Sure, you set up the crib just fine, you put together the bouncy seat, why should the car seat be any different? Well, here’s a hypothetical: would you wire your own house for electricity if you were not a trained electrician? If the answer is no, you should think twice about assuming you can correctly install a car seat. A car seat, even if it’s covered in pastel teddy bears, is a serious piece of safety equipment. Just like your car, it has been carefully engineered, based on complex physics and high-speed tests, to keep your child safe in an accident. But if this high-level piece of safety equipment is improperly installed, all of that work goes right out the window.

“There is no reason that any parent should be confident enough in their car seat installation to take a risk on their child’s life,” says Dr. Baer. There’s even less reason to not do it when there are certified technicians all over the country who are easy to find and relatively inexpensive to consult. (Note: Dr. Baer only recommends going to your local police or fire stations, as many parenting books suggest, if they are listed as checkpoints. Go to seatcheck.org to find out.)

The fix: Set aside your pride, find the nearest certified technician, and drive your newly-installed seat to them (or bring your seat in its box and have them teach you). Even if they only tweak your installation a little—the average installation has three errors—you can walk away with valuable piece of mind. If they do a complete overhaul on your install job, you will be so grateful they did.