It’s time for baby! Are you ready? I know you are! Many mama’s spend hours considering, packing birth bags and re-packing their birth bags. So, I decided to pull together mine in a blog to help. Don’t be ashamed if you packed and re-packed your birth bag. Just enjoy every second you get to prepare for your new arrival.
This blog is still for you, even if you read the title and thought, “I’m getting an epidural – what is this woman talking about!” This list includes plenty of things to help your labor progress that won’t appear on other hospital birth checklists. For instance a breast pump provides nipple stimulation which is a very effective way to support the progress of labor.
With Hunter’s birth (my 2nd baby), I basically had three birth bags — food bag, birthing time bag and the postpartum bag. This was also a planned birth center birth, AKA not at a hospital. This means that we went home and were not admitted for an extended stay. For Hunter’s Birth, I left my home at 11PM and got back home at 4AM the next day.
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Packing Birth Bags Items for Birthing Time
My other name for this bag is the “mama bag,” because the contents of this bag are for mommy to bring baby into the world. This is everything you need for your birthing time! I separated it this way because it can get really stressful during labor to be digging through more than one bag. This way relieves my team of just a little stress and allows me to focus on my one job – birth!
- Laminated Birth Plan – its not really necessary for a home birth because I know the team intimately and they know my desires. In the case of a change to any team members, its important to have the birth plan around. I made my husband pretty much in charge of the birth plan. The birth plan does not replace your responsibility to brief your team and care providers on your desires. Don’t get overwhelmed by the idea of lamination. Just get these peel and apply laminated pages from Amazon.
- Devices, camera, chargers, and tripod – Obviously you need your phone and charger. Consider if you want to record the birth on a camera or your ipad. So you might want a tripod or stand and chargers.
- Hot Pad – for my second birth, this was probably the most critical component of comfort during birth. When my contractions started around 8PM, I ate dinner and went to bed as quick as possible. Around 9:30PM, things were “heating up” and I wrapped a large hot pad around my lower waist and back. As I laid on my side with pillows between my legs and the hot pad around my waist, things progressed smoothly. By the time I stood up around 11PM, I could hardly make it to the door and an hour later, baby was in my hands.
- Clothes – while this is very particular for each person, some things are universal in my opinion:
- Nursing bras: wear a bra that will be easy for immediate skin-to-skin and nursing. You can find some of my favorites
- Swimsuit: if you plan to labor in the water, you may also need one for your hubby too!
- Anti-skid Socks and slip on shoes: we didn’t even bring shoes for me. I had my house slippers on with yoga socks underneath and those are what I wore home.
- Hair ties, clips or binder – whatever you call it, you’ll need something to keep your hair out of your face. I went with warrior braids. The two things I did before trying to go to sleep on the night of Hunter’s birth were drink skullcap tea and braid my hair in two braids.
- Essential oils – everything you need to know about oils for pregnancy and birth is in my blog post on essential oils for labor
- Enema – just in case you need to get the contractions moving a little more. This was very helpful with my first birthing time.
- Breast pump – Does this sound like a weird thing to bring? Well, similar to the enema, nipple stimulation is a natural way to induce labor.
- Reusable Water Bottle – my preference is double wall water bottle with a straw because you can put ice cubes in (if you like cold or want to chew on them) and the cup won’t sweat.
- Hygiene Kit: no one wants to smell bad 🙂
- Baby wipes or body freshening wipes
- Mouthwash, Toothbrush and toothpaste
- Face wash and lotion
- Deodorant – this is my favorite natural deodorant
Things for When Baby’s Here!
My other name for this bag is the “baby bag,” because the contents of this bag are for when baby is here! So this includes nursing, sleep, and clothing items. When picking clothes and postpartum beverages, remember that warmth is your goal. Think: teas with warming spices, jogging pants, sweaters (with open front for breastfeeding) and the like.
Here’s the list for packing birth bags: the “Baby Bag”
- Clothing Related Items
- Momma’s Coming Home Outfit: for me, I picked a simple bralette, long flowy dress, and comfortable throw sweater. I made sure everything would be 1-2 sizes up my normal size for comfort and breastfeeding.
- Adult diapers – personally, I prefer Depends because they are fully supportive and buy them 1-2 sizes up for comfort.
- Partner Gear – Extra outfit for your hubby
- Wet bag or plastic bags to carry home swimsuit or wet items
- Baby’s Coming Home Outfit – let’s be honest you bought this within a week of your positive pregnancy test 😛
- All clean newborn clothes
- One 0-3 month outfit (just in case!)
