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Front-Facing, M-Position and Back-Carrying—Carrying Positions Explained
There’s a lot of buzz around different carrying positions in babywearing. Are the baby carriers wide enough? Could certain positions be harmful to the baby’s hip development? There are many questions, but the good news is that all positions are safe as long as your baby’s airways are free and their legs are separated and not locked together. This is true whether you carry your baby facing inwards or outwards. Your most important job as a parent is to pay attention and respond to your baby’s signals.
Variation is key for healthy hip development. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends switching positions every hour, a rule of thumb for babies under the age of one year.
Facing-In Position—Perfect During the First Months
In the early months, your baby has a great need for closeness and security. Plus, their head makes up about one third of their total bodyweight, and their neck muscles are still developing so they can’t hold their head up for long. Therefore, it’s best to carry your baby in the facing-in position during the first five months (and many parents choose to keep carrying their baby in this position even after five months, and that’s totally okay).
All of our baby carriers are ready to be used from birth—no infant insert is needed. Find out more about our baby carriers (which offer three carrying positions, which offer four, and the recommended period of use for each) in our baby carrier comparison chart.
Front-Facing—Ready to Explore the World
Babywearing in the front-facing position is a favorite for many parents and their babies. After about five months, most babies are ready to be carried facing out and explore the world. By this age, their neck is strong enough to support their head, and many babies can sit up on their own. They’re also usually super curious about everything happening around them, making it the perfect time to switch to this position.
Back-Carrying
Once your little one is at least 12 months old, you can start carrying them on your back. As they get heavier, back-carrying can be more comfortable for you and more fun for your child. Carrying your baby in the facing-out position puts more pressure on your shoulders since their weight is further away from your body. To relieve pressure on your shoulders and back, you can try back-carrying. It shifts the weight more evenly, making the carrier feel more like carrying a backpack.
The M-Position and Other Carrying Positions
The M-position is just one of many great carrying positions. It is often described as having the knees higher than the hips. With our baby carriers, it’s very easy to achieve the M-position using the “pelvic tuck.” This simply means that you scoop your baby’s bottom deep into the baby carrier, raising their knees into a wide squat position.
Learn how to do the pelvic tuck in this video!
A very similar position to the M-position is the frog position, but in the frog position the knees are even higher. This is also a good carrying position as long as you switch it up regularly.
There is also the physiologic position, where the legs are at a 30 degree angle of abduction and flection. This is a comfy position for babies, but it is not the only position that is right.
Carriers Adapted to Your Baby
So much happens in your baby’s first year. Not only will your little one grow physically and mentally, but they’ll also learn to sit up, start eating solids and crawl. During the first year your baby will also grow on average 25 cm and triple their body weight. Talk about major development!
Did you know that a newborn’s head actually makes up about one-third of their total bodyweight? This means that their head is big compared to the rest of their body, and their legs are much shorter.
This is exactly what we consider when we develop our baby carriers. Because our carriers have excellent head support and a wide leg position, you can be sure your baby is carried comfortably in a way that supports their body’s development.
Since a young baby’s body is far from fully developed and the skeleton is soft, it’s important that our baby carriers respect a baby’s anatomy. They do this by offering a wide leg position that provides great support for babies’ hips. Our baby carriers are designed to keep your little one sitting just like they would in your arms.
Key Milestones in Your Baby’s Development
We keep all these developmental milestones in mind when designing our baby carriers, making sure they provide the right support every step of the way.
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0–3 months
During this stage, your baby learns to lift their head, but since their head is still large in proportion to their body, they need extra support when carried in a baby carrier. This is why our baby carriers have excellent head support with three adjustable levels to fit your growing child. At this stage, you should always carry your child facing in.
3–5 months
By now your baby’s head control is improving, but their head is still big in relation to the rest of their body. They still need support, so you should keep carrying them facing in.
6–12 months
At this point, the head of your little one is more in proportion, and they’re gaining better control over it. This is when you can start carrying your baby in a front-facing position—perfect for curious little explorers who want to see the world around them!
12 months
When your baby is about one year old, they might be standing, crawling or even walking. This is when you can start switching between the front-facing position and back-carrying, and the latter is usually more comfortable for you as your baby gets heavier.
24 months
By now, your baby’s body is more balanced, and their legs and head are more in proportion with the rest of their body.