Carry Your Baby In a Shawl!
(Page 3 of 3)
January/February 1972
By Susan Freis Ezell
Has carrying Ama around in the ruana contributed to her precocious social development? I don't know. Perhaps so, since she's spent so much time right next to my face, chest and voice box. It's a good perspective from which to catch on to the way of conversation, a strategic location from which to toss out killingly charming baby smiles and a secure throne from which to hold an audience with the world.
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The ruana has eliminated the physical strain of carrying Ama and has helped me relax with her. With the help of the shawl, carrying my little one has become a graceful act, one of those archetypal gestures (like dancing around a night fire) in which I've found a healing echo of a more whole way of life.
When summer comes, I'll be facing the problem of finding a lightweight substitute for the heavy wool ruana. The material will have to be loose-woven and flexible, but not stretchy like knitting or crochet. Homespun cotton would be ideal if I had a friend with a loom, which I don't, so I'll probably copy the ruana pattern in one of the loose-woven cotton prints front India which are sold in most places as bedspreads.
By the way, if I couldn't find a ruana and I had to use a triangular shawl, I'd just steady Ama in the crook of my left arm, sit her on my hip, wrap the ends around her bottom and tuck them up between her legs.
I think that anyone who wants to experiment with this method of carrying a baby should try it. There's probably an old shawl which used to belong to your grandmother or your aunt up in an attic somewhere. A triangular shawl is just a folded square of material, and a ruana is nothing but a rectangular piece of fabric split to the middle and reinforced there. Either would be fairly easy to make if you can't find one. Try it. You won't be sorry.
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