About Moova
Moova's design is based on the latest research into infant motor development and represents a new and expanded understanding of what babywearing can do for your child's development.
Research has already shown that babywearing strengthens your child's social skills, promotes breastfeeding and contributes to healthy hip development.
Motor development is both about gross motor skills – the ability to hold first the head, then the upper body and then the whole body upright and to move around in the environment, and fine motor skills – the interaction between eyes, arms, hands and mouth that your baby uses to explore and become smarter about everything between heaven and earth – toys, plants, animals.
Research shows that the more coordinated opportunities you give your baby to practice these emerging skills, the better your baby's motor development progresses. And that there are connections between your baby's motor development and then later language and cognitive skills and even academic performance in youth and adulthood.
Recent research shows that your child's ability to sit upright develops gradually from the head down the spine. In the Moova carrier, the back panel is adjustable so that your baby achieves the optimal balance between support and freedom of movement. Thereby you give your baby the opportunity to activate his muscles and nerve pathways in the head, neck, back, shoulders and arms. It also strengthens your baby's core muscles and promotes your baby's ability to sit upright on his own.
Your baby can freely turn his head and take in the outside world. At the same time, arms and hands are free to explore toys you can hang from the shoulder strap or plants and animals – everything your child needs to get to know when you go out into the world. Unforgettable moments and the best nourishment for your baby's sensory apparatus and brain.
You know it: Your baby takes a good hold of your finger. According to evolutionary research, it is a legacy from when a baby had to hold on to its mother's fur.
Moova gives your baby the opportunity to actively experience this reflex through handles that your baby can grasp. It strengthens muscles in the hands, arms, shoulders, neck and head and develops fine motor skills
Moova's design is based on the latest research into infant motor development and represents a new and expanded understanding of what babywearing can do for your child's development.
Research has already shown that babywearing strengthens your child's social skills, promotes breastfeeding and contributes to healthy hip development.
Motor development is both about gross motor skills – the ability to hold first the head, then the upper body and then the whole body upright and to move around in the environment, and fine motor skills – the interaction between eyes, arms, hands and mouth that your baby uses to explore and become smarter about everything between heaven and earth – toys, plants, animals.
Research shows that the more coordinated opportunities you give your baby to practice these emerging skills, the better your baby's motor development progresses. And that there are connections between your baby's motor development and then later language and cognitive skills and even academic performance in youth and adulthood.
Recent research shows that your child's ability to sit upright develops gradually from the head down the spine. In the Moova carrier, the back panel is adjustable so that your baby achieves the optimal balance between support and freedom of movement. Thereby you give your baby the opportunity to activate his muscles and nerve pathways in the head, neck, back, shoulders and arms. It also strengthens your baby's core muscles and promotes your baby's ability to sit upright on his own.
Your baby can freely turn his head and take in the outside world. At the same time, arms and hands are free to explore toys you can hang from the shoulder strap or plants and animals – everything your child needs to get to know when you go out into the world. Unforgettable moments and the best nourishment for your baby's sensory apparatus and brain.
You know it: Your baby takes a good hold of your finger. According to evolutionary research, it is a legacy from when a baby had to hold on to its mother's fur.
Moova gives your baby the opportunity to actively experience this reflex through handles that your baby can grasp. It strengthens muscles in the hands, arms, shoulders, neck and head and develops fine motor skills
What motivates Moova?
We want to give parents knowledge and tools to support their infant's motor development. We are inspired by Professor Karen Adolph: "Motor development is embodied, embedded, enculturated and enabling". We believe that parents can help their children develop not only a strong core of security and love, but also give them the physical and cognitive skills needed for a rich, healthy and long life.
Actively using a baby carrier to promote motor development in infants is a new and promising scientific field that Moova is pursuing through international collaboration with research institutions.
We expect to see better gross and fine motor development in infants and fewer of the unfortunately relatively frequent negative consequences of infants' safest sleeping position - on their backs.
