Infant car seat
Our society has changed greatly in how they regard on the road safety. We are a much more mobile society now. Gone are the days when people travel less than ten miles from home to work. Many people commute for several hours a day either by public transit or their personal cars. With the added time and distance that we spend in our vehicles we need to be safety minded.
When I was a child I remember standing in the front seat between my parents so that I could see out through the wind shield. Today children are secured in the back seat in car seats. I have found one of the most complicated pieces of equipment I have ever encountered in the infant car seat. I had to drive three hours to pick up a three day old infant that had been abandoned by her mother. I took an intern that was working in the social service agency with me at the time. We picked up an infant car seat from the public health office and started on our way. We thought that we would be able to figure out how to secure the infant car seat once we arrived at the hospital.
We arrived at the hospital and were thoroughly checked through security. We were escorted to the nursery and met with the maternity ward nurses. It seems that they could tell by looking at the intern and me that we had very limited experience with babies. They asked if we had brought an infant car seat for the ride home. We explained that it was in the vehicle. The nurse asked if we had safety foam bumpers along to secure the infants head. She could tell by the blank looks we were giving her that we did not have them along. She offered to accompany us to the parking lot to secure the baby in the infant car seat. It took nearly fifteen minutes to secure the car seat in the proper position. The nurse then placed foam tubes around the baby’s head so that it would be supported.
The intern and I took turns riding in the back seat with the infant to make sure she was alright. We took her to a foster home that specializes in the car of infants. We gave her the instructions that the hospital had given us and then we left to return the agency vehicle and infant car seat. As we were leaving we mentioned that it would probably take us an hour to get the seat unhooked. The foster mom opened the back door and had the seat unlatched in less than a minute. She said that it is something that you get used to. I think it will be a long time before the intern or I volunteer to pick up an infant again. We both ended the day feeling incompetent when it came to dealing with infant car seats.
