Modern ideas about childcare were accepted late in Dalarna - here children were carried in the traditional way and breastfed for several years until just two generations ago.

Dalarna had a unique farming culture with traditions dating back to Viking times and even further. For example writing with runes was kept in Dalarna longer than in any other part of Sweden - up until the beginning of the 2000th century. Some of the local dialect grammer is gothic. Dalarna also never had an aristocracy; people here were fiercely independent. The northern upper part of Dalarna was modernised later than the southern parts.

Skräddar Karin, 1918, Sollerön. Photo: Karl Lärka/Mora Bygdearkiv.

The women in the upper parts of Dalarna had a strong social position, they could vote and inherit property. They held the main responsibility for the livestock which was an important source of income. They kept their own names in marriage and painted their own initials together with their husbands on all their common property. On every farm the oldest woman was responsible for life and death - she was present at births and she stabbed the first animal at slaughter time.

Children were carried in leather bags

My father was born on Sollerön (an island on a large lake in Dalarna) at the beginning of the 1930's and remembers that women still carried children in a bög (a bag, the same germanic word) made of leather. Women's hands were always busy making something, and my father remembers how they would walk around with a baby on their back while they nimbly knitted or wove. Textiles were an important part of a farm's wealth, inheriting textile was regulated as much as inherting property.

Fru Anna Hagman and Rull Karin (wearing a traditional coat, the whole skin of a lamb turned inside out.) Both photos are from 1917, Sollerön. Photo: Karl Lärka/Mora Bygdearkiv. These pictures are protected by copyright and may NOT be copied! PLEASE RESPECT THIS.

The carrier was made of leather and shaped into a round bag. It often had beautiful cut out patterns and shaped edges. The straps were made of leather, often with a woven band sewn on. The straps went behind the baby's head and over its tummy which stopped the baby from falling out. The baby's arms were free and it was always carried so that it's right side was against the wearers back.

Some people were too poor to have a bag or thought that it was too nice for everyday use. They carried their babies in a simple rucksack instead.
Bultband were also used in parts of Dalarna. They were long woven wool straps, about 8 centimeters wide and 3 meters long. The child was wrapped in a blanket and then the strap was tied around the child over the carriers shoulders and the child was carried on the back (similar to the way of carrying today with long cloth slings).

People also used a kass, a specially made basket, for the newborn. Traditionally the baby was carried to baptism in this basket and the baby often slept in this basket at night during the first weeks. Beside the parent's bed there was a often little shelf to put the basket on at night.

When the newborn had grown out of its basket it slept beside its mother, but during the day it could be placed in the leather carrier bag which was hung from a pole so the child hung a foot above the floor. (Two long poles hung parallell with the ceiling in traditional cottages, one over the wooden stove and one over the table. They marked the different areas in the cottage and were used for drying meat and bread on.)

Babies and toddlers would go with their mother to the fields when she worked. Then the mother might take off the leather bag and hang it from a tree nearby. But children were not only carried by mothers, other women on the farm also helped out in taking care of them.

Breastfeeding

Children were breastfed anytime they wished to do so. It was common to breastfeed children for 2-3 years, and breastfeeding up to 7 years was not uncommon. Women believed that breastfeeding helped space childbirth. The common thing to do was discontinue breastfeeding with the next pregnancy, but sometimes children with infant siblings were breastfed.

One belief on nothern Dalarna was that a mother should not stop breastfeeding until her milk ran dry or the child was big enough to not want to breastfeed anymore. But some weaned their children early, usually by making the breast taste bad. Tar, soot and salt were used as deterrents.

People also believed that as long as the child was breatfeeding the child was affected by it's mother's moods (this included pregnancy). A mother was supposed to be calm and happy, then the child would also be calm and happy. If the mother had strong feelings, she was supposed to milk out her breast first, before the child took the breast.

Breastmilk was also used as a salve on various skin problem on many farms.

by Cecilia Moen