November 23, 2008 13:08 Published by Stephen Cohen 1 Comments

As your pregnancy progresses you will find yourself staring at mums with babies when you’re out and about, and that’s not just to see the baby and imagine what yours will be like, but to have a good look at their pushchair and how they negotiate it round corners and in doorways, how easily they get their baby in and out and collapse it and how comfortable the baby looks. Buying your baby’s first form of transport is an exciting prospect but can also pose many questions. Our guide to purchasing pushchairs will help you work out exactly what you need.

You may be wondering quite where to start in the world of Pushchairs now that you are going to have a baby. Well, you could resign yourself to never setting foot outside the house again or you could dive in and drive yourself crazy with all that is available on the market these days. The days of spending an hour in the well known high street store are now well gone and there is a universe out there competing for your custom.

However, with a little thought and planning, you could venture out equipped with the knowledge that will help with your decision making and armed with the information that will help you to understand what you are looking at and what you are looking for.

At some point it may be helpful to come to terms with the fact that the perfect pushchair (in terms of your personal requirements in both the short and long term) may not exist and that some form of compromise may be necessary.

What you end up pushing in a couple of years time may well not be the product that you purchase now (this is more than likely to be the case) but bear in mind that you can find a pushchair that is suitable from birth and should last a good few years for under £100; it’s then a question of whether or not it has the features that will suit your lifestyle and the way that you would wish to transport your baby.

To present a check list that is intended to guide you toward the right decision is over-simplifying things unless you feel that your routine is the same every day. If that is the case, then the bullet points would be very simple:

•    Are you on and off Public Transport? You need a buggy that lays flat is lightweight, compact and folds with one hand.

•    Are you in and out of the car and shops? You need an easy folding swivel wheel pushchair.

•    Are you walking away from the pathways? You need a genuine off-road pushchair.

In reality, most of our lives include a little bit of variety and can’t always fit neatly into one of these pigeon holes; and so we are back at compromise. The compromise is figuring out how you are going to spend the majority of your ‘pushchair pushing’ life, finding the most suitable product and accepting that for the rest of the time your pushchair will not be exactly what you need.

The next question is whether or not you want the baby to face you. This can be achieved in several ways.

•    A pushchair with either a reversible handle or seat unit.

•    By adding a carrycot. (Although in this scenario, the child will only be able to face you for a maximum of 6 months).

•    By adding a car seat.

The car seat option is certainly not something that we would recommend as a means of having the baby facing you. A newborn baby should be kept as flat as possible for as long as possible. Using a car seat will certainly make your life easier but it is far from the ideal position for the baby to be in other than when in the car. The exception to this would be a car seat that lies completely flat (which, incidentally, is a good option if you take taxis a lot).

There is no doubt that having the ability to attach your car seat to your pushchair has its attractions and for very short periods of time it probably does no harm but it should be very carefully monitored.

               The 'Skate' from Mamas & Papas has an innovative   
                    Seat Unit that transforms into a Carrycot.

The 'Trio' from Chicco is a
good example of an 'all
round' travel system with
a Carrycot that will allow
you to have the baby
laying flat and facing you.

There is no concrete evidence that having the baby facing in either direction has any influence on later life although there is a government lead campaign to prove there is evidence of declining communication skills in nursery age children due to the popularity of forward facing pushchairs) but it can certainly help in building the parental bond and it is certainly more pleasurable for the parent to see the baby whilst pushing.

These days the industry is led more by fashion than by practicality and we are all being encouraged to push what the Celebrities and ‘WAGS’ are pushing. Up to a point there is not much that can be done to avoid many of the current fashions; brushed metal framework, foam covered handles, oval tubing and dark solid coloured fabrics but with a clearer understanding of what you want and what you are looking at you will be better armed.

The Bugaboo range                            The Slalom from Jane
will give you a bit of                           is a Travel System that
everything, including                         can be pushed away
a touch of fashion.                             from the pathways.

If your decision is that you want to have the baby facing you; you will either need a pushchair that is reversible or something that can accommodate a carrycot. There are many pushchairs that are compatible with a carrycot without compromising the size of the pushchair itself. So don’t think that a carrycot automatically means a ‘big’ pram.

Walking ‘off-road’ can also include a carrycot or a reversible pushchair. Three wheel pushchairs are no longer a metal frame with a bit of canvass attached and have become substantial pushchairs with a good deal of style.

Many parents find the hardest thing to be looking into the future and anticipating how you will use the pushchair. However, if you imagine all the possible changes in your circumstances, eg. moving from a ground floor flat to a third floor one, getting a new car with a smaller boot, relocating to the countryside from the city and needing to push the pram through fields -  you will think yourself into a corner. Unless you are actually planning changes before the baby is born, it’s best is to buy what is right for you now.

This is not a decision to take lightly (unless you want to spend the time that you’re not feeding and changing sitting on e-bay selling pushchairs) but, equally, not a decision that can be taken for you. So do your research, figure out what you need and have fun!

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