About Me
My Babywearing Journey So Far
My name is Tracey Beddoes and I am a first-time mum to a little boy called Dylan. I grew up in Hertfordshire and studied English Literature at DeMontfort University in Leicester. I met my now-husband and then moved to Gloucestershire.
After a rather uneventful beginning and middle of my pregnancy with Dylan, the ending was not ideal. I was very unwell and had an emergency induction culminating in an unplanned c-section. Although he was full time at 37 weeks, the way in which everything happened left me feeling like I had missed the end of the pregnancy. A 5 day stay in hospital hugely affected how I felt and my ability to bond with my baby. Most of the first few months of Dylan’s life are a complete blur to me, apart from a lot of crying and not feeling good enough to be a mum and that he would be better without me.
I felt isolated in my house and my beautiful Silver Cross pram stood in the kitchen but was only used when it went out with my husband pushing or my parents. We had bought a Hana wrap long before the birth but thinking I had more time, I hadn’t gotten around to trying it out. Due to Covid, the sling libraries weren’t open but I hadn’t even heard of a sling library, so I tried my best to use it myself. It was very hit and miss getting it exactly right, but amazingly, it made me feel like it was just me and Dylan again and we could go out walking. Slowly and with a lot of hard work I started to bond and totally fall in love with this little man that I had created.
I then fell down a metaphorical rabbit hole looking at carriers and trying to find my ‘perfect sling’. I watched hours of videos reviewing them and demonstrating how to use them. I bought so many different slings/carriers and although I used them, they were never really comfortable. Eventually, I managed to figure out what I was doing wrong and it was a game-changer! From then on I wanted to be able to save people the time and money that I had wasted, so I enrolled onto a peer-support course and then a consultants course.
I love babywearing, it gives me the closeness that I sometimes struggle to achieve at times and allows me to go out, socialise and generally be a mum. I would recommend babywearing to anyone who is involved with the raising and caring of a child.
