Protecting Your Unborn Baby in the Car

Stephanie Tombrello: Hello, I am Stephanie Tombrello, Executive Director of SafetyBeltSafe U.

S.

A. and I am here to tell you how to protect your baby in the car. First I am going to talk about how to protect the baby that you are expecting. Many people don't know that it is estimated that five times as many fetuses are lost in car crashes, as the children in the first year of life and that's primarily because the pregnant woman wasn't buckled up. When a woman is expecting, it's extremely important that's you buckle up from the very first day. Your body is the child's first safety seat. So it's really important to put the safety belt in the right place, between your neck and the top of your arm across your body and the lap belt portion underneath the bump.

Next it's really important to sit in a seat that's as far back from the front of the car as possible. If you are driving of course, it needs to be comfortable, but as you become more pregnant you'll realize that the bump is getting closer and closer to the steering wheel. Of course, pregnant woman do drive up to the day of delivery, but when you have the opportunity to be a passenger, we strongly recommend that, because it's very hard to keep the baby away from the steering wheel. Airbags are no more dangerous to the pregnant woman and to another woman except that you are much closer to the air bag compartment.

We would like everybody to sit back at least the distance of a piece of notebook paper held out straight that's about 10-12 inches, so you will see that you may end up trying to sit farther and farther away from the steering wheel. So be a passenger, even ride in the back seat, because you are the celebrity of the family right now. Now I have shown you how to protect the baby that you are expecting. Next, I will be talking about how to choose the right safety seat for that baby.