African mothers see baby strollers as abhorrent fad

[onthefly]

This is interesting Though old. Wonder how they're selling now
African mothers see baby strollers as abhorrent fad / Tradition of carrying children upheld; 'they can't sit like lumps'

African mothers see baby strollers as abhorrent fad

Tradition of carrying children upheld; 'they can't sit like lumps'

Emily Wax, Washington Post

Thursday, May 20, 2004

(05-20) 04:00 PDT Nairobi , Kenya -- Irene Wambui can't imagine why anyone would buy a baby stroller. She says she sees it as a cold cage filled with useless rattles, cup holders and mirrored headlights. Imagine children being stuffed into such a contraption and pushed around town like some kind of pet.

Yet here she is in the middle-class Westlands shopping district, trying to sell her store's newest merchandise, the four-wheeled plastic and metal tool of modern motherhood. But so far, strollers have been a flop in Nairobi, an affront to tradition.

Across Africa, women can be seen carrying sleeping or sometimes giggly babies on their backs, swathed in cloth. The babies move to the sway of their mothers' hips, synchronized throughout the day, bending with them as they collect water or sweep the floor and rising again when the women stop to rest. They hang on as their mothers sell food in the market or pray at a church or mosque.

The introduction of strollers and baby carriages, both known here by the British word "pram," horrifies traditionalists, even someone such as Wambui, who sells them. The stroller is appearing in major cities around Africa, but so far it has not been a hit.

"It's not so wonderful. In Africa, we just carry our children or let them roam. They can't sit like lumps," said Wambui, 24. "Besides, our roads aren't even good enough for these devices. If everyone had a pram, it would cause jam- ups in traffic. Then we would be bad to our children and bad to our roads."

Wambui's boss and manager, Zara Esmail, was pacing back and forth in front of the strollers one recent day. She said the store had sold only one baby stroller in two months, and that was to a visiting U.N. worker from Britain who complained later that she had been disappointed by the small selection.

"In general, I thought they would sell far better," Esmail said. Perhaps, she added, it's a question of directing more advertising toward middle-class, working moms. "We thought these modern ones would be a hit."

The stroller has sparked debate among African pediatricians who think the device -- first crafted as a labor-saving tool for the European middle class -- may damage the relationship between a mother and a child.

"The pram is the ultimate in pushing the baby away from you," said Frank Njenga, a child psychiatrist in Nairobi, Kenya's bustling capital. "The baby on the back is actually following the mother in warmth and comfort. The baby feels safer, and safer people are happier people."

In the United States and Europe, strollers have long been controversial. Recently, some doctors and child psychologists have blamed them for everything from pediatric obesity to low self-esteem later in life.

Jane Clark, professor of kinesiology at the University of Maryland, said there was concern that Americans were overusing strollers for older children, causing toddlers to be less physically active. A growing movement among child advocates promotes the idea of carrying babies more and getting them out of their strollers.

At the same time, Web sites and magazines in the United States and Europe dedicate a lot of space to the subject of choosing a style of stroller or carriage -- front-to-back or side-by-side, a jogger or a sleeper, with or without a lightweight titanium frame, pneumatic tires, rear suspension, mud flaps and/or battery-operated blinkers. Some European-made antique carriages are status symbols for celebrities such as Madonna and Celine Dion, who spent $2,600 on the classic Balmoral Pram, described by some Web reviewers as a tiny Humvee.

Africans consider the traditional method of toting their children the only true version of day care. When it's time for feeding, the food is right there as a mother shifts her child to the front of her body, nestling the infant to her breast. The baby stroller could change all of that. But many people in Nairobi said they thought the devices would be just another instance of Africans adopting the worst habits of industrialization.

"There are customs from a hundred years ago that are not relevant today for Africans," said Carol Mandi, managing editor of EVE, an East African women's magazine. "Our challenge is to pick the good from the bad. But carrying on your back, well, that is just a wonderful custom that keeps the baby emotionally stable and lets the mother feel bonded. We can't stop being African women just because we are suddenly thrust into the modern world. What next? They will tell us to stop breast feeding in public? No way."

Washington Post Special Correspondent Candice Miranda contributed to this report.

[Floweryfields]

Guess there's no bugaboo market in Africa then?

[Ambersky]

I love the last paragraph soooo much.

[leckert]

I love the last paragraph soooo much.

