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?

I had mine before there were such things as baby car seats.

@ReggaetonLente

The midwife running our antenatal class laughed when someone asked if we were allowed to leave without a car seat. She said what do you think we'd do, stand in the doorway and not let you pass?

Whatever you're planning to transport them home in is all you need. Pram, sling, carseat.

I mean, the midwife actually did block the door when they said that DH had to go get the car seat. As I said, I'm absolutely certain that if we'd insisted they'd have let us go, but I hadn't slept for 32 hours by that point and, you know, had had a baby in that time so I wasn't up for arguing with her and nor was DH.

"They shouldn't be keeping healthy women and babies in hospital when they have a pram and plan to take the bus!"

Yes, I don't understand this. Are new-born babies particularly vulnerable to Covid? I thought they weren't even though there have been some tragic cases. If public transport is allowed, why can't a mother and baby go on it?

It was a non issue to us at all, because we drive so we had it. We just were told a few hours before we were ready to go that they would not discharge the baby (me could go, no issue) without sight of the car seat whether we drive or it was a taxi. They were very serious about it.
I do not know what would happen if we said we were walking. But to be honest, it is a big ask to request from a woman who has just given birth to walk back home.
I think the best is to ask her own hospital maternity ward about their rules.

My car seat was checked when I left hospital with DD. I was readmitted two weeks later and staff insisted on checking the car seat again.

Where I work as a midwife we’re not allowed to check the car seats because of liability. We’re not trained in doing so, we’re not experts in different models, etc. We’re told parents have to take responsibility. I must admit if someone has asked me then I’ve checked straps, etc.....but that’s me feeling confident to do so because I’ve had kids.

@scoopingthewater

So every mother who gives birth lives with someone who has a car? No one takes the bus or walks anywhere?

On Mumsnet the assumption is that nobody would ever have children with a man who doesn't drive.

Do they walk you to the car to check if you have a car seat? I used a birth to 4 years convertible seat I left in the car, sling otherwise.

Okay bad, do feel free to post elsewhere then. I’m so sorry I made you post.

I’ll post where the fuck I want... but thanks for your concern hun !

I could have actually answered you for our local hospitals as my cousin is midwife and has worked at 3 different hospitals. Maybe don’t be such an arse, it tends to make life a bit easier.

I wasn't expected to fetch the car seat when DS was born, but I was wondering if I would be now? We parked a five minute walk down the road as the hospital carpark was expensive so it would have been a pain to have to get it.

Please quote me where I was an arse?

Our local hospital wasn't at all bothered. We came by car both times and they didn't ask about car seats even though I'd been prepared for it!

I think one of the funniest things about MN is the utter bafflement of some people that others don't drive, have never driven and will never need to drive. It's the same with "AIBU to sink a bottle of wine when kids are in bed" and a load of posters jump on to say "But what about if you need to go to hospital??!!??!??!l". There's taxis, and also Most hospitals have an on-site bus stop, and many stops are outside people's homes. Some people live in central London and it would be quicker by several hours taking the tube than driving. There's also ambulances if you need them. Some people will step into a car once in a flood, and the way many MNers can't compute this is quite amusing.

I do drive and need a car but if I didn't, and took public transport everywhere, I wouldn't be forming out £90 on a car seat "just in case" (just in case what?!)

The hospital may have their policies - but it's not law and you don't have to take any notice. You and your child are not prisoners and no one can stop you leaving. You don't even need to wait to be discharged. As far as a MW "checking a baby seat" I would be interested to know what part of their midwifery course covered the regulations.

Seems like there are some hospitals who are massively overstepping their boundaries here. Fair enough refuse to discharge the baby if the parents are planning to take it home in a Tesco bag tied to the back of a moped, but what’s the logic on insisting on a car seat over a pram or sling?

It was nearly 8 years ago but DH, dd and O got the bus home from the hospital. We just wheeled the pram out - no one stopped us.

