Buying your first pram sounds easy enough. Find one you like the look of, pick a colour, done.
Then you actually start shopping. A week later you’ve got 17 browser tabs open, a spreadsheet you swore you’d never make and surprisingly strong opinions about wheel suspension. Nobody warns you about that bit.
But most pram features only start to matter once you’re living with the thing every day. Folding it beside the car in the rain. Hauling it into the boot with a nappy bag sliding off your shoulder. Squeezing it between café tables while bub finally sleeps.
So before you hand over your hard-earned, here’s what’s worth checking now (and what you can skip). We’ve used the three prams in Australian-owned Milly + Coup’s range as examples along the way, because the brand built its whole range around one idea. Give parents what they’ll actually use, and leave out what they won’t.
1. A Lightweight Pram You Can Actually Lift
Weight is the feature nobody thinks about in the shop. On a showroom floor you’re pushing, so every pram feels light.
Lifting it into the boot at 5pm with a tired baby who’s well and truly over it is a different story. That’s when every kilo counts.
The Milly + Coup Milo2 weighs just 10kg, which makes it one of the lightest full-sized prams around. Want lighter again? The Pixi comes in at 6.5kg, less than a big bag of spuds. It’s the one to look at if you’re in and out of the car all day or travelling a lot.
2. A Fold That Won’t Have you Swearing in the Car Park
Picture it. It’s bucketing down, the baby’s protesting from the capsule, and you’re wrestling a frame that refuses to collapse. Not quite the Instagram version of motherhood.
When you’re trying prams in store, check these:
- Can you fold it with one hand? You’ll be holding something else. Always.
- Does it stand up on its own once folded? Handy in the hallway, even handier in a muddy car park.
- Do you have to take the seat off or flip it first?
- How much of your boot does it eat?
The Milo2 has a compact, super-easy fold, and the seat folds in either direction, so there’s no pulling it off and turning it around first.
The Pixi has a one-handed, free-standing fold and comes with its own carry bag.
3. A Newborn Setup Without the Extras You Don’t Need
Plenty of first-time parents only find this out at the checkout. Not every pram is ready for a newborn straight out of the box. Some need a separate bassinet, which can add a fair whack to the total, while others have a lie-flat seat that does the job from day one.
The Milo2 has a flat-lay seat suitable from birth and includes a newborn insert, so the bassinet is your call. Some parents love one for those first months. Others never miss it.
The Pixi reclines fully flat and is suitable from day one too. There’s an optional parent-facing pack with a flat-bed mode for babies aged 0 to 6 months, and you can add a newborn cocoon if you’d like bub a bit more snug.
Whichever setup you go with, follow the manufacturer’s age, weight and configuration guidance. That bit’s non-negotiable.
4. A Reversible Seat for When They Get Nosy!
In the early months you’ll probably love seeing your baby’s face on every walk. Then somewhere along the line they discover dogs. And buses. And the bloke two doors down washing his ute.
A reversible seat lets you switch between parent-facing and forward-facing as they grow. It’s worth asking whether the seat has to be turned around before you fold, too. The Milo2’s reversible seat folds facing either way, so that’s one step gone. When you’re already carrying roughly 47 things, you’ll take it.
5. A Basket That Fits Real Life
A small basket looks fine before the baby arrives. Then you pack for a “quick” trip to the shops.
Nappies, wipes, a spare outfit, a second spare outfit for when the first one meets the same fate, a bottle, snacks, your own water bottle and, somewhere under all that, the bread and milk you actually went out for.
Check how easy the basket is to reach with the seat reclined, and what weight it’s rated to. The Milo2 has an XL basket and the Leo an XXL one, both with a 12kg capacity. The Leo also takes an optional shopper basket that holds another 9kg, which is a lot of Costco.
6. Steering and a Handlebar That Fit You Both
A pram can look gorgeous standing still. The real test is a tight supermarket corner or the cracked footpath outside the school gate. If the store lets you, push it over a door lip or a bit of uneven ground before you buy.
The Milo2 has smooth one-handed steering and an 11-position adjustable handlebar, which matters more than you’d think if you’re 160cm and your partner’s 190cm. Nobody wants to hunch over a pram for three years.
The Leo rolls on extra-large wheels with four-wheel suspension, so grass and gravel are far less of a battle.
7. Room to Grow if Your Family Does
You’re shopping for one baby right now. But if a second isn’t off the table, a single to double pram could save you buying twice.
The Milly + Coup Leo converts from a single to a full-sized double, with more than 48 configurations using compatible seats, bassinets and capsules. Both seats are full-sized with equal capacity in either position, so nobody gets stuck with the squashy one. In double mode the bassinet can sit up top, keeping your newborn close while your older one rides below. It’s award-winning and CHOICE Recommended, too.
Both the Leo and the Milo2 also take an optional toddler board if your eldest would rather stand and supervise.
And if you’re one-and-done, or genuinely unsure? Don’t pay for flexibility you won’t use. A single pram is a perfectly good pram.
8. A Compact Design for Travel and Smaller Spaces
Live in an apartment or fly interstate to see the grandparents a few times a year? A bulky pram gets old fast. Think about where it’ll live at home and whether it’ll squeeze in next to a suitcase.
The Pixi is built for exactly this. At 6.5kg, with a compact fold and an included carry bag, it fits almost anywhere. And it’s got more staying power than its size suggests. The seat takes up to 22kg, which is roughly five years old, so you’re not upgrading the minute they hit toddlerhood.
Flying? Check your airline’s cabin baggage rules before you go, as they vary.
9. The Little Extras That Save You Money Later
Nobody gets excited about a rain cover in the showroom. Then it buckets down halfway through the school run with a newborn on board.
Before you compare price tags, check what’s actually in the box and what you’ll be buying separately. Those add-ons stack up quickly.
- Milo2: UV cover, handlebar bag, seat liner and newborn insert and more
- Leo: UV cover, rain cover, seat liner and handlebar bag and more
- Pixi: carry bag, belly bar and stay-put harness covers
10. Quality That Goes the Distance
Your pram will probably work harder than anything else you buy for the baby. Newborn walks, school pick-ups for the big kids, Saturday morning sport, the odd holiday. It’ll clock up more kilometres than you’d guess.
So look past the colour. Check the fabrics, how solid the frame feels when you give it a shake, and the warranty.
Milly + Coup backs its prams with a three-year warranty. The brand has been designing prams in Australia for almost a decade, and they’re designed by parents, which shows in the small stuff. It sells direct to customers rather than through big retailers, so you’re not paying traditional retail mark-ups. That money goes into materials and engineering instead. Premium quality at a fair price, basically.
So, Which Milly + Coup Pram Suits You? Shop Now for up to 30% OFF!
There’s no one pram that suits every family, and anyone who tells you otherwise is probably on commission. Here’s how the range splits:
- Milo2: UV cover, handlebar bag, seat liner, newborn insert and more
- Leo: UV cover, rain cover, seat liner, handlebar bag and more
- Pixi: carry bag, belly bar and stay-put harness covers
Before you buy, measure your boot. Watch a fold demo or two on Milly + Coup’s YouTube channel. Make sure the newborn setup suits how you’ll actually use it.
Then pick your colour. After all that homework, you’ve more than earned the fun bit.
Shop the Milly + Coup sale, up to 30% off sitewide (ends 30 November).
This is a sponsored editorial for Milly + Coup
