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We’d like to thank Baby Tula for their very generous donation of four of their new Free-to-Grow Tula SSCs. These carriers adjust in height and seat width to fit smaller infants through toddlers. The largest setting is about the same size as a Standard Tula. This is an exciting option for the often-overlooked stage between newborn and larger “Standard-sized” infant (and beyond)! These carriers are on their way to the Peninsula, Sunnyvale, Oakland, and Walnut Creek learning libraries.

 Many thanks to Wildbird for their generous donation of a single-layer linen ring sling with gathered shoulder to our learning library! Wildbird slings are made in Utah and come in one length equivalent to a Medium size. This sling is headed to the Berkeley library.

Spring is a time of renewal – which makes it the perfect season for our Membership Drive!

If you’ve been a member of BWI-BA, you are probably deeply familiar with the wonderful benefits of membership. But let’s refresh our collective memories for the sake of those on the fence about becoming members!

A well-stocked and well-rounded Learning Library is an incredible resource for new and expert babywearers alike. Through annual membership dues our 11 libraries across the Bay Area have made trying different carriers a saving grace for many people. How?

• Save yourself from investing money in a carrier that might not work for you

• Avoid investing money in a carrier altogether and just borrow one every month

• Find the carrier best suited to your body shape and lifestyle

• Test something new as your child moves on to a new developmental stage

• Try out carriers without committing to one

• Try out different sizes/fibers/weights/brands of woven wraps

• Try all the carriers until you and your squish find the babywearing love

A $30 membership donation gets you all of the above PLUS discounts at local and online retailers. Whether you are saving up for that one dream carrier or #buyallthewraps – a BWI-BA Membership can practically pay for itself. Plus it’s a tax deductible donation!

Even those with grown squishes can still be part of the babywearing fun by:

• Donating the value of a membership to our Pay-it-Forward program

• Gifting a membership to a friend

No matter where you are in your babywearing journey or how you wear (pouches, front packs, DIY carriers, buckles to handwovens) – renew your love of babywearing and get your membership today!

Get your membership today!

Learn more about Spring Membership Drive Contest & Prizes

***Holiday Marketplace***

Still need to do some holiday shopping? Or maybe just “thank goodness 2016 is almost over” shopping? For any of your needs we have some wonderful vendors hosting a multi-consultant marketplace fundraiser! Each consultant has agreed to donate a percentage of all sales from this party to BWI-BA, so by shopping here you’ll be supporting free and accessible babywearing education and helping grow our library!

The marketplace will include:
-MULTIPLE LULAROE CONSULTANTS
-JAMBERRY
-LIPSENSE
-31 TOTE
-BAREFOOT BOOKS
-PAMPERED CHEF

This will be an open event party like many Facebook parties you have seen or heard of. If you’ve never attended a Facebook party – we’re here to guide you through it! Each day a vendor will post about their products and how to shop so you’re well aware of what the product is about and how fabulous it is!

This event will open TODAY 11/30 and our party will officially start 12/7 at 6:00pm. The first 24 hours LuLaRoe inventory will be posted by our consultants. Following LuLaRoe all of our other consultants will have the party open until Sunday, 12/11. Invite your family and friends. We’re so excited to host this for you all!

Come and hang out with us!

The party is happening HERE!

Bay Area Rapid Baby Totes now available for pre-order!

When we first came up with the idea for totes, we decided to ask Bay Area babywearers to submit design ideas. Bay Area Rapid Baby was the winning look! We love how it illustrates the connection we all have as Bay Area locals, babywearers, and caregivers.

This BWI-BA tote is a 15”x 22” navy tote bag with a zipper, 18” straps, and inside zip pocket! This bag is the perfect way to extend your babywearing days and support BWI-BA!

The totes are $35 for BWI members and $40 for non-members. Pick up is either at the meeting of your choice or $7 for shipping. Funds raised will go towards our learning libraries and to help grow our chapter as a whole!

Orders will be open until 12/4 and the bags will completed about four weeks later.

Order here!

 Side by side image of a rebozo from Oaxaca (Oaxaca is a state in Mexico.

