Do you parents bring car seats in the hospital?

LauraLou · Mar 8, 2005

Parents are required to bring a corificeat to the room to show the nurse that they have one. But we are not allowed to help them put the baby in or adjust the corificeat. Mom has to carrry the baby out in her arms in a wheelchair, which means they can't put the baby in the car seat in the room where it would be much easier. Instead Dad has to fumble around with the car seat at the front entrance to the hospital while Mom is sitting in the wheelchair. All of this is due to liability issues.

BETSRN · Mar 8, 2005

Another message board I am on had this post.....
"when I did my maternity rotation in Nursing school one of my classmates took a new mother down to the car when she was discharged....the hosp policy was NO corificeats be brought into the hosp ...all babies were carried out.. this girl and her mother had the babies bucket in the front seat foreward facing.....did you not read the directions? and when my fellow student tried to help them fix it by explaining the problems the secuity guard had a stroke and said "we arent allowed to do that, you should ahve let them take the kid home like they had it in the first place"
what idiots! both hosps I had my boys at a civilian community hospital and a Navy Hospital both made me bring the corificeat in and show the nurses I knew how to use it, tighten and loosen straps and properly strap baby in......"
So it got me thinking--what is your policies for car seats? On the thread following this post.....parents had a wide variety of experiences. Many said they were NOT allowed to bring their car seats inside. I don't understand how parents can properly fit their babies in the car seats if they can't bring the seat inside?? Many said they had no nurse escort to their car, so for all the hosptial knew--they could have taken the baby home in their arms!
Our hospital requires that all car seats are brought inside. The parents then get the straps adjusted as necessary to the baby. The mom then carries the carrier on her lap down to the car. The parents then secure the car seat in the car. We always make sure they are rear facing. We used to help them a lot more with the car seat in the car, until we were told that could be a liability issue. Our discharge note is something like "...parents secured rear facing car seat...."

We ask that ALL our patients bring the corificeat up to the room. The infant goes out in the car seat AFTER we have seen that the baby is strapped in correctly.

HappyNurse2005, RN · Mar 8, 2005

Also, all babies under 36 weeks and/or 5 pounds need a "car seat test" before discharge; we strap them in and hook them up to a cardiac-resp monitor for an hour or as long as the drive home is, if the parents live further away, to verify that the baby can tolerate being in that position

Our hospital does that for preemies, too, but if i remember right, you leave them in the seat twice as long as the drive home is.

As for the car seat requirements? I did my postpartum/OB rotation in 2003, but I've also had babies at that hospital in 2000 and 2002 (and again next month!) and you weren't required to bring corificeat inside the hospital, but you could. I did. I saw others do it. Though I was not escorted out by a RN, but by a NA, I asked her if they were allowed to let people leave without corificeats. She said they could not legally keep the baby there, it would be kidnapping or something like that. She said she had only once seen someone wihtout a corificeat. Granted, that was 2 years ago....policy could have changed.

I dont understand why you would not be allowed to bring the corificeat into the hospital? WHat is the rationale behind that?

baby&mommynurse · Mar 8, 2005

I dont understand why you would not be allowed to bring the corificeat into the hospital? WHat is the rationale behind that?

In my hospital, part of our job as nurses is to educate the parents that a car seat is required not only for safety reasons, but also that it is the law. They are told that the need one on the day of discharge, but we don't require them to bring the car seat into the hospital because all the babies are held by mom as they go out in a wheelchair. If the baby ends up staying longer than the mom, the nurse has to carry the baby down to the car when discharged. We do this for liability reasons. We also do not put the baby into the car seat or help the parents adjust it because that is their responsibility to make sure that it is hooked up correctly. Again, for liability reasons. If anything should happen to that baby on the way home, the parents could turn around and slam a lawsuit on you or the hospital because you were the one who "put the baby in the car seat".

If parents say that they couldn't afford a car seat, we refer them to our social worker who evaluates their "needs" and will issue them one. Some parents say that they just don't have one - I don't understand how parents have 9 months to figure out what they need for their baby and still aren't prepared! We've also had some parents that have the nerve to ask for a car seat just so they can get one for free! :uhoh3:

Gompers, BSN, RN · Mar 8, 2005

We can't do anything with the bases though. The local fire departments do car seat checks and we advise all parents to get the bases checked by them.
Also, all babies under 36 weeks and/or 5 pounds need a "car seat test" before discharge; we strap them in and hook them up to a cardiac-resp monitor for an hour or as long as the drive home is, if the parents live further away, to verify that the baby can tolerate being in that position

Same here. The babies aren't discharged unless they have a car seat, and we do car seat tests as well and put the paperwork in the permanent chart. Even if the baby has been in the NICU for four months, the policy is that the baby must leave the unit strapped into it's corificeat, and the mom must ride in a wheelchair. Basically, any baby leaving the hospital from NICU, NBN, or Peds has to be in a corificeat - partially for baby's safety, partially for hospital security. We are taught that any baby being taken out of the hospital CARRIED in someone's arms is WRONG, and might be an abduction, etc.

