Leaving Hospital - Carseat Legally Required?!?

[handers]

I'm having my baby (gender to be confirmed) hopefully in the next week. Though itshe/she is wriggling about so much up by my lungs I wont be suprised it it is a fair bit later!

ANYWAY, I have been told that if I wish to take our baby home from hospital in our car, I am legally required to take in a carseat. Is this right?

Because we only just got a car and have not had the time to purchase a car seat for it.

AND I think that when I do get one, im unlikey to get an 'infant carrier' but rather a 'combination carseat' (ie. one that does not detatch from the car.)... SO with my hospital being in central London (St. Thomas) - how will they know?

i had a infant carrier and i'm glad cos we don't have a bouncy seat or swing (i don't believe in them)it meant i could use it as a seat after feeds cos he had reflux and for weaning as ds can't sit up yet. however i do find it a pain getting it out of the car all the time and if i am at a friends house and ds won't need a feed i don't bother getting it out.

Hmm, intresting thread, whilst I thourghly agree that ALL children should have the appropriate child restraint when travelling in a vheicle I think the NHS in this case (or it could just be one midwife who has got the wrong end of the stick) are completley out of order, they are not a policing authority and have absolutly no right to detain you (unless you have been sectioned under the metal health act or are a minor refusing treatment (and then they still need a court order)). Just another Paternalistic NHS view that drives me mad!

Hmm, while I wouldn't put a baby into any car with no car seat, I don't believe hospitals have any right to impose this rule on people. If they say they do, then they are lying. The midwives at my hospital informed me that not only could we not leave the premises without a car seat, but the midwife, not dh or I, must carry the baby out to the car park. Having suffered six weeks of bungled treatment, pain and terror at the hands of these cack-handed unprofessional witches, I was not prepared to be dictated to in this way. Particularly as we do not have a car.