The indigenous peoples in Oaxaca are primarily Zapotec) compared to a Didymos wrap

Recently a long overdue discussion has been taking place in the babywearing community regarding cultural appropriation, and the ways in which we as carrier manufacturers, educators, and babywearing enthusiasts have become complicit in perpetuating these acts of violence against communities that have traditionally worn their children in this manner. 

The discussion has been going on for quite some time, but has become more widely participated in after a recent call to action for babywearing retailers to stop carrying a classic woven wrap pattern by the brand Didymos. This company came onto the scene in the 70’s, and has been well loved the world over. Their most popular weave, referred to as an “Ind*o”, is problematic in name as it has been used as a racial slur against Indigenous Americans, but also in the pattern itself which was taken directly from traditional Zapotec designs. The design was in essence stolen from the Zapotec people, and then named with a slur used to degrade them. 

Didymos has been spoken to at length over the years, and had refused until this point to recognize the communities from which the pattern was taken, and has also refused to rename and/or stop weaving the design. Now after a number of retailers announced they would no longer sell this pattern, Didymos has issued a statement indicating the weave will be renamed “Prima”. This is unacceptable for numerous reasons. They have not asked for any input from those affected in the renaming of the wrap, and the new name seems like a slap in the face to those who have already expressed deep hurt over the wrap. They have not offered to discontinue the line, and in their statement they still claim to have designed the pattern themselves, even going so far to say they improved upon the traditional weaving pattern. 

This discussion and the #takebacktherebozo movement regarding the renaming of the “rebozo carry” as a Traditional Sling Carry have been embraced in some babywearing communities, including our own Bay Area group. Unfortunately some other groups have taken it as an opportunity to further marginalize the people affected by this movement. They have intentionally continued to use these words despite being asked to alter their language, they have threatened People of Color (POC) who have been actively speaking out on these movements, they have been defensive and angry towards those putting forth their time and energy to educate them on the issues, and they have tried to push POC out of these online spaces completely. In many of these groups administrators have come forward apologizing after they were schooled, but the apologies have seemed disingenuous. The character of these groups has remained unwelcoming for the POC involved in social justice activism on these subjects, and many people have been blocked or banned from these groups for offering a dissenting view. A detailed discussion about what has been going on is available in the group Counter Culture Babywearing Reviews on Facebook, and can be followed here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1138553269508144/

You may wonder what this has to do with us, and how Babywearing International Volunteers are responding to these very important discussions. Babywearing International of the Bay Area crafted this nondiscrimination policy back in March 2015, and would like to reiterate our commitment to it here: 

“An important part of making babywearing a universally accepted practice is ensuring that BWI meetings, events, and online spaces are welcoming for people of all backgrounds. Given our education mission, BWI is necessarily supportive of the basic tenets of social justice. Therefore, BWI does not condone silencing, tone policing, or otherwise oppressing marginalized groups, nor does BWI discriminate or permit discrimination by any member of its community against any individual on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, parental status, marital status, age, disability, national origin, or citizenship status.”

We are not a political organization. We do not support any causes unrelated to babywearing. As an organization, our leadership feels strongly about supporting marginalized populations, as well as underserved communities. These populations are the ones most affected by these offensive names, and appropriated cultural history. Our meetings cannot continue to be a welcoming place for marginalized communities unless we address these acts of injustice and intolerance and strive to eradicate them.

Our libraries have a few of these problematic wraps and we are currently discussing what to do with them. We will no longer refer to them by their problematic name, will not be teaching with them at meetings, and are discussing how we can phase them out of our inventory. Because our libraries are funded largely by donations from our members, we feel it is important to involve our membership in this very important conversation. 

If this entire post is leaving you scratching your head, we encourage you to read a few of the linked articles before coming back to it so we do not further burden the POC in our community trying to educate us on these topics when so much information is readily available on the subject. 

We welcome a dialogue on this subject, but require that discussions be respectful of those communities affected. Please feel free to reach out to your chapter leadership to discuss any concerns or suggestions you may have. You can email us at bayarea@babywearinginternational.org or contact any of our Volunteer Babywearing Educators, whose names and email addresses are available on our website, bayarea.babywearinginternational.org

Not Your Idea: Cultural Appropriation in the Birthing Community

International Babywearing Week 2016!!!

