Car seats for newborns

[PipPipPip]

I'm 29 weeks pregnant and need to buy a travel system ASAP.

However, I'm a bit confused about the car seat element - especially when it comes to the law.

Q1. A friend of mine raves about her travel system, which allows her to clip the bassinet into the car (and clip the baby into the bassinet). This means the baby is lying flat while driving. It is new and an expensive brand, but is it legal to have a kid lying down?

Q2. If I'm going with a normal upright car seat, should it be front or back facing?

Q3. Is the MaxiCosi Cabrio easy to use, reliable etc? Can it be used front facing or back facing?

Q4. If it is just the baby and I, does it travel in the front or back? What's the deal with airbags?

I would love all advice!!

I realise this may be better suited to the 'products' forum, but I was hoping to get a quicker response from the pregnant chicks :)

The matrix is actually an excellent travel system for refluxy babies. This is because you can have it as a lie-flat or rear facing for use in the car plus it has 2 other "inbetween? positions for use on the travel system frame. Therefore, a refluxy baby could sleep comfortably on a slight incline that would help avoid acid escaping through the sphincter at the top of the stomach whilst out and about without being so upright that postural development and breathing position is affected. This is another reason why it?s a good travel system for premmies as they can be prone to reflux.

Having a lie-flat option would be great for a long car journey at 2.5months and may make you more inclined to actually go on the long car journey. In my opinion, the Britax and Jane transporter were only ?one trick pony? seats but I wanted the option of rear-facing as I knew that the lie-flat mode wasn?t suitable for one of our cars (it?s a Ka and the seats aren?t the right shape). The Matrix light is also pretty bulky as a rear-facing and takes up more seatbelt length than other seats so it doesn?t fit in all cars which is why it?s important to get it properly fitted. Thankfully, it fits as a rear-facing in our Ka. There is also the downside that the Matrix light isn?t all that light as it is 6.8 kg whereas the Maxi-Cosi CabrioFix is only 3.25kg.