What Side do you Carry LO?

thegoodpotato · August 2014

Most of my family carry babies on their left arm/hip. I've read that people who suffer from PPD/PPA are more likely to carry a baby on the right. Just a curiosity thing.... Which side do you predominantly use (if you're not baby wearing, etc)?

thegoodpotato · August 2014

I carry her on the right and I did with Marnie, too. Which doesn't make sense because I'm right handed, so I end up having to use my stupid hand for everything....

coco2787 · August 2014

Right handed, carry on the left. No PPA/PPD either.

sparkymcgeee · August 2014

econmama said:

On my right because that hip is in better shape

That ^^

I don't have RA but I have bad hips. I carry on the right and did have PPD but I don't know if it really correlates.

Now that I think about it though, I wonder if the reason my left hip hurts so much is because of how I have to balance and shift my weight around to accomodate a baby on my right hip.

bumpuser794640 · August 2014

casey78 said:
Mostly left --- so I can do things with my right hand.

This exactly.

thegoodpotato · August 2014

GnomeSweetGnome said:

casey78 said:
Mostly left --- so I can do things with my right hand.
This exactly.

This makes sense. I don't know why I carry with my right. It just feels wrong to carry with my left....

thegoodpotato · August 2014

Yeah, it was an article I read somewhere while I was deep in PPD (and regular depression) with Marnie. It kind of stuck with me. I don't remember where the study came from (I read it about 2.5y ago).

fabk · August 2014

Right handed and carry on the left. Mainly because I have problems with my right wrist and hand (pain and strength issues).

andrea0418 · August 2014

Right handed. Carry Ty on my left hip.

stephyfaith · August 2014

Silv3rlining said:
Left or center. Though I try right sometimes. masseuses said you really need to alternate..but it's hard

Same. I try the right and she doesn't sit right on it for some reason. I try to alternate but usually default is left or center.

danigirl7181 · August 2014

I carry on my right and I'm right hand, no PPD/PPA.

kmd78 · August 2014

Carry on right (mostly), right handed, no PPD/PPA that I'm aware of. I had De Quervains syndrome so bad in my left wrist that I could barely use it & had surgery in March to fix it. Now my right wrist hurts from over-use so I try to carry on the left more. It's just feels awkward to me on the left?

rondosa · August 2014

@thegoodpotato‌ I'm the same as you. Right handed but carry on right hip. So dumb! No ppd here but a very lopsided neck and shoulder!!

opheliainwaders · August 2014

Weirdly, I'm a lefty, and I still carry her on my left, so then I wind up having to use my right hand for everything. Womp.

bumpuser8571475 · August 2014

I'm right handed but carry LO on my left. I had PPA/PPD though so that's interesting.

bobcee · August 2014

I also am left handed and still carry them on my left. Us lefty's just seem even more backwards now.

curlysue22 · August 2014

I carry her on the right (no PPD/PPA). DH noticed the other day that he carries her on the left and she's always twisting her body around when he's holding her. He wondered if it's b/c I carry her on the right and she likes to have her right hand out.

thegoodpotato · August 2014

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1561560/Stressed-mothers-hold-baby-on-the-right.html

I found one article (I don't think this is the one I read, but it came up when I googled) - it was a study done at the University of Durham (in the UK).

Regardless of handedness, apparently about 14% carry their baby on the right. This increases to 36% if the mother is under "stress" which may lead to PPA/PPD.

"The study, published today in the online version of the Journal Of Child Psychology And Psychiatry, looked at 79 mothers and their babies, who were an average age of seven months."

The sample size was really small, so I'm not sure how much the theory holds water (and I'm not sure that I'm confident in their methods of determining "stress" or "anxiety"). It would be interesting to see what the results would be if they increased the sample size.

thegoodpotato · August 2014

ramy3695 said:

So that article is talking about which side the baby is "cradled" on, not the hip carry. I cradle Iris on whichever side she's nursing. I don't have a preference.

Also, if the numbers are true, I think it would be more likely that the "stress" is a symptom of PPD or PPA, not that it causes the PPD/A.

It says "cradled" once, in reference to how the mother talks. It says "held" throughout the rest of the article. If I picked up my 7mo baby, I likely wouldn't be "cradling" her.

thegoodpotato · August 2014

"When mothers are stressed, they pick the baby up and hold it on the right side of their bodies."

For some reason the clip didn't copy into comments

dinomama13 · August 2014

I'm right handed and carry him on my right side. Also both PPA/PPD.

redhead610 · August 2014

Ss- I alternate all the time.

thegoodpotato · August 2014

econmama said:

Friendly, correlation =/= causation reminder.

Yes. It seems to be a tenuous link at best, and I wasn't really looking to see if people's baby-carrying handedness was correlated with PPA or PPD, it was just a random tidbit I had picked up a few years ago. I was interested in what side people carry on.

I just thought it was weird that as a right-handed person, I carry the baby on the right. It struck me this morning as I was trying to get my lunch together with my left hand while squiggle-bot refused to be put down that it was weird that I carry on the right all the time. It makes life more difficult... but carrying the other way just feels wrong.