What to Pack for the Hospital

The nurse who taught our birthing class gave each couple a list of things we might want to pack to bring to the hospital when the time came to deliver. The basic philosophy was that it's better to have things you don't need than need things you don't have. As it happened, we had a lot of things we ended up not needing.

A quick check online reveals numerous checklists of items to tote along when headed for Labor and Delivery. Parents.com, A Healthy Me, and The Labor of Love all offer fairly comprehensive packing lists of what you might want to bring.

The most important thing to remember is to have it all packed ahead of time. My sweetie made sure we had everything packed by Week 36 which meant that by the time her labor started, we could simply grab our stuff and go. If you throw it all together at the last minute, you risk forgetting any number of things.

In the end, we ended up not needing a lot of the things we brought. Our pack of playing cards went unopened. We played only two of a dozen or so CDs. The box of cereal bars I'd brought along as a snack is even now in like-new condition. I have to admit, though, that some of these went untouched because her labor went a lot faster than anyone expected.

Some other things we brought proved invaluable. My sweetie said that she found the music - for which we'd purchased a cheap portable boombox from Wal-Mart just for the occasion - very effective for soothing and concentrating even during the peak of transition labor. The camera, of course, saw heavy use. I even took a picture of the placenta... not that I'm going to post that anywhere. For a snack, I'd packed a bag of leftover popovers as well as the cereal bars and the home cooking was much more enjoyable in the hospital than the pre-packaged bars would've been. And having several changes of clothes came in handy as we stayed in the hospital three days and two nights.

Finally, I had to run back home for three items we didn't think we'd need. First, the breast pump. We're breast-feeding our daughter but she had some early trouble getting anything out of my sweetie's breasts. The pump helped get the colustrum flowing and the nipples a bit perkier for easier latch. Now, a few days later, she's still pumping since milk production has ramped up and is making things a bit uncomfortable for my sweetie when she sleeps.

Second, gym shorts. For me. I don't bother with pajamas unless it's winter but I realized too late that I don't like sleeping in jeans and plodding around a public hospital in my boxers wasn't exactly dignified. A pair of mesh gym shorts quickly solved that problem.

Finally, our laptop computer. We'd initially decided to leave it at home rather than risk having it lost or stolen. My in-laws live an hour away and were present for the birth. My parents, though, live overseas and I have have other family scattered across the map so we were able to use the hospital's free wireless internet and do some online videoconferencing so show off the newest member of the family. If your hospital has high-speed internet access and you have a computer with a camera, I strongly recommend bringing it along. My parents were so enthralled with their first grandchild that my wife and I joked about leaving the camera trained on our daughter while we went for a long walk.

The key to packing for labor is to pretend you're going on a trip where you'll be out of touch for a while. Bring your own entertainment, your mobile phone, your own music. Pack light and pack an extra outfit or two in case you're stuck in the hospital longer than expected. And if you have friends willing to run errands for things you need, take advantage of the offer. Because once the baby's here, there's a lot of work to do.