graduates who pass testing become a Certified CBWS Babywearing Consultant
• Newborn training graduates receive a certificate of completion in Newborn Babywearing Support

There is no fee for your certificate. It is included in the price of the Foundations training. You have a year to complete your course, including testing.

If you are unable to take or pass your final exams and graduate with your cohort, we will move you into an additional course that provides free mentoring while you work through your material. There are multiple testing options throughout the year.

Your credential does not expire, and there is no recertification cycle to complete.

What we do ask is that you stay involved. Babywearing moves, sometimes quickly. New research comes out, carriers change, and guidance that was current a few years ago is not always current now. Reading our monthly newsletter, coming to Community Hours, and staying active in the graduate community is how you keep your practice current, and it is a better safeguard than any renewal form would be.

Foundations is a six-week program with live Zoom sessions twice a week. Each session runs about two and a half hours, including breaks and hands-on practice. On top of the live sessions you will spend roughly three to four hours a week watching recorded videos and working with your class partner.

The course is designed to be manageable, but we want to be upfront that it takes a solid weekly commitment. Most people find it rewarding, and it is worth planning ahead to make sure it fits your schedule.

Current dates for every training live on the Foundations page. We keep them there rather than here so you are never reading an out-of-date schedule.

Life happens, and sometimes you cannot make it. Attending live is best for the full experience, but every session is recorded and usually available within 24 to 48 hours. Breakout discussions and practice teaching are not included in the recordings, and watching a recording is more passive than taking part live.

If you know ahead of time that you will miss a session, tell us. After you watch the recording we will give you a small extra task, something like a short written reflection or a video of you practicing a technique we covered.

In an emergency, send us a message when you can. If you miss several sessions we will help you catch up, either with private mentoring or by moving you into a future group. We do ask that you finish the training within a year, since waiting longer may mean extra fees.

Committing to live classes every week for several weeks is hard, and we get it. If you are not in a position to do that, the Newborn Babywearing Support Training is entirely self-paced and on demand. It will give you a strong start, practical skills, and a way to begin spreading babywearing in your community.

In Foundations we have found a real difference between students who attend live and students who only watch recordings. Taking part alongside your peers engages your brain differently and makes you a better teacher. So if you sign up for Foundations, we encourage you to make every effort to attend live.

Yes, there is a short scheduled break. Class moves swiftly and passes quickly. You are in a place of your own choosing and may always step away to take care of your own needs or a family member's.

Your access to the portal is lifelong. Once you finish, you join the Graduate Portal and you keep it.

What can change is which version of the training you are looking at. Over time we archive older versions of a course and move everyone onto the current one, alongside all the other graduates, so what you have access to stays current rather than frozen at the year you took it. The trade is that the pieces belonging to your own cohort do not follow you forever. The live Zoom recordings from your sessions and the comments underneath the videos are the two things that eventually go, and you have roughly a year to watch those.

Which leads to a piece of advice worth taking on day one. Get yourself a notebook you actually like, and use it. Write down the techniques, the aha moments, the questions you want to come back to. By the time you finish you will have built your own action guide in your own words, and that is the version you will still be reaching for years later.

We do not currently have scholarships for our trainings, but we do offer several payment plans to keep them accessible. We are always happy to talk through your options with you.

Yes. We offer group rates for babywearing groups and for nonprofit organizations.

We do not publish a single number, because the rate depends on how many people you are enrolling and whether this is a one-time group or something ongoing. Tell us roughly how many people you have in mind and we will work it out with you.

Write to info@cbws.org or bianca@cbws.org and put group rates in the subject line. You are welcome to use the form on the site instead, though direct email tends to get answered faster.

If we cancel or change a course. When we cancel a course before it begins, you receive a refund. If something forces us to cancel partway through a running cohort, we do not leave you stranded. We either set new dates for the remaining sessions or move you into a later cohort so you can finish there.

If you need to cancel. Write to us as early as you can and we will talk it through with you. Depending on where you are in the course, moving you to a later cohort is often the better option than cancelling outright.

Over the years many parents have taken our trainings with children nearby, and the short answer is that if you can stay attentive and focused on your learning while your children are present, then sure. Depending on their ages and temperaments that may not always be realistic, so we do recommend finding backup care if you can, so your learning can be the priority during live sessions. And yes, nursing children are always welcome.

Every live session is recorded, so you can go back and watch anything you missed.

Not at all, and this comes up often enough that it is worth saying plainly. Being pregnant has never been a reason not to take this training. Students have taken Foundations while pregnant, while newly postpartum, and while nursing a baby through the live sessions.

The worry underneath the question is usually practical, which is how to practice a front carry on a growing belly. It is a fair thing to wonder about, and it is smaller in practice than it looks from the outside. You will not be the first person in the room working around it, and if something is genuinely not workable for your body in a given week, tell us and we will find another way through it.

