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There are so many different checklists for what should go in my hospital bag on D-Day, but most of it feels superfluous. Is there any data or guidance on what should actually go in my hospital bag, so I’m not stuck with a bunch of unnecessary things in the hospital?
–Allie
When we had our first child, my husband brought a duffel bag that I later used for several weeklong work trips. It was filled to the brim with — I cannot now remember what, other than that it was all the wrong stuff. I suspect we brought a bunch of cute baby outfits, not realizing that (a) those are never especially necessary and (b) for the first couple of weeks, the baby’s belly button has to be exposed, so nothing we brought worked.
Here is a better rundown, informed by a second child and more than a decade of discussing this with parents. Much of my advice is about using the time at the hospital to figure out what you’re doing:
- Two outfits for the baby — side-snap shirts and pants. They will give you some of these at the hospital, but it’s good to bring some. The umbilical cord must be exposed, so you need the side-snap shirts.
- A blanket, especially if it will be cold when you are leaving.
- Diapers. They also have these at the hospital, but bringing what you hope to use at home will give you practice (and help you figure out sizing).
- Two changes of clothes for you. Nursing tops if you plan to nurse, comfortable pants, maybe a nightgown. It goes without saying, but no hard pants.
- Larger underwear and maxi pads.
- A breast pump, if you plan to use one. The nurses at the hospital can help you figure out how it works so you are not fumbling with it at home.
- An iPad and/or laptop. Babies are wonderful, but there is also plenty of time sitting around.
- Your phone charger.
- Snacks.
This is still a lot of stuff, but it will all be useful.
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We didn’t own any side-snap shirts either, and no one told us the belly button had to be exposed….only to fold the diaper top down so it wouldn’t rub. We had cute onesies with snaps/zips. One thing we wished we had was proper swaddles – the blankets at the hospital didn’t keep him contained, and even the nurses didn’t seem to be able to swaddle him properly. I would also highly recommend a dry shampoo spray – if you have a long and difficult labor, you won’t be allowed to get up to shower for awhile, and your hair will be a matted sweaty mess. That spray helped me feel slightly less gross for a day. It was VERY hot at our birth center (this was in December). And after you deliver your hormones start going wild. Depending on time of year and hospital, I might recommend more than 2 changes of clothes for yourself (and definitely a robe and sleep shirt!) because you might be sweating through everything like crazy. I did not bring my breast pump, although maybe the policy was weird at the time because of COVID. But they had their own (more powerful) pumps there, and that’s what was used to help start my contractions (rather than drugs). I doubt the nurses would have helped me set up my own machine.
Huh, we never owned a single side-snap shirt and nobody ever told us the belly button had to be exposed. Is this new guidance? We brought cute outfits.
I didn’t really look at my laptop while waiting to go home. Too tired and busy. We did bring DVDs for during labor.
I’m still mad at my husband for forgetting the champagne from our go-bag for our second child.