Babywearing around the world – Czech Republic

Anna Kšírová isn’t only a babywearing consultant and mother to two sons of ages 1,5 and 5 years, she’s also co-owner of the Czech babywearing brand Loktu She. Her hometown is Liberec, Czech Republic. Her aim is to encourage people taking off their fears.

Nestwärme: How popular is babywearing in your country?
Anna Kšírová: It´s very popular and still growing. Friends who travel around Europe (I haven´t done that much since I´ve had kids) tell me they haven´t seen that many carried babies anywhere else. The biggest czech babywearing group has almost 50 thousand members (the population is 10 milions). Babywearing is slowly becoming a mainstream thing. I´m very happy for that.

Why did you want to become a babywearing consultant and which school did you visit? 
Well, I didn´t plan to wear my son at all when I was pregnant. I´m a medical doctor and I was discouraged by physioterapeutists from using “those slings” – they told me it just spoils the baby and destroys its back. When my son was born many things changed – first we started cosleeping (mostly because I wanted to have him close to me), which was something I was strongly opposed to before.

Babywearing in Czech Republic – learn the benefits

And soon after it became impossible to put my son down so I asked my doula to show me how to tie “that sling”. She did – and it was just so nice, it felt so good. And I could make my meals and eat them warm, which was great because I was just too hungry! While choosing my own sling (it took me two weeks and I almost drove my dear partner crazy by showing him many different options and asking his opinion) I also found many interesting articles.

I read them and began to learn the truth about babywearing – how it benefits the baby and the mother. Of course, the most important thing was what I´d learnt from my own experience. I just knew it was good. And then I somehow began to teach other people, family, friends, people I didn´t know – and then I saw there was a course for babywearing educators. So I took it and it really changed a lot of things in my life.

Supporting women in motherhood

I took the czech babywearing school “Z břicha na břicho” (from the inside of the belly on to the belly”) led by Anna Pohoralkova. She´s an absolutely awesome and inspiring woman who has done an incredible amount of work for babywearing in the Czech republic.

How important is it for you and/or your clients to wear babys ergonomically?
Supporting women in motherhood is what matters most to me. I want to encourage them to touch their baby, to be in contact, to put them skin to skin. And I teach them how to wear their baby ergonomically, I tell them why the spread-squat-position is good and about the back – and I also tell them not to worry about it as much as people on social networks often do.

It´s more important to concentrate on the baby and let yourself be led by him than to have everything as the woman on the picture in that babywearing book does. I want to encourage women to take away fears, not to add new ones. They often worry about whether the knees shouldn´t be a bit higher or whether the back shouldn´t be more round – when it just cannot be all round because the baby is awake and wants to look around.

Empower women to make their own choices

And they worry about it even when the child is one year old, the hips are mostly developed and the baby is walking. So we talk about what really matters, how many good things does contact bring to the baby. I want to empower women by giving them the information to make their own choices and decisions.

How many parents are you „teaching“ per month?
Depends on how busy I am with my other work. It used to be even as much as 15, now it´s more like 5. But when we go to babywearing events I teach many people just in one day 🙂

What’s the thing, most parents ask or have trouble with concerning babywearing ?
They most often want to know if they are doing it right – or learn it the right way. They are often worried about the baby´s back. Spoiling is another common topic – they want to know whether the baby will be able to be on its own, whether it will sleep at night in bed, whether it will want to be in a pram as well…

Owner of Loktu She

How big is your «consultancy stash» ?
It changes but at the moment it´s something like 5 wraps. I like to have more so that I can lend them to friends, family and clients.

What’s your favourite wrap and/or carrier and what’s the favourite product chosen by your clients ?
Well, I´m biased here because I´m also coowner of Loktu She, babywearing wraps and clothing making company. At the moment the wrap I love the most is Rhododendrons Ruby, our Christmas limited edition, and I love my SSC by MoniLu, lovely czech company that makes carrires from wraps. My clients most often choose Loktu She wraps (but I really try not to talk about it much – it´s usually the last brand I mention. 🙂

What’s the word for babywearing in your language ?
Nošení dětí

Thank you, dear Anna, for your deep insights! 🙂 Visit her online on her babywearing courses website www.nosime-deti.cz, her blog on nosenec.blogspot.cz and Loktu She website at www.loktushe.cz.