Babywearing Isn’t a Fad: Why Keeping Baby Close Changes Everything | 280

Thanks to our Sponsor Haakaa

What if the most powerful postpartum tool you own isn’t a gadget at all, but a piece of fabric that keeps your baby close?

This week, Trish sits down with Skye Amundsen and Mallory Bransfield, the best friends and co-founders behind hope&plum. They’re the size-inclusive baby carrier brand that moms across Trish’s community can’t stop talking about, and Trish’s own team happens to be full of fangirls. In 2018, Skye and Mallory were two new moms who were fed up with carriers that didn’t fit every body and brands that turned babywearing into a race to “score the drop.” So they built something better.

Skye shares how a ring sling became her first “faith purchase” during IVF, and how babywearing helped her reclaim her motherhood during her daughter’s two-week NICU stay. Mallory opens up about how it kept her connected to her baby through a hard breastfeeding journey. Trish, a mom of seven who has watched babywearing go in and out of style for nearly three decades, brings the real talk. Moms have been sold a myth, she says, that keeping baby close holds them back. It actually gives them more freedom.

In this episode:

• How a frustrating shopping experience turned into an eight-figure, size-inclusive brand
• Skye’s NICU story and why babywearing felt like a way to take back control
• Babywearing through breastfeeding struggles, triple feeds, and pumping
• The research-backed benefits: co-regulation, less crying, support for nursing, and lower rates of postpartum depression
• Why babywearing is a cultural practice, not a trend, and why education matters as much as the carrier
• Safety, the legal bar that’s “entirely too low,” and brands chasing a money grab
• Staying true to your mission as a founder (and a mom) when things get hard
• Two pieces of advice for expecting mamas: find your community, and trust your intuition

More from Skye & Mallory:

• Website: hopeandplum.co
• Instagram: @hopeandplum
• TikTok: @hopeandplum

Thanks to our Sponsor Haakaa: Grab the Haakaa Petal Soft Silicone Milk Collector and use code ‘LOVELNM10’ for 10% off!

Helpful Timestamps:

• 00:00 Hope and Plum
• 06:17 Skye’s NICU Babywearing Experience
• 08:27 Mallory’s Breastfeeding Struggles
• 14:45 Benefits of Babywearing
• 30:04 Business And Motherhood Never Pause
• 38:43 Where To Find Hope And Plum

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Produced and Edited by Vaden Podcast Services