The following are some ideas that you might find helpful to bring along with you.
For the Birthing Individual:
☐ Chapstick or moisturizing lip balm.
☐ Water Bottle with a straw. The hospital will often provide a plastic pitcher but is nice having your own personal items to make it as home like as possible.
☐ Slippers and Comfy socks (The hospital issue no-slip ones are nice but your own are so much better).
☐ Extra pillow from home. This is the equivalent to an adult lovie or comfort item and can do wonders for your feeling more relaxed.
☐ Hair ties/head-bands.
☐ A brush as you might like your hair brushed or braided during early labor. My daughter finds it very relaxing to feel someone’s fingers brushing through her hair.
☐ Your own nightgown/night shirt, and robe (or clothing of choice to labor in, to make you feel more relaxed and less like a “patient”)
☐ Flavor or electrolytes packets for water (you want to stay hydrated and your mouth can easily get dry)
☐ Hard Candy (lollipops, ginger chews if you feel nauseous) or Honey Sticks to supply some quick easy energy to keep you going strong.
☐ Aroma therapy oils and a cloth or a diffuser. Putting few drops of oil on a cloth (or something you can throw away like a tissue) can help if suddenly, a scent you usually like or find relaxing isn’t doing it for you during labor. You might like something one minute and be repulsed by it the next as well.
☐ Sleep mask and ear buds or ear plugs (can help “tune out” lights, sounds, and stimuli for you to center on yourself and your birth).
☐ Snacks for you (having small snacks can help provide you with needed nutrition and energy during your labor)
☐ Music to be played during your birth.
☐ Your Birth Doula and your BRAIN (see my separate post on the use of the BRAIN acronym)
For the Partner or Support person:
This list is just for your personal or family support your doula will come prepared for their own needs.
☐ Snacks and drinks to keep them energized and able to support you without them having to go to a vending machine or cafeteria when hunger strikes. (make sure their snacks are not too strong in smell that they might affect you and your stomach as you can be extra sensitive to certain smells in labor).
☐ Instant or flavored coffee. The hospital will have likely have coffee available on the floor, but you don’t know what it might taste like, or how old it might be.
☐ Comfortable clothes so they can feel able to support you however you need them to. Including kneeling, bending, or joining you in the shower or labor tub.
☐ A change of clothing and layers for them in case they get cold or hot when you as the laboring birthing individual are not. The environmental temperature during birth is all about the birthing individuals needs.
☐ Ear buds for them so if there is “down time” they can listen to something that might not be what you want to listen to. As the partner or support person though don’t let this be a barrier to being attentive and in tune to what the birthing person needs and wants from you.
FOR YOUR NEW BABY:
☐ A coming home outfit for baby including a little hat for that precious head. You might want to bring two outfits in different sizes as those sonogram estimates are just that, an estimate, and can be off by a full pound up or down.
☐ Baby mittens or baby nail clippers/scissors for trimming those often long and very sharp new baby nails.
☐ Light or heavier blanket or drape to put over baby once you have them in car seat for ride home depending on the season and weather.
☐ Car seat ready to go and installed or with the base installed in your car and checked at a local safety check center.
FOR YOU AFTER YOUR BIRTH:
☐ See above for your own sleep outfit and robe. (nightgowns will make it easier for them to check your peri-area and lochia after the birth and having your own robe can make you feel much more comfortable).
☐ Essential oil or herbal peri-wash mix to use in your peri-bottle (most hospitals provide these rinse bottles) for general peri-area discomfort and to rinse after toileting.
☐ Your own shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, tooth brush and toothpaste. Many hospitals are not providing any of this anymore. It’s also nice to feel and smell like yourself.
☐ A file or nail clippers (you don’t want a broken or sharp nail to get in your way).
☐ Some Mothers Milk or Raspberry Leaf Tea if you are planning on breast feeding as this will help your milk come in and help the tone of your uterus and expel your lochia more effectively.