Mother places her infant into a rear-facing oram.
An article last week which claimed that an academic had called mums using outward-facing prams 'cruel' and selfish' hit buttons with mothers weary of yet more criticism over modern parenting practices.
Professor Catherine Fowler has now claimed she was taken out of context, after receiving hate mail following the publication of the article in Sydney's Sunday Telegraph.
Dr Fowler conducted an interview with the newspaper on the eve of her lecture on raising babies as part of the UTS Speaks program. As Dr Fowler tells The Conversation website, the lecture focused on the importance of the development of self-regulation, parents’ important role in this crucial task in early childhood and the importance of understanding infant experience.
Part of the presentation included a 90-second video on what an infant might experience in a busy shopping mall if wheeled about in an outward facing pram..
"I spoke to [the journalist] about the importance of parents understanding the infant experience, told her about my video, as an illustration, and discussed why we should rethink the use of some baby equipment," said Dr Fowler.
"I also emphasised the need to be sensitive with the story as my intent was not to make parents feel guilty. I think I was far too trusting in assuming that everyone had the best interest of infants at heart."
Instead, Dr Fowler claims the journalist quoted her out of context and produced an article which "failed to provide all the facts" and "was written in extremely emotive language."
A key part of professor Fowlers discussion was a research piece on prams in a UK study in 2008, where Dr Susan Zeedyk and her assistants completed 2722 infant observations in 54 UK sites. As she has written on The Conversation:
This study and another involving 20 extended observations showed – not surprisingly – that using outward-facing prams led to reduced talking to the infant by the parent.
The researchers also found that infants in parent-facing prams were more likely to fall asleep, which was interpreted as a tentative measure of lowered stress levels.
What’s more, babies and their parents in parent-facing prams were more likely to laugh.
And babies were found to be unable to effectively seek their parent’s attention if they were facing away from them.
This research suggests that it’s more isolating for babies to face outwards than parents or researchers had previously realized.
In the smaller study, mothers with prams that had infants facing away were given the opportunity to use parent-facing prams.
The majority felt it greatly improved their interaction with their infant and was much more enjoyable and fun.
What Professor Fowler would like parents to focus on in the research - rather than throwing out their pram - is how they can become more aware of their infants, regularly talk to them and touch them.
"In all honesty, I would love to see baby equipment producers become more sensitive to infant developmental needs," she adds.
"The most disturbing thing for me is that a suggestion that infants like, need to see and interact with their parents has caused so much anger."
"My intention has never been to make parents feel guilty – I am a parent myself and know how difficult it can be to make decisions about parenting."
"Rather than attacking me, maybe we can, as a community, start to focus on our most precious and vulnerable citizens, our infants."
Have you changed your mind after hearing more about the research? Comment on the Essential Baby forums, or read what people had to say about the original article.
