When it’s time to head home after the birth, it’s important to make sure your baby is safe and snug in his or her car seat. At Central Maine Healthcare, your safety is one of our top priorities and that includes the ride home from the hospital!
For more information about car seat inspection and installations, call 207-795-2695.
Keep Your Baby Safe
Maine law requires that your baby rides homes in an approved child safety seat. It’s best to take the time to install the car seat ahead of time, so you’ll be familiar with how it works before your baby is born. We recommend that you have the car seat inspected by a certified car seat inspection station, just to make sure it’s as safe as can be.
Central Maine Healthcare helps with safe care seat installations by providing resources. We can connect you with the professionals that can test your installation. Learn more about CMH’s Child Safety Seat Program.
Community Resources
You can also bring your vehicles and seats to a free monthly fitting clinic held at the United Ambulance station in Lewiston on the third Thursday of every month from 2pm – 6pm.
More information about car seat safety (as well as inspection dates and locations) is available through the Maine Department of Motor Vehicles or the Safe Kids Maine organization.
To help you get started with proper car seat installation procedure, we’ve included some tips below.
- The safest way to position the harness: the internal harness straps should be at or below your baby’s shoulders when using a car seat in the rear-facing position.
- Once you have buckled your baby into the internal harness, adjust the harness so the fit is snug. If you can pinch a fold in the harness it is not tight enough and will need to be re-adjusted. The harness retainer clip is in the proper position when it is at armpit level.
- It is not recommended to add items to your safety seat that did not come with it. If you feel that your baby needs additional head support, you can use rolled baby blankets or towels and place them on each side. Do not place anything including blankets behind the baby or between the baby and the harness.
- To obtain optimal harness fit for your baby it’s ideal to avoid bulky clothing. Once the baby is secured in the harness cover the child with a blanket if needed.
