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Pregnancy

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Original poster

Do you HAVE to leave hospital with baby in a car seat?

92 replies

TotallyAndUtterlyPaninied · 18/10/2009 19:38

Or can I buy a birth-4 years car seat?

DS lived in his car seat last time as it rocked and he loved it, but we've got lots of rocking chairs and bouncy chairs and swings etc so no need for that really. I hate struggling to get a baby seat in a car, would rather leave one in and then put baby in it.

Does this sound good or like a silly idea?

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whomovedmychocolate · 18/10/2009 20:50

I've got a Britax First class and love it. Is much better when it's forward facing and when you have the newborn insert in I did sort of feel DS was sort of plonked in the middle of this enormous seat but a lot easier to clean than our other carseats and quick to install.

ImSoNotTelling · 18/10/2009 20:57

This policy is so bizarre i can't believe it's true. That you have to leave with baby in carseat even if you're not travelling by car and what's this that you have to leave in a car full stop? Like riven said what if you haven't got one? Live next door to the hospital? Are super green and woulnd't go in a car even if you had one which you don't?

The whole thing is baffling.

Surely it's , are you going by car? Yes right have you got a car seat? Or, oh you're going by bus, safe journey...

StealthPolarBear · 18/10/2009 20:59

not if you went in for a hip operation.

AnyFuleKno · 18/10/2009 21:01

Stealth

hester · 18/10/2009 21:04

I went home in a cab; carried dd out in my arms and then spent 20 minutes struggling with carseat and increasingly impatient cabdriver. I was slightly hurt that the midwife DIDN'T accompany us out of the ward (I wanted a lot more mothering than the NHS was prepared to supply at that point). If she had, I bet we'd have got that carseat sorted much quicker.

onepieceoflollipop · 18/10/2009 21:06

When dd1 was born I was (unsurprisingly) knackered and tearful. Neither dh nor I could work out how to strap dd1 into the damned thing.

We struggled and fiddled for about an hour, disapproving staff member looked on and tutted. Then she needed feeding (dd not staff member).

Staff member then said sarcastically (after I had been waiting to be "allowed" to go all day) "oh you're not really in a rush then?"

With dd2 she did go in the carseat, but I made it known (quietly and politely) that we would be going home before lunchtime. I was keen to avoid a repeat of first time round.

Those hospitals who try to insist you have to have a car seat, wonder if it came to it how many days/weeks/months they would make you stay until you complied.

At NHS antenatal classes someone asked this and eventually the midwife admitted that if you wanted to travel home via taxi or whatever then of course they couldn't insist otherwise.

ImSoNotTelling · 18/10/2009 21:07

They've never even mentioned it either time at my hosp. But then I think a lot of people don't leave by car.

TabithaTwitchet · 18/10/2009 21:14

We just walked out holding DD - we had a Britax 1st Class in the car, but I didn't mention it to the midwife or anything, and they didn't say anything.

However there was another woman there whose husband brought in a car seat and they couldn't work out how it worked and how to strap the baby in, and the midwives all told them that they couldn't help because they weren't insured

BexieID · 18/10/2009 23:30

We were told that Tom had to leave in a car seat. I know they didn't like people walking the corridors carrying babies. I had to hold him tight when they wheeled me upto the ward.

No idea this time as am in Scotland now, but will most likely carry DC2 out in a car seat. I was too shaky to carry Tom out myself anyway.

Linnet · 18/10/2009 23:42

At my local hospital you had to have a car seat and you had to take it into the hospital and put the baby in it before they would let you leave.

With dd1 a midwife walked us to the door where we got in my friends car as dh doesn't drive and neither did I then.

With dd2 another friend picked us up but a midwife didn't walk us out that time. Still had to have a car seat though and put the baby in it before leaving.

I also wasn't allowed to walk in the corridors carrying either of my dd's. when moving around they had to be in the goldfish bowl just incase I slipped and dropped the baby.

washironcookclean · 18/10/2009 23:49

hi, just read the thread and wanted to add that we used the britax first class car seat from newborn and it is fab! i hated using the group 0 car seats as when yor dcs get past about 2 months carrying a car seat was a nightmare! i would def recomment=d the britax first class car seat, yes it is big but put it next to a group 1 car seat and you immediately see which you wold rather your pfb be in when in the car! hth's!

1dilemma · 19/10/2009 00:02

put the last one in a sling and caught the tube.

Not sure anyone particularly noticed us leave (although we had the paperwork and said thanks!)

mind you they knew we had another so I guess would have assumed we had a seat somewhere

pipWereRabbit · 19/10/2009 00:13

I used a rear-facing birth to 4 years car seat for both my babies. It stays in the car as it is not easily removable.

