Can a newborn travel in a car?

[northerngirly]

For various reasons it looks like I will be giving birth in a hospital 2.5 hours from my home. It looks as though that will be the best option for my pregnancy.

What I’m confused about is can a newborn travel in a car for that long home? Obviously we will stop a lot but is it dangerous? What happens if I have no choice but to do that?

Can anyone give any advice?

Yes and recommendations have been made

Thinking about it, so did we! Except baby was even younger! And it was 40 years ago

We just stopped for us to get everyone changed into wedding outfits!

But we do know way more about safety now, thank goodness

My DC was an hour or so in a car seat in the car, then 6hrs in a cabin on the boat partly in car seat, partly being held/fed, and then half an hour in the car seat, on his first ever journey at 5 days old! Lots of babies do this and many also fly back home. Just break the journey up lots. Good luck.

There are car cots. About 200 pounds. You can get one and use it during the first months and as moses basket in the living room. Make the most of it if you are buying one.

I was going to ask for a look to this, but I've found it.

Whilst technically your headline number is correct, it's also misleading as the rush is incredibly tiny.

We had the Jane one and it was absolutely brilliant. I knew we would be driving to visit relatives 45 min away when both yougest DCs were only a few weeks old, or driving back to the hospital for checks, again 40 I traffic was bad, so I insisted on this car seat.

It really depends on where the op lives. Trains in my area are horrendous and are always crammed full - you're lucky to get a seat, let alone enough space to safety tend a baby.

I remember taking my nephews on when they were small (4 & 2) and it was the worst journey I've ever done. The train was late into a station so we missed the connection and the next one as been removed because of staffing issues so we had the choice to stand on a freezing platform for over three hours or walk to the nearest bus stop and try to get home that way.

14 years ago we did a nine hour drive with an 8-week old for a vacation and I don’t remember any advice on not doing that. And I was a fairly anxious first time Mum so would have been worried about things like that.

You’d need to stop every 30-45 minutes or so to get baby out. I’d also advise speaking to a specialist car seat shop that is much more clued up on car seat safety (not mama and papas or Halfords, etc) to get a car seat. The reason they advise 30-45 minutes then to have a break is that the positioning of a newborn in a car seat is generally poor and their heads often aren’t positioned correctly so the airway become partially occluded causing problems with oxygenation or positional asphyxiation. Regular breaks and a car seat which gives good support/positioning helps with this risk.

Indeed. I see posts here by new mums saying they can't have a wash or a shower or leave the room for a pee because no-one is around to hold and watch the baby. I used to take mine into the bathroom with me and put them in a reclining bouncer while I had a shower, washed my hair or whatever.

Is that also considered dangerous now?

Get yourself the Avionaut pixel pro car seat. You still need to adhere to the timings (you do for any car seat tbh!) but the positioning is spot on, especially for a newborn and it’s such a fantastic seat. Not super pricey really, you don’t have to get the base for it and it’s the lightest infant car seat in the world!

The proper lie flat seats go sideways in the car so aren’t as safe as they’re not rear facing.

Good luck with your baby!

I think losing one baby is bad enough just because it’s been sat in a chair too long but if you’re willing for 348 to die I think that says more about you………

I forgot to say no one would give up a seat for them so I ended up standing in the bet between cars with them stuck in the corner to protect them because people kept pushing past and bumping into them, including one very self important business manager who knocked the littlest flat in his rush to get to an open seat.

I could not have managed a train journey at 3 days post c section. I'd definitely stick with the car and stop a couple of times and just feed / change cuddle in the back of car while husband goes and gets you snacks!

Or staying in a hotel for 3 days after a 3 day hospital stay 🤦‍♀️ Bizarre - people rely too much on mumsnet responses and forget to use their own minds. I’d hate to be a first time mum now honestly!

The hardcore bit was expressing breast milk while my DH drove up the M1. Never seen so many double takes from other drivers...
Good luck with your journey!

Let's get things in proportion here.

The results were from a 10 retrospective year study in the USA. The 348 babies that died in a sitting position represent 3% of SIDS deaths. Of those 2/3rds (roughly) were in car seats, and 90% of those they weren't being used as directed (defined as failure to strap in or using it when not in a car). Just over half of the deaths were in the child's home.

In the UK there are about 216 SIDS deaths a year. So you'd expect about 4.3 babies to die a year in car seats. About half of that are outside parents home, which would include on the road. So 2.15 babies. Most of the babies have at least one risk factor, but it doesn't list them so I'm not accounting for them, save to say they will inside the obvious such as illness and prematurity.

At its worst you are looking at 2.15 babies. There are around 650,000 babies born in the UK each year. That's a sids risk of in car, car seat death of 0.00033%. We have no idea how many of those babies had been in the car for 5 minutes or 5 hours. It's an absolutely negligible risk, especially if it's a one off journey and a parent is in the back.

whatever. My advice (NOT instruction, as per my last post) still stands.

I'd deffo look into the train for comfort & safety

If money allows you could hire a car transfer like a pre booked taxi & carry the baby in your arms but only while wearing a seat belt obviously

I’d sit in the back with the baby to monitor them and break up the journey for feeds several times.

we certainly did 2 hours drives with the baby a few times before they were 3 months’ old. Wasn’t very relaxing though. I always sat in the back with them to monitor them until they were a bit sturdier.

This is the answer.

I don’t think the lie flat ones are as safe if you have an accident. But if you sit in the car in the back then you can make sure all is okay and you can take breaks.

Some of the responses on here are mad. A quick google says the risks are very low.

I'd definitely look into the train for ridiculous expense, baby picking up germs from all and sundry, nowhere proper to change the baby, hardly any space, worrying about the baby crying and disturbing people, shit food and a horrible little toilet to try to pee in while the train is moving when you've just had a C-section, and trying to breastfeed in front of a carriage of people. Then when you get to the station near home, you still have to get home. 🤦🏻‍♀️

I know 🤦🏻‍♀️😂

In my experience, mumsnet will tell you it’s impossible, a newborn shouldn’t be touching a car sear for more than 5 minutes or they risk catching on fire. In the real world I never saw anybody being so neurotic, I live in London and had 2 DC via sections, my hospital was a good 45min-1h away from home, I took an uber both times and just made sure I sat by their side and paid attention to their breathing and neck positioning. It was not realistically to ask the uber drive to stop once or twice before my destination. If you’ll be on your own car you can obviously stop when an as you wish so I’d probably stop twice if they are fussy (newborns can be quite fussy) to feed them/settle them and of course give them a rest from the car seat position.

How many babies were in the study and how long did the study run for please?

Thats not to say that each of those deaths wasn’t a horrific thing to go through and it’s not to minimise each specific experience but if the research was following 500 babies over a six month period compared to the entire population of china over a ten year period that makes quite a difference to the overall risk.