What to pack in Labour Bag?

bylromarha

gave birth august just gone and it was flipping hot! Took socks for the labour ward but they were completely unused...gave birth standing up, so wearing socks would have made me slip on the floor, even though the toes were curling quite a bit!

I took in far too much stiff (water sprizer for face, juice cartons, snack bars, books) but never used any of it as I dropped 3 hours after arriving at the hospital.

Highly recommend cheap cotton pants...had fun post birth as I had 2 midwives trying to pull on the paper pants I'd bought with me, one on each side...the pants had no give, so they ripped them open...so completely pointless! Hubby went to Asda on his way home and got me some material ones.

One thing I would recommend taking with you is moist toilet paper...I didn't have any in hospital, but hubby had some waiting for me when I got home to ease the dreaded piles, this hadn't even occured to me, but he saw me wincing every time I sat...yes, my hubby is truly wonderful.

I also took lots of sachet shampoos, shower gels for me so there was less to carry as you really do walk out with more than you go in....a wonderful day!

PS...another thing, do you know about raspberry leaf tea pre birth? Helps get the uterus ready for birth.

Glad

just noticed someone mentioned arnica cream, but you may be too sore to apply it and of course you'll be washing often so you can use arnica tablets, my midwife recommended them and I was so pleased as I had 34 stitches after first and a bruise the size of a dinner plate..........ouch

tru

34 stitches :eek:


Lillibet, don't do what I did and forget a towel :rolleyes: I had a bath then had to dry myself with those yukky green paper hand towels

Queenie

bylromarha wrote:

......

PS...another thing, do you know about raspberry leaf tea pre birth? Helps get the uterus ready for birth.

Caution: Do NOT drink raspberry leaf tea until *after* 36 weeks!!!!! It can induce labour/miscarriage.

Woby_Tide

on subject of radio/cd's might be worth checking with the maternity ward as to what they already have, all the delivery rooms at our two prospective hospitals had a radio/cd player in the room for you to use, some rooms also had the big gym balls etc. Fair enough for a portable radio/cd player once you are out of labour and back on a ward(though they mayhave the patientline or other 'entertainment' system. If it is patientline you may want to consider remortgaging your house before going into labour to enable you to enjoy a ocuple of days TV and a few minutes phone calls...;)

Ticklemouse

Cheap cotton knickers - I went to a cheapy shop and got those 3 packs of 'granny knickers' at £1 a go. (Just expect lots of little flowers and a bow on the front ) Excellent and if they get too yukky, you can bin them. Also a lot cheaper than maternity knickers for when bump becomes prominent and loads cheaper. Save your best pregnancy knickers for going out in.

Tissues - I took loads of things first time round, didn't use most of them but forgot the tissues, which I did need.

If you haven't got a LARGE old tee-shirt, get a cheapy big cotton night-shirt. After the birth of DS2, that also just got binned.

Ear-plugs - for OH and midwife during your labour. (Ever watched those birthing progs on TV where they show the empty corridor and you can hear one woman SCREAMING ..... that was me )

If you are intending or have to stay in for longer than a day, then OH or other visitors can bring extra stuff - clothes/toiletries etc. If you have waiting at home, ready, then you haven't got to think where you left it, in case your OH is hopeless at bringing you an extra change of matching and fitting clothes.

HTH

Hunnymonster

When my OH gave birth to our son, the most essential item I had to take in was food - the stuff the hospital 'served' up was gopping. So handy to scope out the nearest emporium that sells suitable portable food too.

Would add that drinks, chocolate etc for the non-active partner is definitely a winner (even if it shuts them (me) up), and any that are left at the end of the 90 minutes (plus extra time (golden goal rules apply) & penalties) are there to be enjoyed by new mum.

My experience in all this - well I've been present at the birth of 2 children, one of whom was a friends that was working away (and I got the job of birth partner for his wife :eek: by being in the right place at the right time) - and during that one I got a dislocated thumb due to excess pulling/squeezing (and swearing - although that didn't actually dislocate the thumb ).... borrowed the gas & air to pop it back in rather than go down to A&E (much to the disbelief of the delivery staff ), the other was the birth of my son - which was like the second scene in Monty Python's Meaning of Life - after 24 hours of labour, the bed was detached (in under 10 seconds) and we set off at a jog down the corridor to theatre as they pumped OH with boatloads of drugs banging through double-doors, and into a room with several "machines that go ping!"...... lovely event an emergency C-section when you're not expecting it :eek:

mrcow

One thing that you will not find on any baby book lists are dummies.

My son just wouldn't settle at all, even after hours of feeding. He's a comfort sucker and has been since birth. I had them at home, but didn't even think of taking them into the hospital with me.

When he was about 48 hours old, the maternity ward had to call my partner (at about 2am) to bring in the dummies to calm him down. It worked a treat.

BTW - one thing you'll find is that as soon as you have the baby, everyone else all of a sudden becomes an expert on what's best for your baby! (It's a Mum thing - people can't help themselves) It wont take you too long to discover that the ONLY expert that you need to trust is yourself.

Good luck. I'm due a couple of weeks before you, and am completely disorganised :rolleyes:

Savvy_Sue

:rotfl:at Hunnymonster although I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time ...

I once piqued curiousity by going to an NCT meeting about Home Birth with a male friend who was interested in the subject but utterly single, and introduced him as "neither my partner nor the father of my baby, but I am living with him". Still am, come to that, with my DH and 3 sons!

Anyway, back to Lillibet. Only had one in hospital and that's so long ago now that everyone else is more up to date than I am, but what I remember about the paper pants is that they had little holes in them, like aertex, so when you stuck a maternity pad on them, the backing would also stick to your nightie, which made getting up and out of bed quite interesting, depending on which bit of your nightie the pad had stuck to! You definitely don't want to buy anything other than cheap knickers for post-birth, however! Same for nighties as well really, chances are you will leak at some point!

But kitchen towels were brilliant for drying off the rude bits, far more hygienic than a real towel and nice and soft too, although I seem to remember that hairdryers were also recommended once you get home - probably can't use your own hairdryer in hospital and I wouldn't want to point a hospital one in that direction, would you?

Keep your list handy, and pick up bits and pieces as you see them on special offer. I've made good use of Triple Points at Boots, and then I used my points to buy some things I wasn''t prepared to pay real money for. And if you're doing it over time, you can find special offers and thus get what you really want (in my case lots of pink stuff!) rather than just the cheapest which does the job.

Jay-Jay_4

Me again :rolleyes: :rolleyes: just a quick one.....


Matalan T Shirt style nightie - £3! Wear it in labour..throw in the bin! (ok I kept mine as a momento)



(still like disposable knickers........gonna start a campaign! )