Keeping baby close at heart

3:51pm Monday 21st May 2007

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BABY transport is big business.

The stylish youngster about town can now travel in the utmost luxury, with increasingly sophisticated pram and pushchair designs being launched all the time.

So why are a growing number of mums turning their back on the latest technology for something altogether simpler?

Baby slings are the latest must have accessory. For a long time out in the fashion wilderness they have now hit the mainstream.

The fact that Gwen Stefani, Madonna, Angelina Jolie and Kate Hudson are using them obviously helps. However for Sara Harris it's about far more than fashion.

Sara, from Westborough Road, Westcliff, and her friend Sandra Jefferson, of Beach Avenue, Leigh, have been fans of the baby sling for a number of years now. In fact they are so confident slings are the future of baby travel they've set up their own business SaSaSlings hiring and selling them.

"We met at toddler group both wearing slings," says Sara about her friendship with Sandra. "We were always being asked about them and where we got them from and so we decided to start up a business."

With eight children between them they've certainly got plenty of baby knowledge. Sara, 30, has five children Daisy, eight, Ethan, six, Jude, four, Noah, two and Matilda, nine months. Sandra, 34, has three children George, four, Peggy, two, and Edith, three months.

They both started using slings when their four year olds were babies.

"I already had two small children and I thought if I put the baby in a sling I'd have my hands free," explains Sara. "You can breast feed hands free in some of them and so I could multi task and do things like walking to school while breast feeding," she smiles.

She says using a sling can also solve some of the age old pushchair problems.

"I think there are times when using a pushchair is ridiculous," says Sara. "There are some babies that don't want to sit in a pushchair no matter what the pushchair and It's a comfortable way of being able to carry them.

"It's convenient as well. If you've got to get on a bus you haven't got to worry about folding up the pushchair or if you're going around the shops you don't have to worry about taking people's ankles off."

It is also thought that carrying your baby so close also helps with bonding.

"We're basically animals and we're the only ones who put our babies somewhere else and leave them," explains Sara. "Just from a sheer nurture point of view it's better to have them close to you. They can feel your heartbeat plus it's nice to have a cuddle."