Maxi Cosi Mura Pram Body

It's not often that I sit on the fence and don't really have an opinion on something one way or another but this pram body we bought for Baby Hope has left me unsure whether I loved it or hated it! I can see it's got some great positives but the negatives then make me wonder whether it was a good buy or not and whether I would buy it again so deciding whether or not I recommend this to you will be difficult!

What is it?

Before having Baby Hope I didn't realise that a 'travel system' existed or was so complicated! It basically incorporates every way your baby needs to be transported but all in one. So it includes wheels to push your baby around, a car seat which transports the baby in the car and also clips onto the wheels, a pram body which clips onto the wheels and enables the baby to lie flat and a pushchair which is used once the baby is over 6 months, sitting up unaided and is able to then sit and enjoy watching the scenary fly past- this also clips onto the wheels.

The maxi cosi pram body is part of this travel system. It is the part which the baby should be in from birth and used for long periods of time as babies are meant to lie flat and not be in their carseats for more time than necessary.

What does it look like?

It comes in various colours, we bought the blue slice one as it was on offer. I know they do it in red and grey but I'm not sure what other colours they come in now, they may have a wider range since it was a year ago we bought ours. it is the size of a moses basket. The body of the pram is rounded at the egdes and a royal blue colour on the outside. Insice the lining of the body is softly padded with a pale baby blue lining and there's a comfortable mattress which slots in perfectly in the bottom and is the same size as a moses basket so you can swap your sheets around without having to be buying different sizes. There is a hood which you can easily put up and down too to protect your baby from the sun.

How does it work?

You simply attach it to the wheels and the word simple is really very true. There is nothing difficult about attaching it at all! The wheels have two little plastic clips either side which you have in the upright position for the carseat mode or the flat postion for the pram body mode. You then simply place the pram body onto the clips and align the slots from the pram and it clips into place. To remove you just press the release bottoms on either side and lift the body up. It really is very very simple! I was extremely impressed by how simple it was as I'm not at all technically minded!

Is it comfortable?

There is no doubt about it. This is extremely comfortable. In the end we stopped using our moses basket for Baby Hope. The pram body was used instead. We would just take it off the wheels and have it in our bedroom and she slept through every night from being 9 weeks old as a result! The mattress is very good, when Baby Hope was in her moses basket there was an indentation in the mattress after just 2 nights of where her head had been, with this mura mattress though this didn't happen for a good few weeks which just shows the difference between the quality of the two! The pram body is cosy because of the nice colours inside it makes it different to other prams and the hood adds to the cosy factor, Baby Hope definitely enjoyed being in this pram and the wheels of the maxi cosi mura are so large that it makes walking around with this pram very smooth so Baby Hope was always more than happy to snooze away whilst we walked.

Negatives

Okay so so far this pram sounds ideal and I can't see any reason so far as to why I haven't really made up my mind as to whether I would recommend it or not but believe me there are negatives!

What really frustrates me with this is that babies are meant to be in flat lying prams until they are 6 months old. This is what WHO (World health organisation) recommend and me being a health researcher by occupation I always try to stick to these guidelines but sometimes it's just so very inpractical. Take for example if you are going to the supermarket in your car along with your husband for a weekly shop. This involves the front two seats being taken up, one back seat taken up with the baby's seat, the boot being taken up by the maxi cosi mura wheels and then you have the issue. Where do you put the pram body? It wont go in the boot as the wheels are so large so you have no option but to put the pram body on the remaining seating area in the back of the car. This then causes the problem once you've got your 8 bags worth of shopping, where do these go?! We would have endless amounts of trying to get bags in all different nooks and crannies whilst shopping and it just ended up being an extremely stressful experience. If we had an estate car we wouldn't have this problem but we couldn't afford to buy a larger car just to accommodate the pram body!

It was just very inpractical. The pram body doesn't collapse down to a smaller size at all so unless you have a large car it does just take over the entire car. Yet we HAD to take it as research showed that babies shouldn't be in car seats for long!

Eventually we stopped using this pram body for anything but replacing the moses basket at night time. If we went out in the car it meant we couldn't risk buying anything else as it wouldn't fit in with us so we stuck to using the car seat clippd onto the wheels and this had it's bonusses as it meant that if Baby Hope was asleep we wuldn't have to wake her as we transferred her from the car like we would have done with the pram. If we just went on walks locally we kept her in the car seat as we never went for long so there was no worry of her being in the seat too long. the pram body, after a few weeks, was all redundant.

Also the pram has no straps so when your baby is in it it's not exactly the safest of options. I know that the baby is lying flat so it's not as if they can fall forward but I imagine if you have an active baby once s/he starts trying to move around you could find yourself with a few problems!

It is nice to have a baby in a pram, it's traditional, it's more comfortable but it just wasn't practical at all.

Conclusion

I loved this pram at first. I loved that it looked different to others and was seen as the best on the market. The website had boasted about how it had pioneered the way in the latest of prams and that the maxi cosi mura range was an elite travel system. I saw that it was one of the most expensive on the market- £600 for the travel system compared to the majority which are £250 and thought it must be amazing.

Yes it was useful for Baby Hope to sleep in but i do think in future if we were to doit again I wouldn't be spending £117 for the pram body just for her to use it as a moses basket and nothing more!

If you have a large car and you're looking for something which is very easy to use as it just simply clips in and it looks good and is very comfortable and excellent quality then this if teh pram body for you.

If you have a small car, you don't tend to be outside a lot, you want a set of wheels which doubles up as a pram and a pushchair like several do then this isn't the pram body for you.

The pram body is available on kiddicare for £117.

I half recommend it and half don't!

Picture

Baby Hope fast asleep in the pram at night time!