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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

Is it true that hospitals say you MUST have carseat to take baby home in?

94 replies

comtessa · 03/07/2010 15:47

It's just that we don't have a car and so are NOT going to buy a car seat!

I'm not due until end of November, so thinking about this early on, but I do want to know whether this is true or not. DH, DC and I would be going home in black cab or bus. No fast roads between hospital and home (about a 10 minute drive) so would be planning to take baby home in pram.

Any experience - especially of Nottingham hospitals - greatly appreciated!

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

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BikeRunSki · 03/07/2010 21:35

Not if you are not going home in a car.

kingbeat23 · 03/07/2010 21:38

I live in N16, if you want to borrow mine then you are more than welcome, spend the extra on the cab it's far easier IMO. I'll come and get from you once you're home.

geraldinetheluckygoat · 03/07/2010 21:41

I think that public transport after giving birth would be like some kind of slow torture! It would be possibly ok if you had a very easy birth but hell with stitches/after a csection. I would go with the cab, and like others said find one with a seat available.

Gemjar · 03/07/2010 21:43

Does no one actually use the bus anymore? a pram with the brakes applied, or sat down with the baby in a sling is perfectly safe for a newborn and quite common on buses. We decided to buy a travel system type pram for our ds as the car seat does come in handy as a baby seat at home and we do occasionally get lifts from family/friends. it did annoy me that we had to get a car seat even though neither me or dh drive, but it's something that we have had to just put up with.

kingbeat23 · 03/07/2010 21:55

I don't drive....used car seat sparingly, but did come in handy from time to time. I thought I would be in and out of the hospital in no time and got told I would be out in 6 hurs max once I'd had her, but due to complications needed to stay in for another 5 days. I don't think I would have been able to get the bus home even though it was a 15 min walk from where I lived at the time and was grateful for the fact that I had it.

Now that DD is too big for the seat it is boxed up and in a cupboard, haven't bought the next size up as I'm in cars so little it makes no odds to me and she is big enough to sit on my lap in a mini cab (which is allowed and they don't mind, but as Bertie says, you do need to position the belt correctly).

I use the bus every day and have learnt the different positions that I need to put my buggy in with the varying weights!

Had a specific travel system that was designed for city and public transport is the lightest thing ever and have travelled abroad with it too.....love it....no need for a car, but a car seat is needed if only occasionaly.

GlastonburyGoddess · 03/07/2010 21:57

mamadoc-thats absurd! We have got a britax first class, so you dont take it out of the car-its v heavy! will just be carrying LO to the car, wonder if anything will be said!?

Sidge · 03/07/2010 22:04

Regardless of what the law and a hospital say, I can't believe anyone would travel in a car without securing their baby/child in a car seat.

It astounds me, it really does.

What price a life?

kingbeat23 · 03/07/2010 22:07

oops, forgot to add, the times where I have been in a car, it's been my parents and they bought a 1yr - 14yr thingymabob and she goes in that.....wouldn't go in a car without one and go by public transport ignoring all the looks i get on london buses at 11pm....bad mother taking her daughter out past 7!

MollieO · 03/07/2010 22:12

Our hospital insisted on a car seat. I got into trouble as ds was too small for it and we had to sort out a way of padding it out to fit him. Nurse did it and only then were they happy for us to leave.

kingbeat23 · 03/07/2010 22:12

and said mini cab journey was to hospital at 2am....

lal123 · 03/07/2010 22:20

We took both DDs home by car - so had a car seat. But I would have liked to have seen a mw try to stop me taking MY baby out of the hospital just because I didn't have a car seat! That's just ridiculous!

Original poster

comtessa · 03/07/2010 22:35

Thanks confuzled, sadly I'm in the East Midlands, otherwise I might have taken you up on your kind offer.

OP posts:

lolabanola · 03/07/2010 23:08

The hospital that I am going to wont let the baby out without a car seat - luckily I got one at a car boot sale for £2.50!

Quality · 03/07/2010 23:20

We did have a car, and car seats, but both times I left the hospital carrying DD's in a sling and walked to the carpark, no-one asked, no-one would have known if we had just got on the bus.

I didn;t have a 'removable' car seat for either, they were in the birth to 4 years ones so it would have beena massive PITA to take it out anyway.

bronze · 03/07/2010 23:59

I'm really intrigued to find out what happens at one of these hospitals that 'won't allow you' if you say tough shit matey I'm taking my baby.

BertieBotts · 04/07/2010 00:00

Thank you barkfox

MollieO, I am a bit shocked at that - any extra padding not crash tested for use in a carseat can render it unsafe! Surely any infant carseat will be suitable even for very small babies?

If you had a 0-4 years one then I'm sure the hospital wouldn't ask you to lug that up to the ward. Though if they were really cautious they might ask to come down and see which should be easy enough to let them.

I would be wary of booking a minicab and requesting a carseat as apparently they often don't have the right age group one, or it's old or not fitted correctly. If you are going to do this, maybe see if you can go to the office and check the carseat out beforehand just to make sure it is suitable.

lolabanola · 04/07/2010 00:06

lol Bronze, perhaps they have a secret store cupboard for all of the babies that they wouldn't allow home without a car seat?! It amazes me that they are very concerned about how you are transporting the baby from the hospital to home ( well they are in my area anyway) but they don't give two hoots at what the actual house is like!

StealthPolarBear · 04/07/2010 06:48

yes i'd like to know too - would they call the police? and what would the police do if you said i don't have a car seat because i'm GETTING THE BUS? laugh and release the handcuffs i imagine

Sidge - she is talking about getting the bus!

sarah293 · 04/07/2010 07:23

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

NotQuiteCockney · 04/07/2010 07:29

I see children and babies rattling around loose in cars all the time.

Oh, and I think a sling on the bus is prety safe. Facing backwards in a black cab, strapped in, with a sling, but with the sling around you and not the baby, sounds pretty safe to me too - more so than the bus, even.

illhaveacoffeeplease · 04/07/2010 07:59

Having read this i cant see quite where the OP is being'pissy'.EmmaBemma.
She asked a question,this is what a forum is for, i find your answer a bit 'pissy' to be honest.

lovechoc · 04/07/2010 08:45

Glastonbury we did this with our DS1 - we didn't have one of those infant seats, only the fixed type that stays in the car (the one you've mentioned actually!) and so the MW watched us going to the car and strapping him in. I think we were one of the very few though, everyone else I saw at the time had an infant seat to take them out in from the ward.

thisisyesterday · 04/07/2010 09:38

bronze, as I said earlier, nothing happens because they can't force you to use one. it's your baby and if they refused to discharge you you could discharge yourselves anyway

most will ask you to take the baby down to the front door in a crib accompanied by a midwife or someone to bring said crib back again.

but they cannot MAKE you take it in a car seat if you don't have/want one

thisisyesterday · 04/07/2010 09:40

oh and i don't think it's concern about how you travel home, it's part of the whole "you can't carry your baby around the hospital in your arms" hence making you take it to the door in a crib

sadly there have been occasions when new mums have dropped their babies when carrying them, and in our litigious day the hospital cannot risk being sued by someone who has dropped their baby on the floor (i believe this HAS happened, hence the rules)

Ronaldinhio · 04/07/2010 09:46

we were told all the you can't leave without a car seat stuff but when I left with both dds I did so with them in my arms and went to the front of the hospital
dh was there with the car but certainly there wasn't anyone there to see us off or check the car seat
(the youngest is 2 btw so not that long ago)

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