If the parents can't afford a corificeat, we will get a donated one for them. And if they fail the corificeat test, and then again a week later fail it - we loan them a carbed.

Mimi2RN, ASN, RN · Mar 8, 2005

Mom's are discharged from pp with babe in arms, in a wheelchair, down to the car. We do the same from our nicu, even if mom has been discharged. They do have to sign that they have a car seat and know the laws regarding children and corificeats etc.

One evening, I d/c'd an infant to mom and dad, went down to the truck, which was an older one that had been lowered, given an expensive paint job, looked beautiful.......NO SEAT BELTS! What do you mean NO SEAT BELTS! I had to let them take that baby home, AFTER my lecture on car safety. "You can have seat belts installed, or GET RID OF THE TRUCK. I don't want to see a dead baby in ER". :angryfire

baby&mommynurse · Mar 8, 2005

Mom's are discharged from pp with babe in arms, in a wheelchair, down to the car. We do the same from our nicu, even if mom has been discharged. They do have to sign that they have a car seat and know the laws regarding children and corificeats etc.
One evening, I d/c'd an infant to mom and dad, went down to the truck, which was an older one that had been lowered, given an expensive paint job, looked beautiful.......NO SEAT BELTS! What do you mean NO SEAT BELTS! I had to let them take that baby home, AFTER my lecture on car safety. "You can have seat belts installed, or GET RID OF THE TRUCK. I don't want to see a dead baby in ER". :angryfire

You would think that people who have decided to bring children into this world, would have enough sense & responsibility to at least have seat belts installed in their truck before the baby was born! :angryfire

we have mom's sign that they are aware about the corificeat law before they are discharged, too.

We are taught that any baby being taken out of the hospital CARRIED in someone's arms is WRONG, and might be an abduction, etc.

as far as carrying the baby down after the mom has already been discharged, we have special badges that identify us as nursery and post partum nurses, so anyone can know we're "valid". we also have so much security around and we do routine mock child abduction codes.

CA CoCoRN, RN · Mar 8, 2005

That's odd. Our hospital gives car seats to each and every mom unless they EXPRESSLY refuse it. And, really, who's going to refuse a freebie like that.

We are also required to have the pt sign forms regarding proper usage of car seats, etc. When the pt's are d/c'd most will use the new seats to take baby to the car.

babyktchr, BSN, RN · Mar 8, 2005

That's odd. Our hospital gives car seats to each and every mom unless they EXPRESSLY refuse it. And, really, who's going to refuse a freebie like that.
We are also required to have the pt sign forms regarding proper usage of car seats, etc. When the pt's are d/c'd most will use the new seats to take baby to the car.

WOW...what a great hospital!!! That is a great gift.

baby&mommynurse · Mar 8, 2005

That's odd. Our hospital gives car seats to each and every mom unless they EXPRESSLY refuse it. And, really, who's going to refuse a freebie like that.

You must be at a hospital with a lot of money and funding. I'm at hospital that has approximately 500-600 or so births a month... 6000-7200 or so car seats a year? that's a lot of money.

LPN_mn · Mar 8, 2005

This post about corificeats brought back memories of when my children were born. 1st baby 1983 didn't have corificeat (don't even remember seeing them back then), 2nd baby 1985 born in military hospital had to bring car seat to hospital couldn't even leave without one, 3rd and 4th born 1987 & 1989 also required to have corificeat to leave hospital. Had no teaching with any of them, just read how to secure baby and seat in car and was able to do that on my own. We have come along way in protecting our most treasured little ones since the early 1980's. I remember spending 3-4 days in the hospital after each of my births, was not customery to give teaching back in those days. Learned everything by trial and error and the help from my mothers, aunts, etc. Now mom's and babies are sent home within 24-48 hours and are expected to absorb lots of teaching in such a small time frame. Boggles the mind doesn't it.

BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN · Mar 8, 2005

If you aren't sending baby home because there isn't a corificeat, are you getting paid by insurance etc for holding? I know that we wouldn't get any reimbursement from Medicaid or private insurance for that, heck, it is bad enough that when our kids are on stepdown charges we only get about $45 a day for them from the state.