Hemiplegia friendly travel system or pram for new born?

[anonym0us98]

Hey, I've just found out I'm pregnant and I'm looking for some advice, I'm starting early as I'm aware it may take the rest of my pregnancy to find what I'm looking for.
My partner has Hemiplegic cerebral palsy meaning he can't use his right arm at all and has limited mobility in his right leg.
We're looking for (ideally a travel system) pram for baby which is disabled friendly as my partner doesn't have to rely on me for outings with baby.
We have tried a couple of different systems and found you need to click two buttons at the same time to remove the car seat or Carrycot which obviously won't work. We've looked at one with a memory button so you press one after the other as apposed to both at the same time then lift the cot up which seems to work better.
The other problem is folding down the pushchair to put into the boot of the car, if this cannot be done with one hand, it is not suitable.
We are thinking a travel system might be the best option because the whole car seat can be taken out of the ISOfix base and popped on the pram frame.

I'm completely open to options and I've booked some appointments with the local shop to discuss with them what we are after and see what they can offer us.

Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance :)

Now my youngest child is 11, so pram tech has probably moved on a lot since I last bought a pram or buggy, but have a look at the Baby Jogger City Mini, or GT version, which have a one handed fold. You literally lift a loop strap and give it a tug and the buggy folds.

It's not a traditional "pram", but it's a robust folding pushchair that takes a car seat and also lies flat for newborns (I used mine with a soft carrycot from Phil and Teds, but I believe there are hard carry cots for it too). I used mine with dd from birth to 3.5, when age really she really didn't need it anymore.

Google one hand fold pushchair. They do tend to be a bit more expensive, so I never had one, but there are plenty around. You can get ones with carry cot insert to use from birth, then remove as they get older. If he has help getting the baby in, then a sling might work as he would be able to keep his arm free, depending on if he is prone to falling.

I would probably avoid the car seat ones in your situation. Small babies shouldn't be in them for long and bigger ones will have no room to move. It's also fiddly unclipping the isofix one at a time as while you are undoing the second one, the first often shifts and clicks back in.

Thank you so much, I will take a look into this one. I know some prams have the ''one hand fold'' but they don't fix the problem of needing two hands to change the carrycot / car seat.
I'll check back in on whether this will work for us and will check this out now.
Thank you again!

Thank you for this response this is really helpful! i'm aware that newborns are limited on the amount of time they can stay in a car seat but I'm thinking for when partner is taking baby out without me it might be easier to load baby into car seat then put car seat into car rather than having to hold baby and keys to try and lock the door and such. Also for the options of popping to the shops quickly, it would take him a long time (especially with having to think about picking baby up with one arm and supporting neck) to transfer from a fixed car seat to a pram safely then back to car seat. Partner is already a tad fearful of the implications his one arm may have on his ability to properly care for baby so I'm thinking of way to reduce the anxiety safely.
We did go to a pram shop yesterday and saw some modern iso-fix bases which are user friendly for one hand but he was able to safely remove the car seat and return it to the base.
Thank you again for your quick response! This has been really helpful!

@anonym0us98
This might also be something that you would find useful.

Snugglebundl article

The article itself is really an advert for their product, but has some good tips on one handed care. Also as the blanket it is designed for one handed baby care it could be helpful if he is worried about neck support. They are again quite pricy, but would be cheaper ones on ebay.

The baby jogger was definitely a one handed fold.
I'm not sure if they go to newborn size, but I think I'd be tempted to look at swivel carseats, and not use it as a travel system.
Has your husband looked at how the clips work? I think that might be very tricky one handed too.

Babyzen yoyo - it's a genuine, easy, one handed fold.

You can see how easily it's done here -

You are likely to get further comments about how babies shouldn't be in car seats for long. However by the time your baby is a few weeks old and your DH is more likely to be popping out alone, it's really not a big deal to use the car seat attachment while you can. It's helpful to move them from car to pram without disturbing them when they're asleep, or from being outside back to the car the same. I regularly used it that way to go round the supermarket etc and it's not a problem. My children are 6 and 8 now and escaped this unscathed with all motor skills in place, nice round heads and no breathing difficulties 😂

A tiny newborn you wouldn't want to leave on a car seat for too long, and at any age not for hours. But on MN you're a terrible mother if you ever use the car seat to do anything else and I just wanted to mention this. It's fine as long as you're (as you always would be in any setting) keeping an eye that they are in a comfortable and safe position etc

A compromise re. car seats/travel systems etc. would be to get a car seat that can be removed from its base for things like carrying baby from house to car, but don't use it as part of a travel system. You could still get it out of the car when transferring baby from car seat to pram if that was easier, but you wouldn't necessarily have to bother clipping it onto the frame (with heavy baby inside!). That way you could pick the best pram for one-handed steering and folding, and not need to worry about the clips.

I've just had a good read through this article and realised how useful the snuggglebundl is but also how much useful information is included within this article. I've sent it to my partner for him to read through. I think this single piece of equipment could alleviate a lot of worries.
Thank you so much again!

I second the Baby Jogger City Mini. I had one when DD (now a teenager) was little. I used to do most of my folding and unfolding with DD on my hip as she was a velcro baby. You pull a handle to fold and use the same handle to carry so it's very quick to put into the boot of the car. To open I used to put it on the ground and just pull the handlebar upwards, if it was in the boot of the car I used to turn it so that the handlebar was towards me and then pull it towards me out of the boot and it would open as it cleared the boot. I just had a quick look and they now have a hand operated brake, it was foot operated when I had one, that might be easier for your DH as he won't have to balance on one foot while operating the brake with the other. You can get a bassinet for the City Mini, but I don't know how easy it would be to attach and detach one handed. It's really sturdy so will do you until your baby is old enough not to need a pushchair.

Do you have a large baby shop near you? The easiest thing to do would be to go and try a few different types. Exclude anything that has two handles to push, go for a single handlebar as otherwise it's very hard to manoeuvre.

I've just watched the video and it appears to be a great one hand fold but not necessarily a great one hand unfold, it appears she is holding the pram with one hand and needing to push/pull/press a button with the other which is something my partner would not be able to do. I will watch some more videos and see if this might be suitable thank you lots!!

My husband has left sided hemiplegia and we had a Uppababy vista which he had no problem with and we changed to the baby jogger city mini gt as wanted something with a flatter fold and could sit a longer toddler

We are expecting a new baby and will be getting either the vista or the Cruz

You don't need to do them at the same time - it's a button press to release the mechanism and then you just pull the handle to unfold. while she's done them at once, you can do them sequentially. I did it for many years one handed whilst clutching child and bag and dog lead in the other hand.

Mamas and papas strada perhaps ?

Look at the Britax car seats as they used to have Single Hand Release - unsure if their newer models do.

Cybex Balios S Lux looks good on the pram front.