Can a newborn travel in a car?

And whatever milk you decide to use, see if it comes in ready made bottles. So whatever you decide to do, feeding will be less stressful

I very much doubt the OP is choosing to give birth so far away. Sometimes due to complications and location people have no choice.
Where I live there is very basic maternity care. The hospitals that serve our community are all between 1 and 2.5 hours travel timeapart from one that dosent have maternity provision.

No!
this isn’t just about baby, it about you…
notcusrecwhy you’re going to be in hospital for 3 days, but if you end up with c-section travelling 2.5 hours by car is bad enough. Traveeling by train is ridiculous.
you do know you’ll be bleeding heavily, milk may be coming in, if you’ve spent 3 days in hospital you’ll be sleep deprived form that, never mind the baby. If you’re breast feeding you’ll still be in early stages of even trying to establish latching on when you and baby have no bloody idea when next feed is. If you’re on train you propose to do that in public? Or use a train loo to change your post partum diaper?
by car you’ll ned to avoid moterways so you can stop at any moment. Strong suggest going form service station/loo to loo and have them planned out.

baby may be fine, I’m certainly way more concnered about you. Don’t even think train. Just no.

in case someone else hasn’t already add this, here’s the mumsnet guide to lie flat car seats…
https://www.mumsnet.com/reviews/best-lie-flat-car-seats

even if you have one of these, I would plan in frequent breaks.

Why will you be in there for 3 days after?

I’ve had both an emergency csection and a planned csection, and was out 24 hours after both.

Definitely agree with speaking to your midwife. My hospital was an hour from home. We brought DD home at 24 hours old. We’d discussed it with the midwife and planned to stop every 20 minutes but in the end she slept all the way and was absolutely fine. I sat next to her to keep an eye on her. We bought the best car seat we could afford as we knew we had to do a longer journey than we would have wished.

Edited to say 2.5 hours is a bit further so wouldn’t at all recommend letting baby sleep that long! Midwife will advise.

I’d say it’s fine for the baby and will be difficult for you so ask about pillows and seatbelts. No way on gods earth would I be taking a newborn baby on public transport if there was any way of avoiding it.

We used a bus for similar reasons! I figured it was safer than cab drivers!

We went to a hospital an hour away for our second child, and the return home it was the longest drive ever!
We thought we were used to it but a 1 or 2 day old in a car is a just one of the most stressful thing ever.

I still think the drive is your best option though, just take your time.
A train sounds like a good idea in theory, but I would be concerned about the waiting time, walking on platforms etc after a C-section.
The scar is very fresh and you don't know yet how you'll react to the pain, although it is recommended to do some walking everyday they don't mean long distances in busy places.
I've had 2 c sections and recovered pretty quickly from both (I was about to walk around comfortably in about 10 days for the first and 2 weeks for the second), but still the first few days are painful and uncomfortable.

For the same reason I wouldn't recommend the hotel personally. If you have any concerns it's better to stay in hospital a few more days. If not then you'll be much more comfortable at home to recover.
Also,' once you're discharged, you'll be transferred to your local hospital care anyway so the HV, nurse visits etc will be at/near your home address. It would be a pain to get that transferred to a hotel I think.

or indeed feed by whatever method the OP has chosen 😀

The main thing will be to have a really well fitted car seat to make sure baby's chin isn't on their chest as the risk is positional asphyxia when they are too little to move their head properly if they can't breathe. A lie flat is good for that but less safe in a crash. The avionaut pixel or sky both put newborns in good positions.

I honestly could not imagine anything worse than getting a train back after giving birth. Staying in a hotel is a close second. Imagine the faf of getting everything you need to a hotel for a brand new baby!? Terrible idea.

You'll just want to get home!

I think lots of people don't look at why car seats are considered dangerous. I was actually having this discussion with a friend the other day. The risk is that of positional asphyxiation, which can happen if a baby's head leans forward whilst they're in the seat and blocks their airways. If you're in the back supervising, you make sure baby's head is nicely laid back, and you go for a seat with a recline option (we have the cybex cloud z), then there shouldn't be any additional risk to your baby.

