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?

Having had a c section, I know there was no way I'd be up for a multiple train journey three days afterwards. I didn't even require painkillers after 3 days but there was no way on earth I could have faced walking through multiple stations or running the risk of my reserved seat being taken by someone else.

A car journey with multiple stops and/or a lie down car seat is the best option IMHO

Parenting is making the best decision on what's available. It will pretty much never be perfect. And remember the guidance doesn't see shades of grey.

If you have a completely healthy 8lb baby, didn't need any help, no NICU etc AND a proper infant car seat that reclines (my cybex cloud t wasn't totally flat but was certainly able to be reclined enough) AND I was in the back with the baby and able to monitor at all times ... well I'd just give the baby a big feed and nappy change, pop in the car and go. And I'd go longer than the 30 mins if baby is happily asleep, probably stopping at the half way mark and do the same again for the last leg. As a one off it's likely fine. Obviously it would be different with a 3lb baby that had been in the NICU and a parent wouldn't be in the back with them.

I wouldn't consider the train or a hotel. You'll be more comfortable at home and sat in a car rather than trying to carry all your bags from a several day stay and a baby onto a train less than a week post c section.

In my case it was cosleeping. I didn't want to but my baby didn't sleep and I was becoming so tired it was dangerous. It was 1,000,000% more safe for me to intentionally cosleep according to safe cosleeping guidelines in bed than be so tired I fell asleep holding baby on the sofa or while driving etc.

I had a c section and struggled with a 15 minute drive home. It was agony and I was exhausted getting from the ward to the car, the journey and getting into the house. From friends who have had natural births some of them can barely sit and would have had such a hard time in the car for any length of time. It’s not just the baby to consider here

There’s no way this is safer than just taking the newborn on his designated car seat and taking a few breaks. Even without the breaks it still would be safer. The newborn will be sent through the air and windshid in case of an accident! Please don’t do this, OP!

God don't get the train! Absolutely packed full of germs and awful people. You'll be in pain, bleeding and need to be comfy a car seat that you can fiddle about with til it's comfy will be way better. Don't even consider the train! Especially if this is your first baby you have no idea how awful you'll feel (I've had 2 sections) baby will be fine but just get a lie flat car sear as suggested.

Loads and loads of people live more than 30 mins away from the nearest hospital, so frankly you’ll have to do it, make stops if you have to to cuddle / feed / change, but what’s the alternative? Walk?

As a mother of older children (15 and 19), I find this whole discussion bemusing.

Surely the point of the guide lines is to stop babies spending their whole time in car seats? Not to make the hospital trip home a logistical nightmare!

And as for parents sitting in the back with their DC, just why?

Haha why not?! So you can see them presumably as the baby will be rear facing. Your post is giving boomer 'in my day' vibes but your kids are too young for that 🤣

no, firmly Gen X.

Why do you need to see your child for the duration of a car journey?

Why not? Presumably in case they stop breathing, are easier to get to if they cry, have a poonami, any number of things. Are you quite alright?

Well what do you suggest instead, they need to get home ?

So what if you are driving on your own with your child?

Well interestingly boomers didn’t put babies in the safest option of backward facing car seats and instead carried them in their arms or put them in carrycots. We seem to have gone full circle based on 3% of SIDs deaths (aka a tiny number) being in car seats.

My kids are a similar age, I seem to remember 2 hours for car seats.

Unlikely with a newborn having just had a c section. Which is the scenario I and the OP are referring to.

Well you don’t but if the OP’s worried then it’s more sensible than taking the train or carrying the baby in her arms in an uber.

I looked into it above.
10 year retrospective study in the USA. The 348 babies were the number of SIDS deaths in that period who died in a sitting position. Not necessarily in car seats. Not anything to do with a '30 minute rule'

Fair enough in that case, but people upthread say they still sit in the back with their 2 year old DC, which seems odd to me

Yeah fair enough that's not what I was referring to. But each to their own!

There is surely possibly an argument from these stats if it goes lower than 3% that babies are in fact safer in car seats than lying flat.

It just sounds like another way to make new mums’ lives even more stressful to me if you can’t leave a happily sleeping baby in a car seat for an hour these days.

I guess work would need to be done on amount of time a baby on average spends also in the car in a day compared with on a flat surface.

But it's easier to terrify new parents by guilting then into inconvenient rules. I rear faced both of mine until 4&5 because I was content that the science was there to support it. I'm not sure the same can be said about this.

I live rurally and so our closet hospital is 2.5hrs away. I’ve been driven home with 4 of my babies from there and just stopped for a break twice, after 40 mins each time, quick feed and back in the car. It’s really not a drama, it’s literally what people do every single day. 3 of these have been post section too and while they’ve not been my favourite journeys, it’s really fine.

They do (or at least did) car seat tests on premature babies to make sure they're safe in their car seat. And these tests are for 60-90 mins. If OPs baby is of a normal size and healthy 90 mins in the seat as a one off should be fine.

For god's sake, @northerngirly , don't take the train with a C-section a couple of days before. Moving between platforms and down carriages - it would be a nightmare. That's major abdominal surgery. Train seats aren't exactly built for comfort.

Even in the car it's extremely uncomfortable for long (take a pillow to go between you and the seatbelt!). Needs must, obviously. I had to go 2.5 hours by car on day 6 so I sympathise. Regular breaks for a little while and you'll be just fine.

Very best of luck for you and your baby.

You’re not guaranteed 3 days in hospital, I had mine late on the Wednesday night and was home for 9am on the Saturday. No way could I have got on a train, just the steps at the station and then getting in a train seat. what if the train is jam packed? I’m sorry but I think it’s bonkers. Book an air b&b for a week afterwards. The midwife will visit a lot too.

Surely it depends on whether you know there's other reasons for you to stay?