The MW escorted us to the hospital exit carrying the baby in her arms. DH went to get car, drove it round to the exit and we loaded baby in car seat.

No problem - job done.

And that was in Essex not NY .

Tangle · 19/10/2009 00:25

The hospital have no legal right to stop you leaving with your baby at any point and in any fashion, although you may have to be forceful (you don't have to have a paed check your baby, you don't have to wait for their paper work, you don't have to wait to be discharged. I have heard that if you refuse to have your newborn checked at all then the NHS do have to inform SS, but you could choose to get your GP to do it the next day if you wanted to rather than wait around in hospital).

re. the Britax 1st Class - just check it fits in your car and you still have room to get a child in. We've an A3 and the position of the rear seat relative to the rear door meant that whilst the seat fitted it was pretty unuseable for us.

pipWereRabbit · 19/10/2009 00:56

Meant to say - we've had 2 Britax First Class seats and I love them. DS is still rear-facing in his at 18 months (but due to turn around any day .

sarah293 · 19/10/2009 08:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

abra1d · 19/10/2009 08:17

Suppose you lived near the hospital and wanted to go home with the baby in a sling or in a pram?

eleanorsmum · 19/10/2009 08:20

when we bought dd home 5 years ago she 'had to' have a car seat and 'had to' sit in it for 1/2 hour before we left. apparently as we were leaving from speacial care (been in for jaundice) it was their policy to see every child was ok being sat in a car seat as one child had sadly died as they had choked in the car on the way home (very prem and breathing issues). We did take a car seat bucket type in but then transfered dd to britax first class which was securly starpped in the car. Seemed alot of wasted time and scare mongering to me.

DC2 due in 3 weeks will be going in first class too, tried other bucket seats but they are just not as secure in my car!

onadietcokebreak · 19/10/2009 08:36

Totallyandutterly

The first class by Britax is fantastic and fits in alot of cars but in some the rearward facing can be a problem because of short belts. I couldnt use it in my car. Have a look at its fitfinder.

However when the time comes to turn it around it fits in more cars than most because it has an alternative routing. I needed this because of buckle crunch. So ended up buying it when DS was 1 year....hoping for next one my new car will be ok for rearward too.

www.kiddicare.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10751&langId=-1&p roductId=77661&source=froogle&cmmmc=Froogle--Shopping%20Sites--CPC--Froogle

This is a bargain from kiddicare at £90. Its the plus model too which has Click & Safe audible safety system indicates when the harness has been tightened sufficiently and quick removable covers. Im jealous cos that would have been useful but not on my model!

Its much more studier than the nania and has more padding for a newborn as you get a really good insert.

All my friends have commented on how much stronger my seat looks than their.

teafortwo · 19/10/2009 08:39

The hospital is only about two miles away from my house. I was very keen to walk home after being fairly still inside for several days breathing warm hospital air. I really needed to move and breath freely.

I called "Goodbye and thank you" to all the staff as we left and carried dd to the hospial door where my Mum had parked the pram. Me, my Mum and dh with dd then walked back to our place. We stopped halfway back to go to a pizzaria as it was lunchtime!

sarah293 · 19/10/2009 08:49

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

onadietcokebreak · 19/10/2009 08:52

After all that praise of the first class I have just looked to see if it will fit my new car rearward facing and it doesnt.....so check out the fit finder before you get too excited!

Good luck with the hunt.

BarakObamasTransitVan · 19/10/2009 10:32

I feel like I ought to defend hospitals on this one. Not so long ago people thought it perfectly OK to carry a baby on their laps in a car. Indeed every now and then someone will post here totally at having seen very small children/babies rattling about in a car like this and I recently saw a post elsewhere where someone was asking if it was OK for their baby to travel in a carrycot strapped into the car (not a Britax Sleeper, just a bog standard carrycot).
I remember (OK so this was about 12 years ago) a lad I worked with phoning in a panic because the hospital wouldn't let him leave without a seat and could someone please nip over with one that they could borrow.
Perhaps they're over doing it these days, and the assumption that everyone will go home by car/taxi is daft, but they have a point imo, and the intransigence they're showing hopefully demonstrates just how bloody not OK it is to not use a carseat.
I'll step down from my soap box now

hanaflower · 19/10/2009 10:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ButtercupWafflehead · 19/10/2009 10:53

It was me who asked about strapping the carrycot into the car. But to be fair, the carrycot does say "suitable for car travel with appropriate restraints". [defensive]

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