Never

This is a question for the doctors. If the OB and the pediatrician are on board, then asap. I wouldn’t want to be away from home under these circumstances.

But yeah, in any other situation, I would not recommend a roadtrip with a newborn.

I don’t know the answer, but my heart goes out to your relative. How stressful. Hope mom and baby are both doing well.

Anonymous wrote:OP here,

I should clarify, a relative has just given birth while visiting out of town family. So, the road trip would be to get them home. Just trying to figure out when they might reasonably be able to make the trip. Thinking both about when the trip would be bearable for mom, and safe for newborn. Maybe "comfortable" wasn't the right word. Obviously this won't be a fun trip!

10 days to 2 weeks.

Its more like a 7 hour drive with appropriate stops. Q2 hours you should stop and take baby out to stretch not to mention nurse/feed plus diaper changes.

It really depends. First kid, I was months. Second kid probably 3 weeks.

I presume it wasn’t a c-section? Then you have to worry more about stitches bursting if there’s an accident/sudden stop. Otherwise, if it’s just to get home I’d do it at about two weeks, as a passenger in the back seat with baby, with some planned stops to walk around and feed the baby. In these circumstances you do what you have to do.

Anonymous wrote:OP here,

I should clarify, a relative has just given birth while visiting out of town family. So, the road trip would be to get them home. Just trying to figure out when they might reasonably be able to make the trip. Thinking both about when the trip would be bearable for mom, and safe for newborn. Maybe "comfortable" wasn't the right word. Obviously this won't be a fun trip!

I was the poster who said a year, but in this case, I’d be out of there asap, like 1-2 weeks max.

We did a six hour trip to a family wedding at six weeks but given the context I'd try to go sooner. Getting home is a different thing.

OP here,

I should clarify, a relative has just given birth while visiting out of town family. So, the road trip would be to get them home. Just trying to figure out when they might reasonably be able to make the trip. Thinking both about when the trip would be bearable for mom, and safe for newborn. Maybe "comfortable" wasn't the right word. Obviously this won't be a fun trip!

A year. Not kidding.

4 weeks. I will say weeks 6-8 were horrible for me because my kids were colicky and my in-laws didn’t have rocking chairs.

I had really long labors but could have probably done it at 2 weeks pp (no c section). It would be a bit of a pain with the number of stops you need to take to feed/ change the baby, but doable.

Not during the first 6 weeks, for sure. You need to be fully recovered from childbirth, which will vary from person to person, but certainly not while you are still bleeding. I probably wouldn’t even go the first couple months. Newborns shouldn’t be in the car seat for extended periods, so if you do go you will have to stop frequently. With our kids we didn’t do road trips until they were over a year old. Until then we made extended family come to us.

Taking a 5 hour (maybe longer with stops) road trip as a passenger with a newborn?