Second Annual NPN Holiday Gift Guide & Giveaway: Umi Slings (12/6, 24 winners, US only ARV $2587.26)

This review is part of the Second Annual Natural Parents Network Holiday Gift Guide! If you need to complete your holiday shopping, find a birthday present for a friend, or just treat yourself to something special, the NPN Holiday Gift Guide has something for everyone. But what's even better, the NPN Holiday Gift Guide is a great opportunity to shop consciously and to support many naturally minded small businesses.

The 55 companies that have provided items for review and giveaway are almost exclusively made up of work-at-home shops or companies that are dedicated to supporting eco-conscious choices. I'm featuring one of those companies in my review below. When you get done reading my review, please click on over to the full Second Annual Natural Parents Network Holiday Gift Guide, where you'll find information on 58 products. In total, we're giving away goodies worth more than $2500! Even if you don't win one of our fabulous prize packages, please consider spending part of your gift-giving budget at one of these small businesses. By supporting small businesses, you are helping families, boosting local economies, and supporting ethical practices of manufacturing, production and selling. Take advantage of coupon codes provided by many of the companies, you can find them at the full Gift Guide at NPN. To make browsing easier, we've split the Gift Guide into sections with products that are Perfect for Kids and Perfect for Families. And you can find all 6 Rafflecopter widgets there, too. Without further ado, here is my review - thank you for reading and entering!

This is a Joint Review and Giveaway of the This Way Gray Sling from Umi Sling between Natural Parents Network and Very Very Fine.

About Umi Slings

Umi Sling's mission -- "to improve the lives of mothers and young children by offering a practical solution: a simple fabric ring sling" -- sounds pretty much like the mission of every purveyor of baby carriers, but with one important detail: the lives improved aren't just those of the family that buys the sling. With a commitment to donate a ring sling for each one purchased, Umi Sling and its sister project Baby Bilum help mothers in rural Papua New Guinea to do their work while keeping their babies close. The range of fabrics, from natural, organic fibers like linen and cotton, to bright and stunning handmade batiks make for comfortable, durable, and beautiful slings perfect for constant use as "daily drivers" or to spice up a ho-hum carrier collection. Understated handprinting gives the line of cotton-linen blends a bit of character while leaving them neutral enough for any parent to use, and affordable pricing makes them more accessible than many other similar carriers.  

Our Experience

My 25-pound 21 month old still loves to be slung, but for a very active toddler, a sling has to be durable, washable, and wad-up-able, since you never know when exhaustion will set in and your muddy-footed, active kid will turn back into a cuddly baby. I've always liked the subtle natural wrinkle of linen, which only gets softer with each use and wash, and our Umi Sling has already been laundered twice, the fabric crinkling up deliciously. My tastes run neutral, and the gray color with graphic black triangles provides a hint of fun accessorizing, but doesn't turn off my partner, making it a double duty option for moms and dads. We love the generous length that allows for wearers and babies of all sizes, and the light, single layer weight that means year-round comfortable use. The sling comes with a booklet of instructions and babywearing facts, making it ideal for a new parent, and with the knowledge that your purchase helps another mother through Project Baby Bilum this a hard-to-beat shower gift. 

Buy it!

You can purchase your own Handprinted Cotton-Linen Blend Sling at Umi Sling for $55. At just ten dollars more, the handprinted batiks would make a wonderful gift for a bright and bold new parent, or someone whose carrier collection could use a lively punch of color.

WIN IT!

For your own chance to win a This Way Gray Cotton-Linen Blend Ring Sling from Umi Sling, or one of the 26 huge prize packages we're giving away, come back to this post on November 6th when our Rafflecopter widgets will go live for your chance to enter! Or you can visit Natural Parents Network on November 6th to see and enter to win all of our fantastic prize packages at once!

Disclosure: Our reviewer received a sample product for review purposes. Amazon links are affiliate links. We try to seek out only products we think you would find relevant and useful to your life as a natural parent. If we don't like a product, we won't be recommending it to you. See our full disclosure policy here.

a Rafflecopter giveaway