[bubzillaiscoming]

In Melbourne you can't hire a taxi with any kind of child restraint in it. They won't take the responsibility. You can provide your own capsule if you want. There is legislation that states in a taxi children do not have to be restrained the way the would in a regular car (I think it is the same with buses - or any kind of public transport).
We had a similar issue (although we both drive) when we were heading to the airport for a holiday. We ended up taking the Baby Bjorn and getting DH to wear a seat belt and THEN putting on the baby bjorn rather than putting the seatbelt around the 2 of them as tthis would obviously be disasterous if there was an accident.

I wasn't 100% comfortable with it, but we didn't really have any other options on the day.

Good luck

PS Your hospital might also be able to recommend some kind of driving service as well?

[Ehill]

I might be shot down in flames for this.....but i always just sit in the backseat with my infant and hold him with a seatbelt on. Understand many might not be comfortable with this but i have done it numerous times in a taxi and i just hold him really tight. Just due to circumstances lately (we are tooing and froing between 2 capital cities because of hubbys work) it has been my only option for getting to and from airport at ungodly hours of the morning when i cant ask a friend to drive us and i cant take a capsule because i dont want to take the capsule on the plane with me. Not ideal but it is legal in SA and WA.
Www.hireforbaby.com.au do short term hire.

[frogcal]

As PP have said you can travel in a Taxi in Vic without a child seat, up to you whether you want to take the risk.
It would depend on the weather of course and how you feel if public transport is going to be an option, even if you taxi the last bit so you don't have to walk.

[Bibendum]

Thanks everyone for replying.

Unfortunately we don't have anyone obvious to ask: family are all overseas, and my friends in Melbourne all seem to have two-seater cars...

In Melbourne you can't hire a taxi with any kind of child restraint in it. They won't take the responsibility. You can provide your own capsule if you want. There is legislation that states in a taxi children do not have to be restrained the way the would in a regular car (I think it is the same with buses - or any kind of public transport).

PS Your hospital might also be able to recommend some kind of driving service as well?

This had been my impression from taking taxis with my son (which I didn't have to do, however, until he was around three years old) - that taxis would let you put a seat of your own in (and I think may be required to have the proper bolts to make this possible), but that they wouldn't provide anything, or assist you to install anything, so you'd have to know what you were doing. It's been some time since I've had to install a capsule (my son is eight...), so I'm not sure how confident I feel putting one in a random taxi in the fog immediately after birth...

I think your best option is you get a taxi home and DH takes the baby. And don't forget you will have your bags with you as well. Or you could get a taxi to where you catch public transport from and DH walks with the baby.

I've been leaning toward this I think - was also thinking about the bag issue, and how we'd get those home. It's not a problem if I'm as mobile as last time: I'll just carry the baby in a sling, and husband will drag the bags... It's only if I'm having more problems moving around... I don't have any sense of how likely this is to be a problem - I just remember everyone being really weirded out last time, that I was basically walking everywhere like normal after the birth. Even the midwives in the hospital seemed to think I was strange...

But I'll check the hire car services and see how flexible they're able to be with times and dates - certainly some of them do offer to provide fitted baby restraints, so I know it's possible. I'm just worried I need to know in advance exactly when I'll be discharged...

ETA: I realised I'm making it sound like I had the world's most wonderful recovery from the birth last time: that's not true at all! Things felt horrible "down there" for a good six weeks after the birth, and I was pretty terrified that it would never feel like "me" again. It's just that walking per se didn't cause any problems - it was sitting and lying down that was uncomfortable... (!!)

This post has been edited by Bibendum: 27/04/2012, 06:03 PM