Meh Dais and other Asian baby carriers

Written By Yvette ODowd

The Meh Dai will always hold a special place in my heart. After a very ordinary experience with a generic 1980s "front pack" carrier I bought before my first baby was born in 1984, discovering the Nursing Mothers Meh Tai a few months later was a revelation! And so began a journey of carrying babies which continues 37 years later!

The way the Cantonese words are written in English has been adjusted in recent years.

The basic design is still the same: a square or rectangle of fabric with straps at each corner. This base was modified into what we now refer to as soft-structured carriers (SSC), with original designs of @ergobabydownunder and @babytulaanz clearly showing their origins. Half-buckle carriers have a foot in each design, with a waistband like an SSC but retaining the straps of the meh dai.

The meh dai is one of several distinct styles of baby carrier culturally associated with countries in Asia:

Hmong women in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam would use a podaegi, which differs in design from a meh dai in that it has two straps and these are tied across the blanket-like body panel. Some designs eliminate the blanket and use wide straps, which become the carrier itself. Korean mothers also use a podaegi or a chunei.

Japanese women carry with an onbuhimo, which is used with older babies from the time they can sit.

Traditionally, beautifully hand-crafted carriers demonstrated the fine embroidery and sewing techniques of the women, who would create the carriers before marriage, showcasing their skills.

Originally, these carriers would support a baby on the back of someone while they worked. This might include grandparents, aunts and older siblings - often newly-graduated from their own carried status! Young babies would remain close to their mother for feeding but older babies would spend their days watching the world from the back of multiple carers.

It is possible the involvement of Australian and US forces in the wars in Korea and Vietnam brought them to the attention of mothers in those countries, where they became popular among both Le Leche League members in the US and the Nursing Mothers Association members who began using meh dais on the front as well as the back.