You’re well into your third trimester and brimming with excitement to meet your little bundle. Perhaps you’ve already gone on maternity leave, and have had time to ‘nest’ and prepare at home.

This is the perfect time to pack your hospital bag. Now, it’s important to cover your bases without overdoing it. I know you just want to skip to the good bits, so here is a little checklist I created for you:

I’ve packed 2 hospital bags now, plus helped friends get theirs together and here are some tips I’ve learnt:

• Compartmentalise - Separate things into “grab-and-go” categories. For example: labour, toiletries, baby, going home outfit etc etc.

• Get your support person to pack for themselves!

• Go through the bag with your support person so they know where to reach when you yell “birth comb!!” (I can’t recommend combs highly enough, for both vaginal and c-section births)

• Don’t go overboard! A hospital will always have some emergency pads/nappies etc if need be, and your support person may be able to dash home to grab other necessities. If you live rurally or have limited support I would be speaking with the hospital to get more clarity on this.

• Keep your documents handy - Often we get caught up with what we and the baby are going to wear, but make sure to bring important documents for the hospital staff, like your birth plan, medical paperwork etc. Make sure your support person knows where these are.

• Always be prepared that things may go differently to your vision, but know that if you are a few nappies down, or forget maternity pads, everything will still be ok. (Consider this your reminder to buy pads!).

• Be sure to include some things that help you to feel grounded, calm and safe like Birth Cards to place around the space and a beautiful room spray to use before and during labour or before your caesarian.

To save you the hassle of scrolling back up, here’s that hospital checklist again. I would love to know how your birth goes and what you packed in your bag.

GRAB YOUR HOSPITAL CHECKLIST

Happy packing! x