Baby Carriages
Babies have needed to be carried for as long as parents have needed to go places, and different cultures have devised ingenious methods to ease the burden of bearing the weight of a small child on long, or even short, walks.
There are No Baby Strollers in India
Many Native Americans used a cradleboard, a highly decorated board covered in cloth in which the baby could be secured, typically by laces running across the cloth. The cradleboard was then strapped to the carrier back. Members of other cultures carried, or sometimes still carry, children wrapped in shawls, slings, or strips of cloth tied around the carrier shoulders, neck, or hip.
The Parents of northern Canada often carry children in the large, furry hoods of their caribou-skin parkas.
The Papuans of Papua New Guinea carry their children in nets woven from string made from the inner bark of trees. The net hangs from the carrier head and the baby nestles against the carrier chest. This allows nursing mothers to feed their children as they carry them.
Baby Carrier
Today, many varieties of baby carriages, or strollers, are available, from models that allow the child to lie down to those that keep the child upright. The invention has become more versatile as well, with collapsible versions, models that convert into car seats, and small trailer-like models, called prams, that can be pulled behind bicycles, as well as pushed. Prams are popular with bicyclists and joggers and can carry more than one child, as well.
A study conducted by Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, showed that jogging with a pram or stroller increased runners; heart rates by 3-5% over those jogging without strollers. The stroller also helped runners increase oxygen consumption by 2%. Women burned between 4-21 extra calories per 30-minute jog and men burned between 4-41 calories, depending on the make of the stroller.
Other post you may be interested in reading: Baby Carrier or Stroller and Baby Preparation Checklist