International Babywearing Week is right around the corner, which may lead you to ask: “What is International Babywearing Week and what does that have to do with me, right here in the Bay Area?”

Well, International Babywearing Week, or IBW, is a week when we focus on, advocate for, and promote the many benefits of babywearing and celebrate babywearing with our community. This year, IBW will be celebrated from October 5th through the 10th. Our 2016 theme is “The Best Seat in the House” because, really, what better seat is there than one curled up with your caregiver!

What does that celebration look like in our community?

Here in the Bay Area we have a week packed full of events in addition to three regular monthly meetings. Events range from street fairs to potlucks, farm, zoo, pumpkin patch, museum visits, and even a Pokemon Hunt! We welcome all caregivers to join us at any and all of these outings to enjoy the community and our beautiful home while wearing the little one(s) in your life. We will also have daily games in our Facebook group during IBW every night, a Babywearing Photo Scavenger Hunt and a Live Weaver Q&A with Ali of Cat’s Cradle Textiles! There may be a prize or two involved as well!

Check out our  International Babywearing Week schedule below. Happy babywearing!

Tuesday, October 4th

4pm-9pm

Pre-IBW Pizza Night at Pizza My Heart

5613 Bay St, Emeryville

https://www.facebook.com/events/1216937431703265/

Wednesday, October 5th

11am-2pm

Bay Area Discovery Museum

557 McReynolds Rd, Sausalito

https://www.facebook.com/events/1187002094706409/

11:30am-2pm

IBW at the Movies at Camera 7 Cinema

1875 S Bascom Ave, Campbell

https://www.facebook.com/events/161422830975023/

6pm-8pm

October Oakland Meeting at Sleep Play Love

5377 College Ave, Oakland

https://www.facebook.com/events/580498595463046/

Thursday, October 6th

10am-12pm

Little Farm

600 Canon Dr, Berkeley

https://www.facebook.com/events/661548690687178/

2pm-5pm

Curiodyssey & Park Meet-up

1651 Coyote Point Dr, San Mateo

https://www.facebook.com/events/1188954091179779/

7pm-9pm

Potluck at Tiny Tots

138 Railway Ave, Campbell

https://www.facebook.com/events/1412637195704315/

Friday, October 7th

10am-1pm

Lemos Farm and Pumpkin Patch

12320 San Mateo Rd, Half Moon Bay

https://www.facebook.com/events/215248885560620/

4pm-6pm

Clayton Valley Pumpkin Patch

1060 Pine Ln, Clayton

https://www.facebook.com/events/900342886765501/

5pm

Oakland First Fridays

West Grand Ave and Telegraph, Oakland

https://www.facebook.com/events/329980697354020/

Saturday, October 8th

10am

Life is Living Festival Meet-up at De Fremery Park

1651 Adeline St, Oakland

https://www.facebook.com/events/304390573274940/

10am-11:30am

Petaluma Pumpkin Patch

450 Stony Point Rd, Petaluma

https://www.facebook.com/events/1738210326494390/

2pm-5pm

San Francisco Zoo

Sloat Blvd and The Great Highway, San Francisco

https://www.facebook.com/events/1160551064021412/

8pm

Weaver Q&A with Ali of Cat’s Cradle Textiles!

On our Facebook group

https://www.facebook.com/groups/BWIBayArea/

Sunday, October 9th

2pm-3pm

Pokemon Go Walk at Charles F Kennedy Park

1333 Decoto Rd, Union City

https://www.facebook.com/events/546227592233627/

3pm-5pm

October Union City Meeting at Charles F Kennedy Park

1333 Decoto Rd, Union City

https://www.facebook.com/events/1810377822529968/

Monday, October 10th

11am-1pm

Pleasant Hill Park Playdate and Picnic

147 Gregory Ln, Pleasant Hill

https://www.facebook.com/events/1778777142411476/

3:30pm-5:30pm

October Walnut Creek Meeting at Sports Basement

1881 Ygnacio Valley Rd, Walnut Creek

https://www.facebook.com/events/1768317996782606/