I thought my daughter would like a book about swaddling and babywearing, but I am not going to bother sending this one to her. The swaddling part starts out well, with information about why to swaddle and wear your child, but there isn't a book worth of information there by any means and only too soon the author is telling you how to swaddle a baby in a paper grocery sack or a road map, apparently unable to decide whether this was supposed to be a joke book or a parenting book.

Then she moves on to part 2, babywearing. This had the potential to make it a really great book but it misses by miles. The hip carry is legitimate and well described, but the back and front carries are all the same carry and all what is known in the babywearing community as crotch danglers. This carry is not as comfortable for baby, not very good for baby's hips and fails to give the comfort of swaddling. I have never, ever seen a parent doing an outward facing crotch dangling back carry - if the baby is an energetic kicker that would be dangerous to the environment and possibly affect the parent's balance, as well as being uncomfortable for baby. And highly impractical! Step 5 is "Have someone place the baby" in the wrap. Yes that's right - it takes TWO people to put ONE baby into this carry. Even the crotch dangle front carry, where the parent can alleviate the strain on baby by supporting the little feet, watch to make sure the little hands are not getting into danger, and manage to get the baby in and out without a support team, is quite impractical for nursing or cuddling. In this book, the wonderful, swaddling, African and Asian back and front carries mentioned briefly in the foreword do not get any time in the how-to section (a book that DID have that information would have been a must-have book in my estimation), but there is a lot more "humorous" and not very helpful material like the "your ad here" sling. I'm donating this book back to the thrift store. There is probably 50c worth of useful information in it for a brand new parent. As long as they don't try the crotch dangles too often. ( )

Really very very sweet. I'm not totally convinced the measurements for the lengths of fabric you need are correct, but I would highly recommend swaddling for any mom out there looking for a little peace. ( )