What is a baby container? Basically what it sounds like. The list includes strollers, carriages, infant car seats (baby buckets), and that massive array of toy/ride objects that turn middle-class living areas into Baby Theme World. Baby containers are a staple of baby showers. Many of them are described as life saving to parents sanity and sleep by calming very young babies. Some of them are required by law (infant car seats, when traveling by car).
Baby containers that jiggle or otherwise provide motion to very small babies can demonstrably improve brain development. Infant car seats provably save lives. In our society, most of us spend a lot of time in adult containers: cars, vibrating recliner/rockers, porch swings.
Early in the 20th century, L. Emmett Holt wrote a thin, profoundly influential book on childrearing. It was successful in part because he supplied simpler (than other people of his time) directions for preparing formula that was comparatively (to other formula of the time) non-lethal. Holt firmly believed that babies got way too much touch, play and physical attention from their mothers. While I'm not sure he started the trend of parking babies away from humans, in their own beds, in their own rooms, with a pacifier, etc., but he surely contributed to it. This idea was a major component of Scientific Mothering (which also included artificial feeding).
I recently learned that the baby stroller or perambulator was invented by a New York man in 1848, whose wife was too ill to take the baby out for walks. He (big strong man that he was) immediately concluded that babies are awkwardly heavy and uncomfortable to carry, and put wheels and a handle on a box and proceeded to take the baby out that way. He was laughed at, mocked in newspapers, and people went on to say that if this caught on, it would be a hazard to pedestrians and cause sidewalk congestion. All of which is true, yet somehow realizing that people have been bitching and wailing about the evils of strollers for a hundred and fifty years makes me a little suspicious about some of the more extreme anti-baby-container ranting. It's not like god gave us fabric pouches to strap the baby onto us in her infinite wisdom; those are just as technological an innovation as the wheeled box. As for that New Yorker, he took his product to London, where he was mocked further, until Queen Victoria said, wonderful and proceeded to use one herself. She was also a big fan of inhalant pain relief during labor.
Obviously, we now know that babies need touch, motion, stimulation, human interaction to develop. Since we, as adults, are so accustomed to solving problems in our lives by buying products that claim to address our needs, we're doing the same thing for our babies. To some degree, this is just fine. A bouncy seat or a swing can supply motion to an agitated newborn and give the baby's caretakers a moment to go use the bathroom or cook something to eat. A stroller with a basket lets one adult go shopping or run other errands with the baby, without becoming completely crippled from back pain. And it's kinda nice not to have to wake up a baby that fell asleep in the car, but instead unlatch the bucket and carry it up the stairs. It's a pity that we aren't all taught the market basket hold for transporting that bucket, and instead wind up limping along awkwardly with the bucket bumping against our legs or hip. However carried, the baby plus bucket is enough asymmetric weight away from the spine to cause a lot of pain on its own.
Assuming the baby is awake anyway, it's easy enough to carry the baby in-arms wherever you are going next, or to put the baby in a sling or other baby carrier. Instead, the baby is often transferred, with or without the bucket, to a stroller, and then wheeled to the next destination. There are several problems with this strategy. First, it means the adult won't be taking the stairs, which has consequences for the adult's physical fitness. Second, it means the adult is stuck going places that can accomodate strollers: level, with elevators, wide hallways, etc. This does not describe most established downtowns and city neighborhoods, but does describe a lot of suburban areas and malls, thus contributing to pressure to move out of the core. Sprawl is bad on its own, but isolating families in low density neighborhoods is a bad trade off for those families, as it forces them even deeper into car and wheeled culture. Finally, a lot of places are wheelable through their handicapped doors and access, but not otherwise. Strollers place an unexpectedly heavy burden on modifications made to support access by the disabled.
Baby containers which move or entertain a baby -- swings, bouncy seats, jumpers, exersaucers, walkers -- cost money and take up space. They are mostly made of plastic, with all the potential chemical hazards associated with plastic. Like cribs, they provide an appearance of safety for a baby, which may be an illusion.
More important than any of these considerations, however, is the parenting style encouraged by this consumer paradise for the not-yet-toddling. Many babies can be enthralled by moving them, in 20 or 30 minute increments from one baby container to another. This isn't precisely easy work for a caregiver, nor is it as rewarding as being in continuous physical contact with a baby and sniffing all those lovely baby hormones or whatever that cocktail is that comes off of little babies and makes us say it's all worthwhile. Nor is it good for the baby. It may also impact the baby's future physical fitness, by limiting the baby's movement and encouraging sedentary hours at a time when a baby could be very active. Those who have only held a baby occasionally may not realize that babies who are accustomed to being held in arms are extremely active and exploratory on their caregivers bodies. A caregiver who is strongly attached to a baby effectively "spots" or assists the motions a baby attempts but cannot manage alone.
One strong argument in favor of baby containers is to give a caregiver alone with a baby, or a caregiver responsible for more than one baby at once, the ability to care for their charge or charges safely, and possibly to be able to leave their charges alone for a moment to take care of their own needs. Certainly, if this is occasional, it is hard to imagine it doing any particular, or lasting, harm to anyone. If, however, it must be for many hours at a time, it is a sure sign that the caregiver is overburdened. It would be far better to rearrange our society to provide adequate support for those caring for babies. The caregiver does not have to be a parent or even a relative for a baby to benefit from human contact. It is best if the caregiver and the baby share a bond which has some continuity.
Societies current and historical which had far fewer consumer goods than we do figured out a way to make this work. We could expend some resources to learn from others, and use that wisdom to agitate for change in our society.
But those families lucky to have within them plenty of arms to hold the baby, and bodies healthy enough to wear the baby, or with resources enough to hire other arms to hold or wear the baby, could start now to use baby containers more judiciously. To the extent that babies are happy to be in a stroller or other baby container, it's hard to argue with their use.
Copyright 2005 by Rebecca Allen
Created December 21, 2005 Updated March 8, 2006