Love this!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk so may be slightly confusing

[Cranky Kitten]

I love that last paragraph

[~clover~]

I wish our society was more like that. A pram, cot/bassinette etc are all must have 'necessities' when expecting a baby. Noone has a baby without these items. Some people don't even realise that you can have a baby without them!

I was one of those people. & I still have all those 'necessities', they just sit there unused A pram won't entertain DD when I'm trying to get the cooking done, so she goes on my back!

[Jennifer13]

Maybe she started importing European wraps instead?

Bet there's no hip dysplasia there!

You'd have loved the babywearing master class yesterday, MadB! So much info on the benefits. I hope tradition continues to win out in Africa.

[Sagres]

I do agree with a lot of points in this, about over indulging children (especially older children) in prams who are perfectly able to walk, it is something I find annoying also. I do think on the whole we over use prams massively. But I also think it is a bit over simplistic to say we shouldn't have strollers in our modern world. I mean I don't do physical work day-to-day like the women they are referring to, so I take my 6mo and 2.5yo for 6+ km walks in a pram for exercise. And I don't have the same rich natural environment in my neck of suburbia, so I have to roam further afield and cover more ground than my girls legs are able to get a similar experience.
I don't think just because a child is in a pram some times means they don't also walk a lot, have a lot of physical contact with their parents, have high level of physical activity, spend a lot of time in a sling etc etc. I think in many cases there is a correlation between the two, but it doesn't have to be that way. I think the pram is often the tool parents employ to parent they way they want to, but the tool itself is not the core of the concern.

[AngelPants]

ah love it, now to convice DS that he should walk or stay put on my back once hes wrapped.....

[beckoes]

when we had DD1 we bought all the things on the 'must have baby list' . half that stuff i havnt used for dd2. cot, bassinette, change table....barley used! Used carriers with both kids for the first few months, BUT i couldnt live without my pram!! Two kids, all the stuff that goes with them and i dont drive. I walk alot and couldnt get around without it. And i dont feel that it has affected the relationship between my children and I.
But i just cant imagine them in africa! Hope it stays that way.

[Cherished]

Power to them but gawd I couldn't think of anything worse than carrying ds around when I go out. I carry him around at home enough and my back and neck are sore as it is. As for the bonding he is 19 months and still breastfeeds around the clock and we co-sleep which is enough for me.

[Starfish]

I don't think that the article is implying that mothers shouldn't use prams at all, it's just saying that they shouldn't be thought of as "necessary". I agree that prams are useful, e.g. you can put your shopping in the bottom, but I also agree with the sentiment that carrying your baby is more natural and should be encouraged where possible. Western society has gotten too used to the line of thinking that babies shouldn't be worn. E.g. many mothers I know really believe that carrying a baby a lot will give you back problems, etc, which is simply not true (unless you get a bad sling/carrier or use it incorrectly).

[onthefly]

I get that prams can be useful for carrying stuff. But the number of people I see holding their baby or toddler in one arm and pushing the pram with the other.... a good sling, that's all you need! I wore DD at a picnic, at home and at the shops today - several hours all up - and I feel fine. I think carrying your baby in your arms a lot may very well give you back problems, though.

[Cranky Kitten]

I cheat and roll up my beco and tuck it into the basket on the pram. So when DS gets sick of being in the pram and grizzles, I pop him into the beco and off we go. Or if I've bought a lot of stuff and am running out of carrying capacity I have been known to do the same thing

[veus]

My pram is usually a glorified bag/baby stuff pusher. ;-)


Sent from my smart phone using Tapatalk.(Occasional fat fingers syndrome might occur)

[LimeSlice]

That's the best thing about using a sling - *I'm* not carrying DD around all day, a very special piece of cloth is

[Jennifer13]

I wear my baby strapped to me in a wrap or sling (practically weightless) and if I need to I put my shopping in a trolley. And I don't carry around a nappy bag - it stays in the car. Bbs are portable!

[Babyluv]

We rarely used our pram in the first 9 months of DD life. We used our ergo
Every day. It was the only way I could get DD to sleep and get chores done. It was great too for when we were shopping and she got hungry I could just put the hood over pop a boob out and feed her while we were shopping etc haha
Loved this article. It's a reminder to all of us to get more cuddle time with our babies. We still use our ergo but not so often as DD gets restless.