If you would rather wait until after the baby arrives, that is completely fine too. We would only want you making that choice for your own reasons, and not because you assumed we would turn you away.

We have graduates all over the world and we work with each of them individually to establish what works for them and their country of residence. Graduates have come from Japan, Egypt, Romania, Italy, Mexico, China, the Philippines, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Sweden, and the Netherlands, among many other places. We are excited to make this training more global, and we always welcome feedback on how to make it work for students in every time zone.

Time differences, sometimes extreme ones, do create challenges, and our team works hard to make each class run smoothly for every student. Depending on where you are, class may fall very early or very late. Planning ahead for childcare, a long night, or eating at odd hours before classes begin helps the course go smoothly for everyone.

Every session is recorded, so you can watch anything you miss while tending to a child's needs or your own.

You will need several baby carriers of different styles on hand to learn the breadth of techniques in the course. There is no need to rush out and buy a dozen of them. Joanna's thoughts on an ideal starter kit are a good place to begin.

Little Zen One puts together a CBWS bundle, a set of carriers chosen for this training and sold together at a steep discount. They also offer an educator discount on individual carriers. That is the simplest way to get set up without buying a dozen carriers you may never reach for again.

After you sign up we introduce you to other lower-cost bundle options from businesses in our graduate network.

You can also look at buy, sell, trade marketplaces, though we suggest knowing a lot about carriers and what is popular in your area before buying secondhand.

For the Newborn training it helps to have a carrier on hand, or access to a library of carriers to experiment with, but it is not necessary. This is not a how-to training, so really you need a screen to watch on and a pen and paper for notes.

You will be prepared to work closely with families and professionals at every stage of their babywearing journey. For some people that looks like:

• Workshops introducing babywearing or specific babywearing topics
• One-on-one consultations giving families in-depth support
• Working with local professionals to bring babywearing programs to their clients and patients

There is truly no limit to what you might do as a babywearing consultant. Much of the magic of this work is finding ways to weave babywearing into your other passions and professional expertise, and finding new ways to intrigue and support caregivers in your community. We cannot wait to hear what you come up with.

You will be prepared to work with families in the perinatal period to introduce babywearing and advocate for the practice. You might do that by:

• Introducing expecting parents and caregivers to babywearing in your prenatal workshops or client sessions
• Advising new families about the variety of carrier styles
• Giving guidance and troubleshooting basic fit issues during the postpartum period, one on one
• Volunteering at a local babywearing group to give fit advice to new parents

This is not an exhaustive list. So much of what you do will be shaped by your community, your own interests and work experience, and your goals.

Foundations graduates gain access to our Graduate Portal, which holds a wealth of information and resources for your path. Business development opportunities, babywearing research lists, recall lists, and discounts from retailers and manufacturers.

You are also invited to Community Hours, which we run four times a year. They are well attended, and the most recent one drew more than sixty people. We use the time to talk through current issues in babywearing, and it is where a lot of graduates end up meeting the people they go on to work with.

For graduates who want ongoing support rather than a few gatherings a year, there is the Carry-On Collective, a membership community for babywearing consultants to connect, share, and keep growing together.

Newborn training graduates keep access to monthly live office hours, where you can ask questions and connect with your peers. It is a good way to stay current on carriers, recalls, and other babywearing topics, and to get guidance on your own work.

You can be, but it is not automatic, and this is the step people most often miss.

After you graduate from Foundations you are added to our Graduate Portal. Inside the portal there is a link to submit your information for the educator locator. Your listing goes live once you complete that submission. If you have never filled it out, you will not appear in the directory, however long ago you graduated.

You can also use that same link to update your listing whenever your business details change.

Not everyone becomes a babywearing professional, and there are so many other ways to use what you learn here.

We have had graduates who took the training purely for themselves, for the joy of it. Some add babywearing to their skill set as lactation consultants, doulas, newborn care specialists, or infant massage therapists, as a way to increase the value they bring to existing clients.

Others use their expertise to create new opportunities in their communities, like babywearing dance, fitness, and yoga classes. Some open retail baby product stores, some design carriers, some work for carrier manufacturers, and still more volunteer their expertise in local babywearing and parenting groups.

There is no end to what you can do with this knowledge, and we love hearing about the paths our graduates take.

Every country has its own insurance requirements, and it is your choice whether to carry it. We strongly suggest you do if you are working within the USA. We also discuss this topic in the course.

In the meantime, tell us about your setting and we will send you the details along with instructions for booking a free discovery call. Write to info@cbws.org or bianca@cbws.org, or use the contact form. Group rates are available for babywearing groups and nonprofit organizations.