asmac

It was an electric bike but still...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-45238768

I-Like-To-Bike

""My partner and I cycled because there wasn't enough room in the car for the support crew... but it also put me in the best possible mood!"

Not enough room in the car for the pregnant woman or her partner because the room was needed for "the support crew". Huh?

rydabent

Well gee-----------they tell me that great grandma gave birth to my grandfather in the morning, cook lunch, and finished plowing the south 40 in the afternoon.

tungsten

Yah my old physio rode her 10 spd (her words) to the hospital to birth her twin boys. 25 years ago.
But she was Irish. Does that make a difference?

asmac

Back when men were men.

Rollfast

Her Vauxhall broke down, didn't it?

Chris0516

More power(or should I say 'more gears') to her.

Milton Keynes

If you read the article, she rode to the hospital to be induced. It's not like she was in active labor when she was riding to the hospital, which really would have been something.

mr_bill

I don't know what you mean by "active labor." But people have ridden bikes during the latent phase of labor. Pause during the contractions, pedal between the contractions.

-mr. bill

salcedo

How are they going to take the baby back home? Newborns are not supposed to ride on bicycles until their bones and muscles are strong enough to withstand the vibrations.

Also, she was getting an induction.

This sounds like a publicity stunt, not a practical thing.

My wife is due to give birth any day now. We are both avid cyclists, but there is now way cycling to the hospital would be practical.

mr_bill

Different people make different choices. The fact there her choice might be different than your choice does not make it a "publicity stunt."

It's only in recent times that AAP/CPA strongly recommends parents receive instruction on car seats and parents must have a rear facing car seat to transport an infant home in a vehicle.

A full term infant is typically ready to *LIE* in an infant car seat shortly after birth and *SIT* in a car seat/conventional bicycle seat 9 months after birth.

In Netherlands they sell a rear rack infant bicycle seat for four months and older.

And many people choose to put their infants in infant car seats in their bakfiets or bike trailers. Good short read here.

Anyhow, just over a quarter century ago we drove home in a car from the hospital. The next day I took our then two day old infant out on the Minuteman Bikeway. In a stroller. We waited until they could sit up at 9 months to go onto the rack mounted child carrier on the back of my bike. From there to the trailer bike. And then their own bike. And then their own bike. And then their own bike.

Three score years ago I was transported home in my mother's arms in a car that had no seat belts.

People still tell a story that took place a couple of millennia ago about a mother who traveled on a donkey to give birth. There are conflicting stories of whether she then went to Egypt then home to Nazareth, or straight home to Nazareth, but in either case, she probably carried her one month old in her arms while riding on the back of a donkey.

-mr. bill

I-Like-To-Bike

That might explain why "there wasn't enough room in the car for the support crew".

I assume that the mother was not planning to time travel back a few decades or millennia to take the then approved mode for the trip home from the birth site, and also planned to take that trip in a few days rather than four months later.

mr_bill

Can you point to any research that says infant's brains will be addled if they aren't transported by motorcar?

-mr. bill

I-Like-To-Bike

No one on this list claimed that. What is in question is how did the mother intended to legally and practically transport the infant home from the hospital after birth in her current environment, not how your mother and her comrades did it six decades ago.

mr_bill

Oh, I'm sorry, the claim is "until their bones and muscles are strong enough to withstand the vibrations." Any research about that? (Crickets.)

But carrying an infant in a bike trailer, bakfiet or cargo bike is practical. The proof of that is that people carry infants in bike trailers, bakfiets and cargo bikes.

Legally, in New Zealand, the helmet is the only issue:

Do you have ANY grounds to presume that transporting an infant in an infant seat mounted in a bike trailer, in a bakfiet, or in a cargo bike without the infant wearing an unavailable bicycle helmet is unreasonable grounds?

BTW, we don't have the helmet exemption in Massachusetts law. And we have an under 16 must wear helmets. Yet some parents around transport their infants in infant seats in bike trailers, in bakfiets, and in cargo bikes. Legally and practically. One of them in a Nihola bike.

Just like Julie Anne Genter.



If you have any further questions, contact Julie Anne Genter.


In the meantime, breathlessly awaiting your report on the research about infants and bicycle vibrations.


-mr. bill

salcedo

So you think they rode a bicycle home from the hospital? With her recovering from labor and the baby's cranium still not glued together?

I can't wait to put my baby on my bike. But every source I have read insists that it is not safe to do so until the baby's cranium and neck bones and muscles are strong enough. And you think women can ride a bicycle right after labor? Either she got a C-section, which means that her abdomen is recovering from surgery, or she went trough a vaginal birth and her pelvic floor and vagina just suffered serious trauma. I did not read the whole article, but I really doubt they are riding back home. If they are not riding back home, then it is not practical to take their bikes to the hospital. Someone will have to drive them back, and someone will have to go to the hospital and take her bike home.

I respect people making different choices. I just think that the only reason why they chose to ride their bikes to the hospital is to improver her public image. Do you really think I'm wrong about that?

I-Like-To-Bike

You are the only "breathless" poster rambling on about helmets, bakfiets, and Massachusetts law. Who gives a darn about those irrelevant sideshows other than the breathless poster from Massachusetts? Ms Gartner did not ride to the hospital on a bakfiets or a cargo bike, and presumably had no intention of riding one home. How she transported the baby home is anybody's guess but it is probably safe to say she complied with NZ law, if not common sense and used an appropriate, practical and safe arrangement for transporting a newborn and maybe even expelled some of the "support crew" and found some room in the family car for the trip home.

I-Like-To-Bike

In order to get baby home safely, have peace of mind, not cause wear and tear on Mom, and leave room for the "support crew" in the car, [AND comply with the laws of Massachusetts and the inhabitant therein,] AND generate some more electrons of publicity, perhaps the happy parents could walk home and bring home their bundle of joy in a car seat mounted in a wheelbarrow.

mr_bill

I-Like-To-Bike

What was that "different choice" made by the NZ couple about bringing their newborn infant home from the hospital?

How do know that their decision was any different than the recent choice made by Salcedo, and just about every other couple in NZ and Massachusetts?

salcedo

mr_bill

How can an adult woman who can't currently sit on a saddle or pedal safely travel by bicycle?

(And yes 'bent crew, we know that the answer is also a tandem 'bent.)


Cycling during pregnancy and with a baby.

Radfahren mit baby


The usual cynics see someone on a publicity stunt.

I see someone who talks the talk and walks the walk, er, pedals the pedal.

Their infant either already has or soon will ride in a cargo bike. Unless you are BEYOND cynical and think that the infant seat in the Nihola is also a publicity stunt.

-mr. bill

I-Like-To-Bike

Or the infant will never ride in the pictured cargo bike, whatever, it is irrelevant to how this mother (or any other mother) and her newborn can get home from the hospital after delivery.

The pregnant woman in this case "pedaled" an ebike to the hospital and the question remains how did she plan and/or actually bring the newborn home. A picture of a cargo bike not used for the purpose in question and that may be used sometime in the future is irrelevant.

Equally irrelevant is German guidance for riding around town with an older infant.

Keep on Googling and perhaps you might find one mother, somewhere in the First World, who did ride home from the hospital with her newborn on a bicycle-like-object in this Century. If found, you can be sure it was for publicity purposes, due to mental impairment, failure of hospital oversight of compliance with release protocols, or out of desperation; or a combination of these reasons.

salcedo

MoAlpha

The issue with infants on bikes applies to carriers where the child is seated upright. Babies are at risk for spinal injury when transported in this way until they have good head control when sitting, which usually comes at about 6 mos. Before that, seated bicycle transport will void the warranty.