I just watched this video of a young mother doing some inverted yoga poses with a young baby strapped to her chest. My immediate reaction is that she is probably very good at yoga and has a negligible chance of falling however it’s totally irresponsible and stupid. I can’t think of any good reason for her to be practicing upside-down with her baby other than to get attention on social media. Meanwhile, if for some odd reason (loss of concentration, low-blood-sugar etc) she did make a mistake the results could be devastating.
IMO, judge away. People do stupid things with kids all of the time. I’m not one of those “they just lost their child, haven’t they been punished enough” jerks. I’m another type of jerk, but that’s neither here nor there.
I dunno. Depends on if she knows how to fall. It seems that if she falls backward, she can tuck and roll, and if she falls forward, she can catch herself with her hands. It is a bit cringey to watch.
I have no real idea, though. Mostly I’m just wondering what there is to gain from doing yoga with your infant strapped to your body. Her response to that question would probably involve something about crystals and light energy.
That sounds kind of judgey for someone you don’t know. She might just find yoga good exercise. Or is the site one of those ridiculous ones with crazy health claims?
Anyway, a mundane explanation is that the baby likes being next to her. Same way other parents will clean or cook one-handed because the baby wants to be held and will scream its head off if put down right now. Actually, cooking is an issue, with the stovetop and all, but other stuff parents do one-handed while holding a baby.
Second explanation she’s making a pointed response (that I would call rude) to moms who say they’re too busy with the baby to do yoga.
There are probably a dozen other explanations that I haven’t thought of.
I see more risk to baby by taking it out the door and putting it in a car seat or letting your relatives to to visit it.
We spent a million years carrying babies to more things than yoga.
I agree with the OP. While the risk of the child being injured may be low, it does exist. And this is a risk that serves no useful purpose. So why take it?
I dunno, it seems like a reasonable provisional hypothesis from the limited amount of information we do have: that she’s doing yoga with a baby strapped to her, filming it and posting it on Facebook. I’d say she’s a vegan, thinks that she has an undiagnosed allergy to gluten, is deeply concerned about toxins, and feels that vaccination is a deeply personal decision.
You can say that about lots of things. I am inclined to agree to some extent but not for everything. I used to throw my baby daughters up in the air and catch them or walk around with them on my shoulders just like millions of parents do. It is a lot less dangerous than it sounds and even a partial failure just means that the baby lands on the ground a little hard and gets dirty. You shouldn’t do that with a newborn on concrete but the baby in that video is at least the better part of a year old and much tougher than many people assume.
My mother used to lay on the bed and lift me straight up on her feet like I was flying. I loved it and it wasn’t that different than the yoga pose shown. It is a hell of a lot safer than the time my father took me on a slow speed ride on his rather large motorcycle when I was 3 and he managed to dump it with me on the back (neither one of us were hurt).
She’s obviously very good at yoga, so unlike someone who was just starting out to learn these poses. I’m not sure if there is any more danger here than someone wearing/carrying a baby who is going down stairs and trips. It’s possible she is better at yoga than I am at walking down stairs, and I did that with a baby.
I recently saw a woman hike Camelback Mountain with a baby on her back. For those who don’t know, people get injured almost daily on that hike- it’s steep, rocky, and pretty hard. I didn’t say anything, but when I got to the top, a woman came over to me and said “Did you see the girl with the baby?..”
Even if she was the best hiker in the world, other people could slip and knock her down.
Exercises With Baby are a bit of a thing, these days for new mums - not to the extent of upside-down yoga positions, generally, but adapting the sort of low level exercises you might do anyway to get fit after childbirth, by including New Small Person in them, thus giving them Attention!!! and Skin Contact!!! and all those other things they love to have.
IME every baby in existence adores Flying Baby Pose, quite apart from whether it’s doing any good for your stomach muscles. Two-year-olds are quite fond of them too…
It was the “posting the video on Facebook” part that ultimately swayed me. Also, IIRC she has dreads. That is crunchy granola. Crunchy types are often my favorite kind of people and I borrow from them liberally (heh), but at times they can be irritatingly self righteous. Like that mother of three who posted a photo of her hot body with the tagline, “What’s YOUR excuse?” We all insert our biases into these things.
Maybe “doing things with baby strapped to body” could be an interesting new genre of video. There are lots of possible ones that I can think of, that I might enjoy watching.
Bungee jumping.
Going on a first date.
Being chased by a bear.
