“No, I am not going to damage my baby's spine in this thing. “

"There is no connection between carrying babies in an upright position and an increase in the frequency of bad posture, posture conditions or spinal damage.

Even with children who spent more than four hours a day (sometimes even six to ten hours) upright in a sling or a wrap, spinal conditions were not found to occur any more frequently at school starting age than the average for the age group in total."

Despite what your mother-in-law's next-door neighbour insists, baby carriers are not going to damage your baby's spine.

Research has clearly disproven the old wives tales of the past which insisted very young children must not be held in an upright position in a baby carrier. Indeed, the evidence is that the squat position babies are carried in, supported from knee to knee with their knees higher than their bum, is the same position achieved by the bracing equipment used to treat infants with congenital hip dysplaysia. Rather than causing harm, babywearing supports natural development.

Human babies are held in arms against the chest in the early months until they grow and develop to be able to comfortably sit astride the adult hips around six months. These are natural positions, as is the "piggy back" for carrying older children. Baby carriers are nothing more than a tool to hold babies in these natural positions and free up the hands of the carer to carry and do small tasks. Commercially available baby carriers are a modern take on traditional carriers used around the world for thousands of years.

Reference: "A Baby Wants to be Carried: Everything you need to know about baby carriers and the benefits of babywearing" by Evelin Kirkilionis.