Stop a couple of times to get baby out for a quick feed and cuddle. Good luck OP!

Your DP is driving so just take it easy and do plenty of stops. You can always pull over and BF when you need to.

My hospital was an hour away and after a planned c section I was home just about 24 hours later. The hospital wanted to see the baby in the car seat before we could leave to make sure it he was secured in properly and he wasn’t too small for the seat. They suggested we stopped at least one to take my baby out of the car seat and stretch.

I wouldn’t recommend a train after your c section, moving about will be slow and getting in and out of a car is quite painful so you’ll want to be able to do it all in your own time and not feel rushed on a train.

My baby massively cluster fed and screamed the whole way home as he wanted a bottle, I was so relieved we were only an hour away!

Do what’s best for you but definitely look into a lie flat car seat and think of places to stop incase you feel you need to!

Can you discuss with your midwife maybe?

I do think this is a good case scenario for a proper lie flat car carrycot like the Maxi Cosi one. Jané do still sell one which converts. I think it only works with Jané travel systems.

Unfortunately the ones which are marketed as "lie flat" or have a good positioned newborn insert etc aren't flat enough to count so I wouldn't put a newborn in one for 2.5 hours. Up to 1 hour maybe.

Based on my own experience travelling 3 days post c-section you will absolutely not want to be on a train and certainly won't be moving about carrying baby to comfort them.

Go by car, sit in the back with baby with a pillow over your tummy. Identify in advance where on the journey you can find places to stop and just accept it might be a longer than normal journey. Add in a lie flat car seat and you'll be good to go. Also you won't be able to take your eyes off of your beautiful new baby so it's unlikely they will come to any harm.

I was making the point that not everyone has a choice as to where to give birth. and a long journey may be inevitable. To be able to choose which hospital is not available to the majority of mothers outside London.

1 hour may not be comparable but it's still well over the 30min limit.

It went from 2hrs (old guidance) to 30m, to seemingly either 20m or 30m limit in a day, so 3m sounds about right.

Maybe they should stay until we can teleport them home instantly.

I had a lie flat car seat 21.5 years ago.

It was a Spanish brand - Jane - that was all the rage then (in UK). It was really good but quite a heavy bit of kit.

I drove for over an hr with baby in the back when she was about 4 weeks old. Fully in a snowsuit and blanket too (🙈). It dawned on me when I arrived and she was very red that I’d over dressed her … she was fine

A vote for car and a few stops here. The trains are often filthy and a cancellation possibility … I wouldn’t risk it.

3 mins...

Don't even consider getting the train home if you've had a C-section, the walk to the car park will be bad enough!!

OP you’ll be absolutely fine travelling home from hospital with your baby in a car seat in a car. Those suggesting taking the train instead are laughable - a train that will be full of germs is no place for newborn imo.

Given people who live in rural locations have to travel a distance to the nearest maternity hospital and have no choice but to travel a distance home in a car, ignore those that say oh you can’t do that. Stop for a 20 minute break, if you can, every 45 minutes. Your baby will be perfectly fine.

Where are you based?

Planned Sections in the UK (with no other issues which you may have I don’t know) you are out within 24 hours

id book an air BnB for a week personally. Not only does baby need plenty of breaks but you do! It’s major surgery.

I agree @Chichix , totally excessive. 20 minutes? That is impossible if you are taking it home from hospital!

By the time the baby is put in, all the bags are gathered, walked to the car, car seat put in, drive home - that is a good hour at least.

What a ridiculous recommendation

This is crazy. Sorry.

Even proponents of the 30m rule don't say it's 30m per day! I believe the guidance is 2hrs.

And this 'stop for 15m every 20m' is just totally made up and signed more like a easy is managing maternal anxiety rather than evidence (and common sense) based.

With your rules a 2.5 journey could take been 4.5 hours and 5 days. You didn't stick to those times yourself even - you stopped 3 times, you are suggesting that the OP stop 7 times. I guess it's easier when it's not you.