Hello 

My name is Lucie, and I love wearing my baby! I have two fabulous sons, aged 9 and 19 months. When my eldest was born in 2003, I knew I wanted to carry him because I refused to let this baby to stop me doing anything. At the time I knew absolutely nothing about babywearing – an incredibly steep learning curve!

My first carrier was cheap and mass produced. It embodied everything that could be perceived as wrong about how a baby should be positioned.I knew nothing of traditional methods of carrying a baby and found this a real struggle in the first few weeks. I then met a lovely girl at a cloth nappy group who had been carrying her babies; she saw how much trouble I was having and made me a ring sling. It was very simple, made from a pair of plastic sling rings and one of her old sheets. Yes, that’s right, an old sheet. I think it was one of the best presents I have ever been given, and made a huge difference to my life. I still carry this sling around in my consultancy kit to show just how simple baby wearing can be.

I went on to make myself some ring slings (one for every occasion!) and carried my son in them till he was about 3.  Then they were packed away until my second son arrived in 2011. It was lovely to be able to use the same slings for both of my children, but by this time I had discovered a world of slings and carriers and had realized just how important babywearing is. That’s when I decided to train as a babywearing consultant, to enable me to spread the love…

So now we have Wessex Babywearing Consultancy, and I have set up the Ringwood Sling Meet.

Lucie Mann