”We didn't need that when our children were small”
A bit about the use of baby hammocks and why it might be a good solution for you.
Maybe some of you have heard statements like, "We didn't need that when our children were small" or "it's quite a piece of equipment to have children these days." Often said by the grandparent generation and certainly with the best intentions. There are also millions of healthy and happy children who have grown up and managed perfectly well without spending a second in a baby hammock. What can also be said with equal certainty is that all these children, both those born before there was such a thing as a baby hammock and those who have slept many hours in the baby hammock with the rocking motor at full speed, all had a fundamental and innate need to be rocked, swung, and to be in motion to find peace.
When I talk to new parents about the first period with the little child, I often guide them to think about what kind of "environment" the little child has just come from, that is, life in the womb. Here it is dark, the sounds are muffled, the child is tightly enclosed, and the child has been almost constantly in motion. These are the conditions that are most familiar to the little child, and perhaps one can think about imitating them a bit in life outside the womb so that the little child has the opportunity to land gently in the world. The infant does NOT need a lot of stimuli in the first weeks; it needs a slow adaptation to all the new things. Specifically, one can think about dimming the light and sound levels a bit, swaddling the child, and then thinking about movement. Returning to the statements from the grandparents, you could try asking them what they did when their children were small when they needed to help them fall asleep? Many of them will probably have forgotten (repressed it) because that's how it is with much of what happens in the first period with small children, but others will probably remember hours-long walks with the pram, lifting the pram's carrycot and swinging and rocking it in their arms, or sitting for hours and bouncing on a yoga ball (I personally sat there for many hours when my daughter, who is now 12, was a baby). Maybe someone will even remember putting the carrycot in the Volvo and going for a drive (there was a time before car seats and seatbelt requirements).
What do I mean by this? That children are different but also very similar, and that children have always needed movement to find peace. Therefore, it is largely about the means of this movement. One of the advantages of a baby hammock, which you don't get with many other alternatives, is the ability to have both hands free, and this is exactly what I hear from many parents I talk to as the reason they chose the baby hammock.
The most important advice for new parents will always be to practice sensing and figuring out what makes the most sense for you and your child. The older generation has certainly forgotten what it was like to be at home with a small child, and then there is also something called development and good new inventions.
Eline Haugaard
Psychomotor therapist and baby therapist
Babybehandleren.dk @babybehandleren
