How carrying your baby on one side loads your arm and shoulder
Nicola Tik
Carrying a baby feels like a whole-body activity, and in many ways it is. But the arm and shoulder doing most of the work tell a different story. When one side takes the majority of the holding and carrying, the load on the wrist, elbow, and shoulder of that arm builds steadily across the day and across the weeks. This article explains how that accumulation happens and what helps manage it.
Most people naturally gravitate towards carrying on one side. It tends to be the side that feels more comfortable and secure, often the non-dominant arm, which frees up the dominant hand for other tasks. This is a practical and intuitive response to the demands of early parenthood, not a habit that needs correcting. The difficulty is that over days and weeks, the muscles, tendons, and joints of that arm are absorbing a load that the other side rarely shares.
A young baby can weigh anywhere from three to six kilograms at birth, and that weight increases steadily through the early months. Holding that weight with one arm in a sustained position, often while the body is also moving, bending, or managing something else, is a meaningful physical demand. When it falls consistently on the same side, the cumulative effect on the wrist, elbow, and shoulder becomes noticeable before most people have connected it to the carrying pattern.
The wrist, elbow, and shoulder do not work independently. They form a connected chain, and when one part of that chain is under sustained load, the others absorb the consequence.
At the wrist, the sustained gripping and supporting position involved in holding a baby keeps the forearm muscles in a state of low-level continuous contraction. This is manageable in short bursts but becomes fatiguing over longer periods, particularly when the wrist is held in a slightly bent or twisted position to get a secure hold. The tendons running through the wrist are doing continuous work, and without regular recovery they gradually accumulate the kind of tension that produces aching and stiffness in the forearm and wrist by the end of the day.
At the elbow, the sustained bend required to support a baby in arms keeps the muscles of the upper and lower arm in a shortened position for extended periods. The elbow joint and the soft tissue around it absorb the repeated load of lifting, lowering, and adjusting the baby's position, which over weeks can contribute to tenderness and fatigue in the inner or outer elbow.
At the shoulder, the sustained effort of supporting weight away from the body places continuous demand on the rotator cuff muscles and the surrounding structures of the upper arm and shoulder blade. The shoulder is particularly vulnerable to fatigue when the arm is held in a fixed position for long periods, because the muscles responsible for stabilising the joint are working constantly without the recovery that movement provides.
The load from carrying and holding does not produce discomfort immediately. The arm and shoulder can absorb a significant amount of sustained effort without complaint in the short term. What makes the new parent context different is the relentless repetition. The same arm, in the same position, across many hours of a day and many days of a week, without the recovery time that would normally allow the muscles and tendons to adapt and repair.
Many people notice the accumulation as a gradual change rather than a sudden one. The wrist starts to ache after shorter periods than it used to. The shoulder feels heavier and less comfortable by the afternoon. The elbow becomes tender in a way that is hard to explain. By the time the discomfort is obvious, the load has usually been building for some time.
The most effective single change is alternating sides more deliberately. Switching which arm carries and holds, even when it feels less natural or secure on the non-preferred side, distributes the load more evenly and gives the more heavily used arm regular opportunities to recover. It does not need to be a strict rotation. Even shifting across occasionally through the day makes a meaningful cumulative difference.
Varying the carrying position also helps. Moving between holding a baby against the chest, on the hip, and over the shoulder changes which muscles are working and which are resting, reducing the sustained static load on any single part of the arm and shoulder.
During periods when you are not actively carrying, gently opening and closing the hand, rolling the wrist through a comfortable range, and releasing the shoulder by letting the arm hang loosely at the side all help the arm recover from the sustained gripping and holding position.
If you have a few minutes, VIDA has short videos you can follow at your own pace, which can help ease the tension that builds across the shoulder and upper arm during this period.