How to get home from hospital

[Mumofacat]

Hello 👋

looking for advice. As usual coming on here early hours as woke up feeling very anxious.

I’m not sure how I’ll be giving birth yet but it will definitely be in hospital due to my complex and serious health conditions. Fairly likely I’ll have a planned c section.

I’m 21 weeks pregnant, and neither me nor my DH can drive- we are Londoners and don’t have a car. Husband has been planning to learn but everything has been sped up and here we are.

My question is, is there anyone like us out there? If so how did you and baby go home? Will I need to buy a car seat and get a taxi? I can ask friends but would need to get a car seat still just for that journey.

thanks so much in advance

There are black cabs you can take a pram inside.

If you are planning to never need a lift oflr use a minicab/UBER in the first 15months or so, you could try to borrow a car seat for this one occasion if you want to get a lift instead.

First baby- I walked home with the baby in the pram! I’d had a C-Section but was only a 15 minute walk from my house.

Second baby: Got a taxi home with baby in the pram. Was still only a 15 mins walk away but the C-Section had been an emergency one and so they had been much less gentle with me than for the first baby!

Other options: baby in the sling and you take bus/ tube/ train/ taxi. You don’t need a car seat.

If the hospital is close, you get taxi and dh pushes baby home in pram.

You can order a black cab and use the pram in the back. Or you might want a car seat for any future use if you think you might be getting the odd taxi with the baby.

We bought a travel system with a car seat, took it with us when I went in to have DD then I booked a taxi home. It's useful to have a car seat, even if you don't have a car because there were times we used taxis or got lifts.

You can push the pram straight into the back of the black cab and apply to brake. Personally I’d only do that though if you have a pram that allows newborns to be strapped in (not loose in a bassinet) and it’s a very short journey at very low speeds. You might find a carseat useful though for ubers so I’d think about getting a seatbelt fitted one that can go on your pram frame and then it also solves the hospital dilemma.

We are Londoners without a car. For both DCs, we bought a car seat and used our local minicab firm. We actually got way more use out of it than the one trip home from hospital. Things like DD1 had been in NICU / SCBU so had loads of follow up appointments until 12months old. It was much easier to book an uber than go on the bus for double the journey length. Or DD2 was breech so had to have a hip scan at a hospital that was nowhere near us and took 45mins in a taxi at 6weeks. Would have been a nightmare using public transport. Going on holiday and visiting family we could take it with us and use it for longer drives.

Something like an avianaut cosmo is £140 ish new? Can last some babies until 15-18months as its up to 87cm / 13kg and fits on most pram chassis with maxi cosi adapters. Especially if you are considering having more than one DC, I think you'd get your money worth. Cybex are also long lasting. Dont bother buying the isofix bases though - in a taxi it just fastens in with the seatbelt. Or if you dont mind about long lasting, a cheap good seat is maxi cosi cabriofix but it is outgrown at 75cm so only lasts some babies up to 9months old.

I have also had to take the pram in a black cab (getting home from hospital at 4am when we were taken in an ambulance without the car seat) by wheeling it in and parking it up in the back of the black cab. Although it's legal, it felt much less safe - where we are in z3, it isnt a slow crawl of traffic so the taxi was going fairly fast, and there's no way I'd have wanted to do the 45mins hip scan journey down dual carriageways like that.

Now DD2 is around 10months, we only use ours if we are going outside of London. If you have a friend with a slightly older baby or a toddler that's just grown out of a car seat, they might be willing to give you theirs to keep at your house before the birth. Don't get one off FB second hand though unless you know the owner. Not worth the risk of it previously been in an accident.

Thanks everyone! This is very reassuring and so helpful to know what you’ve all done. Xx

Check this recent thread if you are considering getting one to use occasionally too :)

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/car_seats_chat/5272985-best-carseat-without-a-base-unit