I did take one of mine home in a taxi with a car seat but on reflection wish I’d got the bus instead. Would have much preferred the baby in a sling on me rather than wailing in a car seat next to me while the taxi driver asked about my stitches

@MushMonster

Yeap, she said no car seat, no discha0rge for the baby. They were very adamant. We do drive, so we had the car seat. So I did not argue. But this came up as they asked to see the car seat. And they said the baby will not be let out without it. Honestly.

That sounds like someone being far too officious to me. Not enforceable either because if there is no court order in place and your baby is not ill then they would be on a sticky wicket if they tried to keep them without your permission.

Plenty of people don't have cars, especially in major cities where practicalities can even preclude parking directly outside the hospital and there is no law at all against taking a baby onto a bus in a suitable baby buggy. You can even just wheel a baby buggy into many black cabs. I did that more than once when we still lived in London.

Some people might even live just a few minutes walk along the road from the hospital. Stopping them from leaving because they haven't blown money that they possibly don't have on an unneeded car seat really wouldn't stand up for very long. In that situation I might have been tempted to say that it was literally a few minutes and that someone could walk with me if they wished, but I would definitely be going. With the baby.

I

It would have been the world's end for us because we were backwards and forwards in an Uber for the first few months due to water infections and meningitis.

Absolutely in no world would I have travelled in a taxi without a car seat even though it's legal because you don't know which idiots are on the road that day.

So even if you don't drive (like us) then yes you still do need a car seat.

If I didn't have one when my son needed hospitalisation then no one would have known he had meningitis until it became an ambulance issue where it could have been a lot more serious.

Plus, how would I ever have gone to a super market?

I had this twenty years ago, didnt drive. My mum picked us up including DH, used a portable car seat which came in useful over next two years in taxis, family cars etc.
Irony was that my mums backseat belt didn't work so the carrier ended up being held down by DH and I, still I suppose it was safer than holding baby in our arms...which I've seen people do, to this day.
There are still people out there that don't get car seats for infants, it is frightening, and I'm glad the hospital encourages people to get off to a good start.

I had a birth - 4 carseat fitted in the car and they were funny about us leaving. We had to Google it and show them.

Sorry couch I’m not being defensive but I genuinely don’t understand why you couldn’t go to a supermarket without a car seat!

Can I just say to the people who say 'you absolutely will not want to walk' - you have no idea. After the birth of one of my four kids I was doing the school run the next day on foot snd with my last baby I drove home from the hospital 12 hours after birth. That's not bragging (two of my other babies involved LOTS of stitches) and it was day or two before I could walk without wincing, but some ladies DO feel up to it.

Op - get a car seat. It makes life so much easier, even if you don't drive.

Babies are incredibly vulnerable in a collision if they aren't strapped into a car seat. I met someone as a child in the 1970s whose baby had died and the older brother had sustained brain injury, the days where there was no protocol on seatbelts and children just squished up in back seat or sat on laps.

"I think one of the funniest things about MN is the utter bafflement of some people that others don't drive, have never driven and will never need to drive. It's the same with "AIBU to sink a bottle of wine when kids are in bed" and a load of posters jump on to say "But what about if you need to go to hospital??!!??!??!l". There's taxis, and also Most hospitals have an on-site bus stop, and many stops are outside people's homes. Some people live in central London and it would be quicker by several hours taking the tube than driving. There's also ambulances if you need them. Some people will step into a car once in a flood, and the way many MNers can't compute this is quite amusing."

And just generally looking down on people who don't drive.

We had an extended rear facing seat, that goes from birth to 7 years. It's massive, and you can't carry it with baby in it like you do with the newborn carrier, so it just stayed in the car. We explained this to the midwife doing our discharge, and it was fine. We had to wheeled DS down to reception in the hospital cot (they wouldn't let us just carryhim) but once he was signed out their responsibility ends at the door, so I walked to the car with him in my arms.

I know it not quite the same situation, but they didn't actually see the car seat so I assume it would be the same if we were going home some other way.