Getting Home from Hospital with no Car

[Sastra]

So I'm going to be having my baby at Kings london), which is about 4 or so miles from home. We don't currently have a car, so how does getting home from hospital work? Obviously we'll need a taxi it a hire car, but of we buy a car seat can you just pop them into a random car?

You don't need a car seat in a taxi but obviously that might be a bit worrying with a newborn. Some taxi companies might do car seats if you ring up.

Do carseats generally fit into taxis or do they need fancy fittings?

All car seats really fit into any car they are a standard fit.

Have you no neighbour or friend who will pick you up? we picked our neighbour up when she had her baby.

If you have to by taxi its no big deal .....

Great. No, no one I know in London has a car! We're moving to a completely new area on Saturday so don't know anyone there yet. Plus the hospital say that if you have a trouble free birth you'll be sent home after 2 or 3 hours (scary thought) so I guess it could be the middle of the night?

I would just take a car seat you can either hold onto it or put the belt accross ?

Addison lee or Dulwich cabs are reliable 02086931000 are reliable. No need to book in advance, and you can use your own car seat. Or pm me and I'll pick you up!

We didn't have a car in London and bought a basic baby britax car seat from Argos. They go in any car but we practiced on a dining room chair first!

We rang the taxi company in advance to just warn them and then again at time of booking so that they knew we had a new born. The driver was amazing. He took up down back streets and drove slowly and seemed so proud to have a newborn

The seat proved useful as we used it with a hire car and with lifts from friends occasionally!.

Oh bless you Lambethlil that's such a lovely comment! And thanks for the heads up on Dulwich Cars.

I did wonder what most folks do as £130 (the price of a seat that the John Lewis man tried to flog me) seems lots for only ever using it once, particularly when people are advised not to buy second hand (thus making a resale hard!)

Get a car seat that fits in using the seatbelt (rather than an isofix base) - e.g. Maclaren Recaro or similar. Have a practice beforehand of how to put it in a car (it is fairly straightforward, but when you are taking home your newborn you don't want to be faffing around with the instructions manual!). These types of car seat fit in most cars so you'll be able to just get a taxi and pop it in the back. Probably easier than your partner having to find parking at Kings anyway, if you did have a car. Good luck!!

£130 for a car seat is ridiculous! You can get one for £25 from Kiddicare

Oh I had no idea you could get them so reasonably! Thanks for that!

No problem, they have to meet the same safety standards as the £130 one from John Lewis. They might not have all the fancy bells and whistles, but they will be just as safe and should do the job for your lovely squishy newborn's trip home.

I delivered my first at Kings at 1.30 am, didn't get out until 4pm ish. We met a couple at our ante natal who didn't have a car seat, we offered loan of ours but they had at least 3 offers so chose the one that was even closer to them. Have you done classes yet? The other place you could meet someone is the breastfeeding session that they offer before hand (if you go take food as they over run!). Or pm me and I'll see if I can help more directly. Good luck!!

Thanks MsPickle! I haven't done classes, but as I'm only moving south on Saturday and I'll be 26 weeks, I assumed of be too late to sign up...

I wouldn't have thought too late, I can't remember which week but I think it must have been 30 + as we joked that if I was early we might not have completed. . They run lots of sessions, I know the evening ones were harder to get slots for. I'm cooking no.2 now so I'll have a look at my info and see what it says. From memory I just turned up at the breastfeeding one but that might be false memory! Your midwife should have the info. As its such a busy baby area I suspect they are used to late comers!

Sorry if this is a bit annoying but bit shocked at a previous comment and just wanted to say - I really wouldn't recommend just holding a baby in a car seat in a car. In a crash there's no way you could keep hold of it and the baby could end up flying though the windscreen - ok, in a car seat, but still not ideal.

Whichever one you decide to buy, just check that it can be fitted using only the adult seat belt, and then when it comes get it out and read the instructions on how to do this (before you're in labour!!) as they can be quite tricky.

Might be worth a £1 month long trial of which? to read their reviews and see the safety ratings - they do extensive testing beyond the national minimum standards. It's true that any carseat on sale in this country will have to meet the minimum stafety standards but that doesn't mean they are all as safe as each other. I found which? really helpful when we were buying our next size up as it gives specific ratings for how safe they are when using just the adult belt to secure them (not an isofix base or whatever) and most of them are pretty poor - as we also don't own a car we wanted the safest one for adult belts.

Also very boring, but don't buy a second hand carseat. If they've been in a crash then they might have been damaged.

HTH

If you don't want to worry about properly installing a car seat in an unfamiliar car for the first time, get a black cab. You can simply wheel the baby into the back in the pram and put the brake on. That's what we did (and still do).

Sorry, just realised that of course this means bringing the pram to the hospital! Perhaps a job for your first visitor?

These hospital policies have been around for a long time - you only have to google it to see threads going back years and years. It's nothing new but clearly hospitals are enforcing it more and more these days and to different extents

@ivfbeenbusy this thread is 8 years old... Hospitals enforcing what?