Based on the already demonstrated links between early motor development and later cognitive, language and academic abilities, we also hope to investigate the long-term effects of using the Moova baby carrier.
We also assume connections between early inactivity (container syndrome) and later physical inactivity – a major challenge for public health. Moova counteracts this early pacification of the infant and may thereby contribute to a longer, healthier physically active life.
What does Moova mean?
The name Moova reflects our desire to nurture babies' innate love of dance and movement. It is derived from the term "movers & shakers", which also refers to the lucky ones who just have this very special sense of movement, rhythm and timing on a dance floor.
The term was first used in 1873 in Arthur O'Shaughnessy's poem, "Ode", which paid tribute to musicians and poets.
The history about
Moova
Moova was created by me, Henrik Norholt. Over the past decades, I have had the unique privilege of getting to know many of the leading international experts in almost everything to do with infants – pediatrics, orthopedics, neonatology, infant behavior and development, psychology, physiology, biomechanics, breastfeeding, childbirth and babywearing. But my greatest teacher is and will be my little daughter, Ida Lea.
I have learned that even while one's baby is inside its mother's womb, she or he has a deep need to be valued as a person. To be included, spoken to and sung to and appreciated for one's expressions of life, no matter how young they may be.
Personal observations and many research studies have made clear how incredibly important extended physical contact between parent and infant is, with effects on the child's future on so many psychological and biological levels; brain development, stress regulation, attachment, social and cognitive skills, and even lifelong physical health.
I have begun to understand how intensely and intelligently a baby explores its surroundings right from birth, and how caregivers can support this development. It was during my work on a scientific article on babywearing and motor development that it dawned on me that there was an urgent need for a new baby carrier design that supports the infant's motor development.
Through my upbringing and social circle, I am well rooted in the Danish design principles – functionality, simplicity and the use of natural, sustainable materials – at the same time that I have a deep admiration for Japanese craftsmanship. In collaboration with babywearing experts, designers and model constructors, I have developed a carrier that would like to reflect these values. We have also chosen to patent our design due to its many innovative aspects
A little about Henrik Norholt, founder of Moova Baby
Education
PhD, 2004. The Royal Veterinary & Agricultural College
Past and present professional memberships
The World Association of Infant Mental Health
The Society for Emotion and Attachment Studies
The International Association for the Study of Affective Touch
The international Marcé Society for Perinatal Mental Health
The German Association for Infant Mental Health
Nordic Association for Infant Development
The Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health
Initiatives
"The International Board Certified Infant Carrying Consultant Association". The aim is to promote scientific, medical and societal recognition of infant wearing as a universal preventive practice with impact on long-term psychological and physical health.
"Pregnancy Dialogues". An evidence-based prenatal social support program distributed globally through The Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health.
Pregnancy Dialogues
´
Biography
Norholt H. Revisiting the roots of attachment: A review of the biological and psychological effects of maternal skin-to-skin contact and carrying of full-term infants. Infant Behav Dev . 2020;60:101441. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101441
Norholt H. Delivering Clinically on our Knowledge of Oxytocin and Sensory Stimulation: The Potential of Infant Carrying in Primary Prevention. Front Psychol . 2020;11. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.590051
Norholt H, Phillips R, McNeilly J, Price C. Babywearing Practices and Effects on Parental and Child Physical and Psychological Health. Acad J Ped Neonatol 2022; 11(5): 555876. 10.19080/AJPN.2022.11.555876
Berecz B, Cyrille M, Casselbrant U, Oleksak S, Norholt H. Carrying human infants – An evolutionary heritage. Infant Behav Dev . 2020;60:101460. doi:10.1016/j.infbeh.2020.101460
Müller-Oerlinghausen B, Eggart M, Norholt H, et al. Berührungsmedizin – ein komplementärer therapeutischer Ansatz unter besonderer Bereichnung der Depressionsbehandlung. DMW – Dtsch With Wochenschr . Published online December 17, 2021. doi:10.1055/a-1687-2445