Do you parents bring car seats in the hospital?

[Zhlake]

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...."

[smk1, LPN]

this was four years ago, but when i had my daughter we brought her carrier seat into the nursery and the nurses clipped her in and gave me discharge info. Maybe they have since changed their policies though...

[CA CoCoRN, RN]

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.

We have about 600 births a month too (and climbing).

We're both in SoCal from the looks of your profile....but it's not Cedars....and we're definitely not "rich". Dunno about the funding for the seats, it's possible we get a grant/discount/promo.

When I delivered two years ago, I got a very nice Graco corificeat/carrier.

Some of our pts don't have their own cars, so they used to give either a stroller or car seat. But since most patients are d/c home riding in a taxi or private vehicle, they've just switched to the car seats.

[dansamy]

I had to bring in a car bed for my preemies.

[USA987, MSN, RN, NP]

At our facility, they can bring the corificeat in or carry the baby out in their arms and then put it in. I can not instruct them on installlation. However we have 2 nurses certified in car seat safety. As a few others have said...we CAN NOT keep the baby if they don't have a car seat. We do have 3 brand new seats on hand at all times to hand out if need be.

[FrumDoula]

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.

That's a generous gift, and it sure as heck beats out giving new mothers a bunch of formula packets!!!!!!!!!

Alison

[lauriesalRNC]

our parents can bring it in if they want to , or not.... but when they are discharged the nurse brings both mom and baby out to the car and makes sure the baby is in a corificeat. We do NOT check the corificeat to make sure the baby is strapped in correctly, however. This is b/c we are not corificeat safety certified so for us to check it would not be legal... god forbid the baby got injured and the parents said " well that nurse checked it".... it would never hold up in court b/c we are not certified to do so.

our car seat policy is parents have to bring the carrier part in, and we verify that baby is in correctly/straps adjusted properly, and go over car seat laws. One of our secretaries and a few nurses are "car seat certified" and can give extra help.

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

[flashpoint]

We have child passenger safety technicians (CPST) who help the parents to fit the baby in the car seat and help them properly install the seat in their vehicle. If the parents refuse education from the CSPT, they have to sign a waiver and the staff does not assist them with the seat in any way. If parents refuse to use a car seat, we call the police as soon as they leave the parking lot. Our hospital has a grant to provide brand new car seats free of charge to those who need them, so there is no excuse for not having one.

[obnursesteff]

If parents don't bring car seats to the hospital, or if they don't have one, we provide one for them. We also have a car seat tech. trained by the state. She inspects the seats and assures parents know what they are doing with them and that neonates are secured in them correctly. This is a major advocate issue! We have had a baby die in a crash at one week of age, properly in a seat. That was horrid! I can't imagine how it would feel if that baby wasn't restrained properly because we weren't allowed to educate.