After more than 40 years of child safety research and development, Volvo has come up with a straightforward outline of what you should and should not do -- regardless of what car you drive.

In doing so they say:

l Size matters: children are not small adults.

l Pregnancy tests: mothers-to-be must wear seatbelts.

l Travel backwards: rear facing child seats for infants up to four years.

l Belts and boosters: position correctly to reduce injury risk.

The combined wisdom of 40 years says that children need special restraints designed for their developing anatomies.

"Relative to the body, a child's head is large and heavy. The head of a newborn baby makes up half the total body weight, whereas an adult's head weighs only about 6pc of the total.,This oversized head is a child's weak point and makes it prone to injury in crashes. Another vulnerable area is the pelvis. That is because it is underdeveloped and cannot hold the safety belt in position as easily as an adult's hip area. Child booster seats greatly improve the correct belt geometry.

Car safety for unborn children is an area that is not well documented, since foetal injury and death often do not show in statistics.

Volvo has engineered a pregnant crash test dummy to develop understanding of the unique safety demands of unborn babies and their mothers further.

This virtual model, called Linda (below), mimics a pregnant woman and is used to simulate how both mother-to-be and her unborn baby move in a frontal impact. Linda carries detailed information about the uterus, placenta, amniotic fluid and foetus in approximately the 36th week of pregnancy. She can be positioned in any car model and collisions can be simulated at different speeds.

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The studies show that pregnant women benefit from the protection of a front airbag and also dispel the myth that seatbelts may harm the baby.

Seatbelts must always be used during pregnancy and positioning correctly significantly reduces the risk of foetal injury risk. Volvo's research also strongly suggests that infants should travel in rear-facing car seats until they are at least three or four years old.

If the child is in a forward facing seat during a frontal impact, the infant's body is restrained all right. But its disproportionately large head is not. And that puts immense strain on the neck.

When travelling in a rear-facing seat, the crash forces are spread over the back and head. That reduces the load on the neck and reduces the chance of severe neck and spinal injury.

According to the company's report, a forward-facing child seat provides around 80pc better protection than if no child restraints are used.

However, a child in a rear-facing seat is approximately 90pc less likely to be seriously injured in an accident.

Volvo say the positioning of the safety belt is important so to the occupant is restrained over the body's stronger areas such as the upper torso and pelvis.

That protects the weaker parts of the body -- such as the abdomen.

The lap belt should be placed tightly across the pelvis, as low as possible towards the thighs and not over the soft tissue of the abdomen.

The torso belt should run across the chest and also be pulled tight. It does not matter if the belt touches the neck.

Volvo says: "Never place the torso belt under the arm or behind the back.,A booster seat gives a child an increased height and directs the safety belt over the stronger parts of the body during a crash.

The advice is that:

During pregnancy, you should adjust the seat so you can reach the pedals comfortably with as much distance between your tummy and the steering wheel as possible.

Pull the lap belt over your thighs, buckle it and pull tight. Make sure the lap belt does not run across the belly, but lies as flat as possible under the curve of the abdomen and sitting evenly on the left and right pelvic bones.

Newborn

Position the torso belt across your chest, between the breasts to the side of the tummy and pull tight.

Never tuck the shoulder belt under your arm or behind your back -- that can hurt both you and the baby.

A newborn baby should use a rearward facing infant seat. Do not let the baby sit upright for too long, take frequent breaks and pick up the baby for a while or let it rest lying flat while the car is parked. Always de-activate the front passenger airbag if the child seat is positioned here.

An infant should be fastened in a rearward facing infant seat or a larger rearward facing child restraint until the child has outgrown the larger seat and is three or four years old.

It does not matter if the child has to bend its legs or touches the backrest with its feet. Take regular breaks to let the child stretch and play.

If the child is in a rear seat, fit an accessory mirror so that the child can see you, to reassure them and so you can check on them easily and safely.

An older child, who has outgrown the rear-facing seat but is shorter than 140cm and has not reached the age of 12, should use a booster cushion, which reduces the risk of injury to about 75pc compared to being unrestrained.

The child safety research was carried out at the state-of-the-art crash test laboratory at the Volvo Cars Safety Centre in Sweden. This has a 154-metre fixed track and a 108-metre movable test track, which can be combined to recreate collisions with different impacts, angles and speeds.

The centre uses a supercomputer as well as state of the art high-speed film cameras and crash simulators.

In addition to 400 full-scale crash tests, thousands of virtual crashes are carried out by the laboratory's supercomputer each year.