Strollers, Baby Carriers and Infant Stress

Strollers, Baby Carriers and Infant Stress

 We weren’t born with these curves. Normal curves of the spine develop gradually as a means of adapting to gravity. At birth, babies are in a state of flexion, still curled up, with their spine in a natural long c-shaped (convex) curve. At first, a baby does not have the strength to hold his head up, nor the balancing curves in his spine to do so. But gradually as the muscles in his neck get stronger, he begins to lift his heavy head against gravity, and a curve starts to develop in his neck (the cervical curve) to help balance his head. When your baby starts to creep and crawl the lower back (lumbar curve) and the muscles that support it develop. Only by about the first year does your baby attain these curves in his spine (Leveau, 1877).