IBCICC History & Expression of Appreciation of Contributions

The idea of creating an international medically recognized professional identity and certification emerged through many discussions within the babywearing education community in connection to various babywearing conferences, such as the International Babywearing Conference 2012 in Washington, DC, the 1st European Babywearing Conference 2014 in Bristol, UK, the 1st Dutch Medical Professional Babywearing Symposium 2014 & the International Babywearing Conference 2014 in Tempe, AZ. The need for a medical recognition of babywearing was most recently confirmed at the international Babywearing educator summit, organized by Babybjorn in 2016, in which educators from Europe and North America participated.

In 2015, a small group of people (the self-appointed IBCICC Task Force) organized the first international IBCICC group meeting in connection to the 1st Flemish Babywearing Conference, Antwerp. In preparation for the meeting, great efforts were made to locate and invite EVERY possible school owner/educator or association leader across the globe. Approximately 25 babywearing community stakeholders from Europe, South & North America participated in this first open discussion regarding content and direction. To create a workable structure and manage inputs from the large international babywearing community, it was decided to create a closed Facebook IBCICC group, where membership was (loosely) restricted to individuals who were either a babywearing community association leader or an educator of consultants. The IBCICC FB group currently comprises approx. 75 babywearing leaders from around the globe and is still growing.

After the IBCICC meeting in Antwerp, an open-for-all-IBCICC-FB-group-stakeholders process for every aspect of the development was initiated, based on an assumption of fundamental trust in all participants’ wanting genuinely to work towards the common goal of creating international medical recognition and validity for babywearing.

Sadly, this original ambition to keep an open-for-all-IBCICC-FB-group-stakeholders development process turned out to be unworkable. This was mostly due to too differing views and intentions in the babywearing community at the time as regards the fundamental need for a medically recognized international certification program.

Subsequent to these experiences, the IBCICC Task Force members decided to take upon them to develop the basic documents for a subsequent formal hearing process in the international babywearing community. The work with developing the basic documents and policies is currently, as of February 2017, ongoing, with IBCICC Task Force meetings scheduled for March and July 2017.

The path to obtaining external validity for babywearing consultancy as an integrated evidence-based practice is long and very resource-demanding. We sincerely hope that the babywearing community will not spread its meager financial and personnel resources on divergent initiatives.

The IBCICC initiative would like to express our profound gratitude to the following babywearing education community members, who have all, in various ways, contributed significantly to the creation of IBCICC. Most of this work has been done in private time and unpaid, based on a genuine desire to create an international medically recognized professional identity for babywearing consultancy. All the past IBCICC contributors have left IBCICC on a pleasant and supportive note. Their departures have been entirely due to inescapable private and professional priorities, and they continue to support the development of IBCICC from their current positions within the babywearing community.

Organising the first international IBCICC meeting in connection to the 1st Flemish babywearing Conference, Antwerp, 2015

Kirsten Minnen, The Netherlands

Wibke Hott, United Kingdom

Wendy Haisma, The Netherlands

Miluska Flooren–van Eekelen, The Netherlands

Dagmar Lenaers, Belgium

Cindy Huisman, Belgium

Henrik Norholt, Denmark

Past membership of the IBCICC task force

Wendy Haisma, The Netherlands, 2015

Dagmar Lenaers, Belgium, 2015

Cindy Huisman, Belgium, 2015

Miluska Flooren–van Eekelen, The Netherlands, 2015-2017

Wibke Hott, United Kingdom, 2015-2017

Kirsten Minnen, The Netherlands, 2015-2017