To ask what the position is with taking babies home from hospital?

[scoopingthewater]

Do you need a car seat? What if you don’t drive?

[Wick4land]

"They won't let you leave unless...." You have a right to leave hospital at any time and take your baby with you. The only occasion when they can insist that the baby stays in hospital is when they have evidence to justify remaining and then they will need a court order.

[kowari]

If I was buying a seat for occasional use I wouldn't be buying a baby seat, it would certainly be a birth to 4 year seat so it would last longer. Parents can hardly be expected to bring one of those to the hospital if they are walking or catching public transport home! I struggled to carry my nephew in a baby car seat myself, just so awkward.

[andtheHossyourodeinon]

I only ask because of all the posts saying the hospital "not allowing" people to leave without a car seat

Its just a thing they say. In practice you just get up and walk out.

[Skysblue]

OP my understanding is that you are a normal hospital patient and can discharge yourself if you find it appropriate. They can’t hold you prisoner if you don’t have a car seat. Once you are out, how you transport yourself and your baby is up to you, just as at any other time. If you don’t have a car seat I assume you’ll have a pram / sling. Do keep an eye on the suffocation risk with slings, it’s much higher when they are newborn - my child was determined to tuck his nose into my chest where he literally couldn’t breathe. I kept having to rearrange him / keep my hand by his face, I found a pram much safer and less stressful until he was older. And actually most car seats clip on and off a pram/buggy which is useful for putting the sleeping baby on bus/train seat next to you while pram tucked elsewhere, so you would probably want a car seat anyway whether or not you drive.

Some taxi drivers will transport without a car seat (is legal to avoid stranding babies), some won’t.

[BertieBotts]

TBH, it's actually 100% ideal if we're talking about best practice, to buy the car seat after the baby is born so that you can try the baby in the seat and check that it fits them correctly.

Obviously this is completely impractical for most people, but if we're getting into hair splitting over what is best practice.

I think it's bonkers to buy a car seat and keep it in a box in the corner just in case you go in a car, if you know 99.9% you won't. I still think that's a rare situation in the UK, but some people do live completely without cars, and I wouldn't be recommending people buy a car seat in that instance.

As said, it's not exactly hard or expensive to pick one up if you later find that you do need one.

[AnotherNameForChristmas]

I only ask because of all the posts saying the hospital "not allowing" people to leave without a car seat.
In the case of not having a car/car seat, and assuming the father was present and the distance was manageable, I would get a taxi while he walked with he pram.

[andtheHossyourodeinon]

No. of course they couldn't.

[AnotherNameForChristmas]

Interesting question, I'm not sure if, legally, they could stop you going home however you wanted to, once they had discharged you and you left the hospital.
For example, if you insisted on taking the baby in your arms and walking home, could they actually stop you?

[lyralalala]

@Nettleskeins

Even if they don't own a car, at some point in the following year that baby is going to end up on someone's lap in A car, cos there isn't the habit of a car seat. I've been there as we didn't drive, and the amount of times people would query the need for a car seat, we cannot fit it in, he will be fine on your lap, it is just a short journey.
It is a public information issue, just as babies falling asleep on sofas and SIDS is. Over the top may be, but otherwise how would the info filter down???

People who put kids on laps will do that regardless of car seat options. The vast majority of time I've seen kids bouncing round cars unsecured there has been car seats, or boosters, in the car unused.

There are several issues that need publicising regarding car seats (How many are incorrectly fitted and no coats being two), but insisiting people have a car seat, regardless of use, isn't going to make changes to the usage of them because no-one gets to adulthood and through pregnancy without knowing car seats are a thing.

[BoomBoomsCousin]

@Nettleskeins

Even if they don't own a car, at some point in the following year that baby is going to end up on someone's lap in A car, cos there isn't the habit of a car seat. I've been there as we didn't drive, and the amount of times people would query the need for a car seat, we cannot fit it in, he will be fine on your lap, it is just a short journey.
It is a public information issue, just as babies falling asleep on sofas and SIDS is. Over the top may be, but otherwise how would the info filter down???

I don’t think anyone has suggested hospitals shouldn’t mention needing a car seat if you take a baby in a car. The only thing people object to is the idea you have to have a car seat at the hospital whether you are putting your baby in a car to get home or not.

Even if you have a car, if for some reason you aren’t taking a car home from the hospital you might possibly want to delay buying one just from a clash flow perspective. Lots of new stuff to buy all at once and some parents may want to put off that particular purchase if, for instance, they intend limiting visiting etc. for the “fourth trimester”. Not what I’d do, I don’t think, but grown ups are allowed to do things in whatever way works for them, so long as it’s legal.

