Antwerp - the city of diamonds, Rubens and babywearing...

We share two passions in Lennylamb. We are a weaving studio - working on our own on designs, weaving them and finally sewing. But we also love babywearing. There are many babywearing consultants among us. The babies’ safety in our wraps and carriers is always the priority for our company.

That’s why we couldn’t miss the Second Flemish Babywearing Conference in Antwerp and two members of our team - Joanna Bogdan and Joanna Makowska set off to Belgium.

First of all - the city! Antwerp is beautiful. When we got off the train,  the monumental railway station took our breath away. The city is filled with narrow streets of the Old Town. The Cathedral, with fascinating Rubens paintings, is situated in the heart of the city. Even though, we had not enough time for sightseeing, the atmosphere enchanted us. We dream about coming back to Antwerp!

The Babywearing Conference took place in an incredibly charming place - Hotel Elzenveld which is situated in the buildings of the historic monastery with a secret garden. We were impressed by the boardroom with the extraordinary atmosphere created by the wooden detail works.which turned out to be an old church ceiling.

Two days were filled by well-thought plan of lectures and workshops interlaced by the rest time and chats. Today we are not able to choose most important lecture as they were all parts of one puzzle.

Professor Francis McGlone was talking about group the C nerve fibers - which have low conduction velocity and long persistent stimulation at the same time. It is amazing that we actually have a special sense for cuddling!

Also, Azizah had a very interesting speech about her project - Bebe Sachi which is a Social Enterprise of weavers from villages in Bangladesh. Our intuition suggests that it’s so important to use wraps and carriers with good origins.

Rosie Knowles from the UK, the author of the book “Why Babywearing Matters” talked about benefits of babywearing. In our busy society, we have gadgets for every occasion but we have not enough time to build the relations and to become confident in a new role as a parent. We expect our children to grow quicker than their biology allows them to. Babywearing is the best way to spend time together - the child can grow in strong arms, the parent gets the strength and space.

Lectures and workshops took place simultaneously, so there was no possibility to participate in all events but we tried to choose different ones to learn as much as possible. The fascinating thing about the workshops was discovering that even though there so many differences, there is one babywearing based on the same principles and that finally we are all connected by the same idea of taking care of babies’ and parents’ needs(JB)! Those meetings were a great chance to verify our opinions and the improve our babywearing consultants skills. At the excellent workshops on Ring Slings Sabina Zahn from ClauWi Switzerland showed that Ring Sling is an excellent device even for newborns. Her attentiveness about every detail of the carry was impressive (JM).

The last lecture of the conference was presented be charismatic Nora de Stael from Swiss Trageschule who completely enchanted us. The subject was quite controversial - “Backcarrying of newborns”. Not only did Nora talk about backcarrying in wraps but also showed tips for backcarrying  in carriers. Nora is very trustworthy. The man is always at the first place for her - the baby, the mother, the parent, the caregiver. Parents need to carry their babies on their back, mothers need space, babies need to be carried - it is babywearing consultants’ and companies’ duty to find safe ways to achieve this goal! Those words have stayed with me for a long time (JB).

There was also a lot of talks at the coffee breaks - with consultants, babywearing schools’ and company’s owners. Meeting babywearing Legends was also a great experience for us. I was touched when I saw Tina Hoffmann from Didymos. I have arted my babywearing journey from those wraps 10 years ago and three kids ago(JM). We also had a chance to chat with Hedwych from Wrap you in Love. She is so delicate and her kids are very sweet. We spent a lot of time with Polish babywearing consultants  - Marta Alabrudzińska, Beata Gruszka, Maria Ryll and Ania Zin. Those are wonderful, strong women and we are proud of you! Meeting those passionate people was important and inspiring for us! Thank you so much! We would also like to thank Association of Babywearing Consultants Flander for organizing the conference - it was OUTSTANDING!

LennyLamb is back to work, full of energy!

You can see more photos from conference on its FB fanpage: HERE