Trainers

Olwen Rowe and Méabh Lyons with Ulrike Höwer from Die Trageschule® Dresden, in Didcot (the UK) June 2017.

Following extensive training with Ulrike Höwer from Die Trageschule® Dresden, Olwen Rowe and Méabh Lyons founded Die Trageschule® Ireland in 2017 to provide training for health professionals, babywearing consultants and peer advocates. We have extensive experience working independently as babywearing consultants, in addition to volunteering with Babywearing Ireland.

Ulrike Höwer founded Die Trageschule® in Germany more than 20 years ago in order to give babywearing consultants the skills and knowledge needed to work with families with babies and children.  In designing and updating Die Trageschule® training courses, Ulrike Hower works closely with medical professionals and researchers.  Since 1998, Ulrike Höwer has trained more than 1500 babywearing consultants all around the world in different countries and cultures. She is the mentor and trainer of Die Trageschule® trainers worldwide, including in Germany, Austria, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Ireland, the UK, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Mexico.  Ulrike has four children and lives in Dresden, a beautiful old baroque city in Germany.

Olwen Rowe:
Olwen discovered the wonderful world of babywearing when she was trying to finish her PhD with a new baby and a busy three year old. An ergonomic sling changed everything for her. By some miracle (called babywearing!) Olwen finished her PhD in English in 2009. She was so blown away with the ease that babywearing brought that she helped set up a Babywearing Ireland sling meeting in Galway in 2010. 10 years later she is still running this meeting with a wonderful team of volunteers. Olwen’s two passions—teaching adults and babywearing—came together when she attended an inspiring Die Trageschule® consultancy course run by Olga Nguyen in Dublin in 2011. Following this, Olwen set up her babywearing consultancy in Galway, Born to be Carried.  She found the Die Trageschule® teaching methods transformative – the teaching methods were clear and confidence building.  After completing Die Trageschule® Certification level training and working with many families with a variety of needs, Olwen wanted to become a trainer herself and began training to be a Die Trageschule® trainer in 2015.  Olwen’s academic research interests had primarily focused on identity and our sense of self, and her experiences as a mother brought it home to her that our sense of ourselves and our understanding of our place in the world have their very foundation in our earliest relationships. Because of this, Olwen is passionate about perinatal and infant mental health. In addition to being a babywearing educator, Olwen is a voluntary breastfeeding counsellor, has trained as a postpartum doula and is a licensed Baby Bonding practitioner. Olwen has three children and lives just outside Galway City, where she can dip into city-life (and the sea!) and enjoy living in the country.