[andtheHossyourodeinon]

are you seriously suggesting that unless maternity wards insist on car seats for all babies, people aren't going to hear that car seats for babies are a thing?

There is no-one that doesn't know that babies and kids go in car seats in cars. People who don't use one choose not to, it's not that they haven;t heard of such a thing.

[LadyOfTheImprovisedBath]

@GlummyMcGlummerson never occured to me to complain rest of the care had been fantastic just had HB to avoid for next birth.

Did complain with third pg in different area but that was after being accused of lying about previous births, given completley incorrect information, lied to about test results and sent to a consulatant meeting with more lies and bullying at which point we were done and took advice of HB support group and complained. It was supposed to be all sorted but they contrived to take so long to get to us a short distance away birth was over an done - did debrief and manager said she'd do stuff but we had other big problems in our lives at that point so left it with her.

We get to the seasisde by train and I've never lived in London. Did once have an argument on here with somoene who couldn't grasp that living in midlands - as we did then- and not driving meant day trip to the sea was really expensive and would take all day.

[GoldenOmber]

If you don't get the message through at that point where else is anyone going to find out???

At some point during all the midwife visits and HV visits before and after birth? They manage to check where the baby's sleeping and that parents are aware of safe sleep regulations without insisting you bring the cot up to the maternity ward?

[Porcupineinwaiting]

So if they insist and you refuse to comply, then what? Its neither illegal nor neglectful not to have a car seat if you are not putting the baby in a car. Are they going to report you to SS? Maternity units round here rarely have enough beds and are generally v keen to get you out.

[Nettleskeins]

Mind you, the other public info fail is that babies should not be routinely expected to sleep in car seats. I also find it hideous watching people wheel their babies through park in a baby car seat put on a "travel system".

[Nettleskeins]

If you don't get the message through at that point where else is anyone going to find out???
Just stand on a pavement watch cars go by, see the babes in arms. Not many, but you would be surprised. Esp Sundays.

[Nettleskeins]

Even if they don't own a car, at some point in the following year that baby is going to end up on someone's lap in A car, cos there isn't the habit of a car seat. I've been there as we didn't drive, and the amount of times people would query the need for a car seat, we cannot fit it in, he will be fine on your lap, it is just a short journey.
It is a public information issue, just as babies falling asleep on sofas and SIDS is. Over the top may be, but otherwise how would the info filter down???

[GoldenOmber]

I think "is it useful to own a car seat even if you don't drive" is a different question from "is it reasonable to insist on a car seat to let parents take babies off the maternity ward" though. Yes it's probably useful, no it's still daft for hospitals to insist.

[NameChange30]

I think it is helpful to have a car seat even if you don't own a car, for the occasions when you might get a lift or taxi with the baby - I realise some people might never do this but I think most people probably will.

Especially at the moment when a lot of people are avoiding public transport if they can, because of Covid.

[scoopingthewater]

I’m laughing at the fictitious London.

Actually though yes, some people will not be routinely travelling to zoos, seaside and other trips in friends cars. It’s all fine.

[sauvignonbonk]

@andtheHossyourodeinon

I work with vulnerable families and our local hospital insists on babies leaving in a car seat

Why not tell those vulnerable families that the local hospital has no right to insist any such thing and there is no need for them to waste their money?
That would be helpful to them

100% this

[lyralalala]

London is not the only place in the world that people don’t drive.

Anyone who uses walking, buses, trains and even taxis to get around as their regular transport, rather than lifts, could very feasibly not need a car seat.

And many don’t have the luxury of having £40 to essentially sit on top of a wardrobe or in a corner

[Hardbackwriter]

@Soubriquet

I think London is probably the only place you could that

Any where else and there’s a higher chance you would need a car seat even if you didn’t have a car

But London isn't fictional, so I don't really get your point? Again, do you mean that no one you know lives in London so you simply cannot imagine that it is possible that people do?

[Hardbackwriter]

New in box I think people would buy.

But you've said that it should be used at the hospital - the whole point of this is that you've said that you can't see any reason why someone wouldn't have a car seat to take a baby out of a hospital - so it wouldn't be in new in box, would it? And even then you might as well just burn a £20 note because clearly no one is going to pay store price, so you've just paid money to store a bulky item that you didn't want for the year it takes to determine that no, you never did need it.