How do you take baby home from hospital?

[jellybean13419]

This probably seems a daft question. But friends have told me you must take baby home from the hospital in a car seat and they don't let you leave with baby in your arms. We are planning on getting a birth to 4 years car seat that stays in the car permanently. So what's the process here? It must be fairly common as there are loads of this type of car seat on the market. Do you take your pram with you to the hospital and take baby out to the car park in that? Or do you have to have another car seat handy that you can take out the car? 🤔

@DollyParton2

I really think you’ll end up getting a separate baby car seat OP. To never remove it will end up being a pain in so many situations!

Totally agree. My dc car seat was a clip in isofix thing. A godsend when they fell asleep as babies. Clip into pram base and go shopping, bring in from car at home without waking them. I couldn't live without it!

I have a clip in car seat for each of my boys. My eldest boy is 3, I’ve never needed to take it out? It gets taken out once a month for a valet but not by me. Why would you need to?

Car seats have got heavier - about 10/15 years ago they typically weighed about 3kg. These days they can often weigh about 5kg. This is because of deeper side impact protection, shock absorbing foams and features like a recline. Quite a difference! The modern ones are much less convenient to carry around on your arm.