What New Mums Should Pack In Their Hospital Bag

With a baby due to arrive in a matter of weeks, I still hadn’t packed my bags to be ready to head out the door to the hospital when our little one decided to make an appearance. As it has been a few years since I last did this, I called on the wisdom of our fabulous Facebook and Instagram fans who came up with some excellent suggestions and made the whole process feel a lot less overwhelming! As these helped me so much, I’ve included them below to help you on your way (so hopefully you can be a lot more organised than me!).

Hospital Bag Essentials

• Plenty of hair ties (just where do they disappear to?!) to keep hair out of the way, both during labour and once your baby has arrived.
• Lip balm – our Botty Balm makes an amazing lip balm!
• Lots of snacks for yourself and your birth partner.
• Jandals – nice and easy to put on, for getting around the hospital corridors (hopefully you don’t end up doing too much pacing!) and if you have to use shared showers.
• Any drinks if you have a preference over and above the standard water/tea/coffee. Hospital tea and coffee can also be a bit average!
• A drink/water bottle, if you have a favourite – you’ll no doubt be drinking a lot so you may want to avoid the tiny glasses that hospitals offer!
• Breastfeeding accessories – lanolin cream, easy access feeding tops or clip on feeding singlets, maternity bras, breast pads (we have super absorbent reusable breast pads available in our store). Hydrogel breast discs were rated highly by our fans for sore, cracked nipples.
• Lots of comfy pants and underwear (those big, cheap undies are great, especially after a c-section, and are perfect for holding in those bulky maternity pads!).
• If you prefer your own pillow to get a good sleep, take it along too as you’ll need all the sleep you can get – there’s nothing quite like your own!
• Your phone charger – for obvious reasons!
• Wetbags – perfect for taking home dirty clothes or cloth nappies in.
• Nappies and wipes – newborn cloth nappies if you are going to use them from birth, or even a mixture of cloth and disposables, in case things don’t go as expected and you have other things to worry about after the arrival of your little one. Cloth wipes are a great option if you’ll also be using cloth nappies.
• Toiletries – for that amazing shower after giving birth. Bodywash, shampoo, conditioner, razor (for those areas that aren’t so hard to reach anymore!), hand cream, moisturiser.
• And let’s not forget some super cute clothes for your newborn!

Do you have any other essentials to add to this list?