Do baby on board signs help emergency services, interested to hear from actual emergencyservices?

[Dinodigs]

I was recently talking to someone about baby on board signs and came across two different view points and wondered what the actual truth is and if they treat cars with stickers differently.

Friend one was saying the usual things about how they help emergency services know to look for a baby, which is what I've heard before

Friend two mentioned her police officer dad had told her to consider not getting one because he actually views them as more of a risk (in terms of people targeting vulnerability when cars parked, by your house etc) especially the stick figure family kind.

He also said that it doesnt make a difference to responses as they scan the whole car anyway (they wouldnt just not check the back properly, because there wasn't a sticker), that they would notice car seats, that 70% of the time cars with the sticker have no baby in them so they take them with a pinch of salt. Police officer dad said that it was more designed for times where babies were in arms, and that modern car seats are pretty immovable and bulky enough that they wouldnt slip under seats like a loose baby used to be able to.

I wondered what the actual truth is? Everyone seems to think it doesn't make a difference but to have one just incase

I know that I was once advised that the warning sleeves for car seats (eg non verbal, combative child) are better than stickers because they get crumpled on glass in accidents

Its also true that when mine were little that I had a sticker in my car, dad's car and actually grandparents bought themselves a sticker. 90% of our driving was work driving with no baby in the car, but no body took them down

Honestly, they are not worthy of being cringey, but I would have felt the same.
If someone isn't very obviously pregnant, the badge is a prompt for someone like me to offer my seat.
Some women have noticeable 'bumps' but some don't show. My NDN had a baby and I had no idea there was one on the way. Her next baby was an obvious bump from 5 months.

I have one and wouldn’t be without it. My purpose is for other drivers, particularly young lads are think they are shit hot in their cars driving too close to cars and speeding. I hope that if they see the yellow sign, or any other road ragers they might just pull back from my car and direct their road rage elsewhere. I cannot stand bad drivers who drive too close to the cars in front.

my yellow sign stays!

I can’t believe you are surrounded by this much dangerous driving all the time. Where do you live that it’s such a constant threat?

Ireland! Country roads!

They'll probably get nearer to your car to read it and they'll be distracted making them even worse drivers.

😆🙄

Do you genuinely think that it has any effect on how other people drive?

Why are people so dull. No, of course I don't. I'm just extra cautious than I might otherwise be, for example on roundabouts.

That is pure cringe

Shouldn't you drive carefully anyway? Don't other road users deserve the same consideration and respect that you think your baby should get?

I’m a former police officer and I don’t ever recall in any training session being told to look out for a baby when a baby on board sign is in a car

Emergency services check for babies and children in the car in every case.

I had no idea what they were designed for. I think they're ridiculous, and we have a baby ourselves. Everyone should drive safely and be considerate, baby or not.

I dont even like baby on board badges on women

Haven't read full thread, but if you have a child with a medical condition/communication issues, you can get what is, essentially, a seat belt cover with medical diagnosis etc on for event of accident if parents are incapacitated. Many of the children I nursed when I worked hospice had them. Paramedics that did our paediatric first aid training absolutely recognised them and knew what they were for

I am a paramedic and ambulance service educator. We don’t bother with them and we don’t teach anything about them…because they are useless and have no impact on what we do at the scene of an incident.

I always thought it was like Marge Simpson said, to stop people intentionally ramming into the back of their car

I don't other than when on the tube

My journey is about 60 minutes and I wouldn't want to be standing for that long especially if pregnant.

Police officer dad said that it was more designed for times where babies were in arms

This seems unlikely - the internet thinks that the first of these was marketed in 1984, when car seats were widely available, although it refers to the original (American) marketer having seen similar signs in Europe so possibly there was some kind of sign earlier on.

It seems that they were created with the idea of reminding other motorists that a child's life is in their hands and/or to alert other motorists to the fact a driver may be driving slowly/carefully because they are worried about the baby in the car. Obviously you shouldn't really be driving differently if you have a baby in the car! But thinking about the first trip home from hospital, many people do feel anxious about the baby on that trip. And perhaps when carrycots were more common as baby transport that continued for a bit longer.

Anyway TL;DR: They don't serve any purpose and you don't need one.

I have a sign saying child with additional needs in the back as my daughter has asd and can have meltdowns in the car. If they see it great, if they don't then hopefully one of us can say

But ok in early pregnancy for many. Then bump shows

According to DH (retired paramedic), yes. I asked him this ages ago and the emergency services do notice baby on board signs and will check. It is not unknown for babies or tots to be flung quite a distance from crashed vehicles.

With car seats/ seatbelts on?

Babies and children absolutely get flung from the car. The baby on board sign isn’t the thing that finds them though 😭

Can you imagine if a baby was missed in an accident, and the emergency services defence was "they didn't have a piece of plastic hung up in the car so how was I to know?"

Or, "well, the sign said "mummy's little gooner" and as that doesn't state "baby on board", we didn't bother checking"?

I can't believe people still think the old rot about emergency services relying on them.