So you've heard that babywearing is "good for your baby", but maybe you don't know some of these things that have been studied pretty extensively. Let's dive in ...
Wearing your baby upright on your chest:
1. ENHANCES IMMUNOLOGICAL PROTECTION
If the mother is breastfeeding her baby, she will raise antibodies in response to all of the microbes that they come in contact with and transfer them to the baby. (Lawn, 2010)2
Touch is so important to the healthy development of an infant that a lack of touch, or separation of mother and newborn, actually causes high amounts of the toxic stress hormone cortisol to be released. High levels of cortisol in the blood and separation from mother may negatively impact immune function as the body may stop producing leukocytes (infection fighting cells).
The Developmental Psychobiology Research Group at the University of Colorado Medical center reported how primates separated from their mothers for a brief period of time stopped producing leukocytes to fight off infection. When reunited with their mothers, their immune system returned to normal and started producing leukocytes again