- Baby socks, if outfit doesn’t have footies
- Baby hat: Baby can’t regulate their own temperature yet! This helps. The hospital or birth center will have one too. However, if you want your own, bring it. We used an adorable briar hat from
- Nursing Support Items
- Boppy nursing pillow (link to boppy post)
- Nursing pads
- Lanolin
- Sleep Support – sleep may be the most important aspect of recovery! Yet with the heightened hormones, emotions and love, it may be the hardest to get!
- Ear plugs
- Eye shades
- Lavender essential oil
- Consider some of Wishgarden’s sleep support tinctures. I haven’t personally used them but I trust the brand.
- Hygiene Items:
- Perineal Spray – I love this particular Earth Mama perineal spray
- Make-up bag – yes, its okay to feel beautiful!
- Face mask – thanks to COVID-19
- Fully stocked diaper bag:
- Newborn sized diapers: likely the hospital or birth center will have some but better safe than sorry.
- Wipes
- Receiving blankets – the Aden and Anais silky soft swaddles are my hands-down favorite
- Diaper Cream – We use Honest Brand All Purpose Balm for every diaper change, ESPECIALLY early on because meconium is very hard to wipe off!
Packing the Food Bag
When it comes to food, think MARATHON. Hydration and sustenance rank really high on birthing energy and postpartum recovery. If you know anyone who has prepared for or completed a marathon, pick their brain on the best meals before, during and after.
For the food bag, I used a dual compartment lunchbox. This allows separate sections, which I broke out into the shelf-stable items and chilled items. The food bag stay on the counter for a couple weeks prior to Hunter’s birth and I was able to pre-pack the shelf-stable section. This particular bag also has a zipped pocket in the front and pockets on the side for things like breath mints and ziplock bags, which was helpful.
- Shelf-stable items included tea bags, breath mints and fruit flavored lifesavers
- Cooled section included a couple chilled coconut waters, fresh ginger (for warm perineal compress) and my postpartum meal
Here’s the food checklist for packing birth bags:
- Chilled Items
- Coconut Water – to rehydrate and keep you
- Postpartum Meal – be prepared because you never know what time you’ll have the baby and delivery might not be an option; we prepared a super duper cobb salad of sorts
- Cheese Sticks
- Shelf-stable
- Energy Related Snack – think marathon snacks, like bananas, pretzels, granola bars, trail mix, dried fruit, rice cakes, applesauce, cheese sticks, honey sticks, mandarin oranges, and crackers.
- Breath supplements – to help mama’s heightened sense of smell, be sure to keep mints or a fruity option on hand, like Jolly Ranchers or Fruity LifeSavers for a more uplifting scent
- Tea bags – for the first few weeks, I tried to avoid coffee. So instead I love this vanilla spiced black tea or a chai tea. Remember that warmth can support relaxation and milk letdown. Also, bring some chamomile tea while may help with sleep.
- Emergen-C Vitamin C packets are helpful to keep immune systems charged and ready to battle any sneaky little viruses that may be trying to weasel their ways into our lives.
- Hand sanitizer is helpful to have around the food items for proper food preparation.
Bring Goodie Bags for Birth Team
This is super important in the kind of birth that I desire. My team is my everything! They help me prepare and succeed with a natural delivery. So its was important to me to prepare something special for the midwives, doula, photographer and even my own husband.
- COVID-19 related items – hand sanitizer, Emergen-C
- Energy Support – trail mix, granola bar, protein bar
- Breath Support – Breath mints and flavored life-savors
- Something Sweet – Specialty chocolate bars & a few hershey kisses
- Thieves and Lavender Essential Oil mini packets
Celebrate & Rehydrate with a Baby-Tini!
This recipe sounds so fun! I love the idea of popping a bottle of champagne for a Re-Hydrate Baby-tini. Although we didn’t make it with Baby #1 or #2, mostly because of COVID-19 and everyone was wearing masks/gloves, I am keeping this on the list for the future. 🙂
- Champagne
- Honey
- Lemon
- Crushed Calcium
- Emergen-C Vitamin C
Full Birth Bag & Prep Checklist
Last but not least, don’t forget these important things:
- Install Car Seat
- Passenger Seat Liner: add a few garbage bags to the seat, in case your water breaks in the car. Add a towel or two on top to make clean-up easy!
- Set up in-home stations
- Bathroom
- Diaper Changing
- Nightstand
- Music playlists: both pregnancies, I started a playlist with the kid’s name. It helped set the mood when I needed a little change of atmosphere!
- Print off and maybe laminate:
- Birth Plan
- Essential Oils for L&D, check out my easy reference guide
- Birth Affirmations
- Check out my other mom life blogs!
