carseats and leaving the hospital

[coops1989]

Hi,
i have been advised to get one of the fixed car seats by my sister, specifically the joie spin 360.
This may be a reallllllly stupid question but...
last time i hd a baby was 12 years ago and you had to put your baby in the carseat to leave the ward..
is this still the case?
as if you have a fixed carseat how does this work?
do they come down with you? or just let you leave carrying your baby? as you were strictly not allowed to carry your baby anywhere when i was in before, not even around your bed space you had to move the cot thing around..

They walked me to the door with the baby in the little trolley with the glass crib when I was in at the end of covid. My husband met us in the reception with the car seat but could easily have met us with the pram or if he was parked at the door could have carried him to the car I’m sure. You just aren’t allowed to walk about corridors carrying a baby so they’d need to be in a pram or the trolley

In reify, they wont check. Some people go
Home by bus so wont need a car seat

I have a fixed Cybex rotating car seat - two of them in fact. Such a good car seat that I bought a second when I had my second baby, as my first was still fitting in hers and would for a long time to come. Carried both my babies out of hospital in my arms. And newborns fit in them just fine and I never found it a "nightmare" having to lift my new born out of the car seat to put them in the pram or carrier or carry them into the house. It wasn't a problem in the slightest, you just pick them up and put them where you want them

We've got the i-spin safe and it was totally fine while DS was newborn! Our hospital didn't need to see the seat but wouldn't let us just carry the baby out so DP pushed me in a wheelchair holding DS to the car park (which felt quite pointless but wasn't a hassle at least!).

They just asked me if I had a car seat, which I said yes a fixed one in the car. They didn't check it.

We had these seats for our twins and NICU weren't fussed about us leaving in a pram. They actually told us they aren't allowed to check car seats as we asked if they won't mind coming to help us putting the babies in for the first time.

This myth has been going around much longer than 12 years! :)

They don't need to see the baby in the car seat and they can't stop you leaving.

It's common for wards to have a policy of not carrying the baby in your arms - this is to do with people potentially needing to run past with a crash trolley apparently - or might be to do with child abduction, or might be to do with mums potentially being a bit prone to fainting after birth (nobody seems to know!). While staying in the ward you are meant to push them around in the plastic cot thing.

Many wards have a "car seat rule" because they just want to know that you're aware of the legal requirement to use one. Not everybody is. Usually in this case you just explain that you have a fixed one in the car, they might come down to see it, they might not. (Take a picture of it installed on your phone maybe). They may insist you take the baby out in the pram instead of carrying them.

Some people say 0-4 years seats aren't suitable from birth but that isn't always true. The Joie 360 is one of the better ones to use from birth. If the baby is tiny then they might not get a good fit, but they probably wouldn't get a good fit in a lot of infant carriers in that case either. It's not a blanket situation, you have to assess the individual baby.

Our hospital didn't want us carrying around a baby due to the busy hospital environment and people rushing around. So they didn't need a car seat necessarily but you were not allowed to carry baby out so we bought in a pram which was completely fine. (We also have the joie ispin).