The Tribune

BY DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

FREEPORT – Mothers with newborns have been presented with new infant car seats on their discharge from hospital as part of a ‘Safe Baby Car Seat Campaign’ that was recently launched at the Rand Memorial Hospital.

Partnering with the hospital in an effort to raise awareness of the importance of using car seats, the Royal Bahamas Police Force donated five new car seats on Wednesday to the hospital.

ASP Kenwood Taylor, officer in charge of the Traffic Division, said that in the United States mothers can not be discharged from hospital unless they are equipped with a car seat.

“That is also the law in the Bahamas and we want to ensure that it is enforced, and that every mother has a car seat,” he said.

Sherinette Norville-Smith thanked the police for their donation.

She said the ‘Safe Baby Car Seat Campaign’ was launched on July 2 in celebration of the 13th anniversary of the Public Hospitals Authority.  

Since the campaign began, she reported that 98 per cent of all babies being discharged from the hospital went home in an infant car seat or baby carrier.

Mrs Smith said the aim was to bring awareness to the importance of ensuring that all new born babies leaving the hospital are safely carried out in a car seat.

She noted that the mothers attending Antenatal sessions at the hospital are told that a car seat should be at the top of their list of baby items.

“We realized that the law states that every child in a vehicle must be restrained in a car seat, and we decided that we would partner with the police in this initiative,” she said.  

ASP Taylor said they were happy to partner with the hospital in such an important life saving campaign.

“When we heard about the initiative we decided to partner right away and responded by donating five car seats for those mothers who just recently had an infant,” he said.

Mr Taylor stressed that the law states that all persons in a motor vehicle must wear seatbelts and that infants under the age of five must be secured in a car seat.

He said they have not received any recent reports of infants being injured in traffic accidents because they were not in the proper car seat.  

“I am quite pleased to report that more than 90 per cent of persons and their children are wearing seatbelts and using car seats,” ASP Taylor said.  

He urged individuals in the community who have car seats and no longer need them to consider donating it to RMH.