Medical association promotes wider use of rear-facing car seats

Taipei, Dec. 1 (CNA) The Taiwan Society of Perinatology on Sunday held an event to raise awareness about the importance of rear-facing car seats and promote a program offering them via free one-year rentals to expectant mothers.

At a press conference in Taipei, the society noted that a Ministry of Health and Welfare review of deaths of children under age 7 in 2022-2023 identified 122 deaths that were considered "highly preventable."

Of the 79 deaths that were accident-related, 16 were in traffic accidents, and six of those were cases in which the death could have been prevented if the child had been using a car seat, the medical association said.

Although Taiwan began requiring rear-facing car seats for children up to age 2 in 2022, many parents are still unaware of the safety risks to their child of failing to use such seats, said Chan Te-fu (詹德富), the society's chairman.

To that end, Chan said, his organization had partnered with Taiwan's Mommy Care (媽咪學苑) website to launch the "First Day Home" program, which offers expectant or new mothers free car seat rentals for up to one year.

According to its website, mothers can rent the program's Hamilton infant car seats after paying a NT$5,000 (US$154) deposit and presenting their national ID card and government-issued maternal health education handbook. They can pick the car seat up at a designated location or have it delivered to them for a NT$500 fee.

Lin Shin-yu (林芯伃), an attending physician at National Taiwan University Hospital's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said such car seats are especially important for newborn babies because of the support they give to their head and neck, which are extremely delicate at that stage.

By contrast, if a parent carrying their newborn in a baby carrier is involved in a car accident, there is a risk of the child flying out of it, Lin said.

Lu Hong-yi (呂泓逸), a doctor at Bobson Obs-Gyn Clinic in New Taipei City, said rear-facing car seats provide infants with an "additional layer of protection," and have been found to reduce the risk of death in a car accident by up over 70 percent.