Hospital Bag Checklist

Pack about three weeks ahead, because only 1 in 20 arrive on their due date — and the one item you cannot leave without is the car seat. What follows is the NHS's own hospital bag checklist, reproduced and explained, rather than somebody's list of things she liked. It is in three parts: the bag for you, the bag for the baby, and the things nobody's list includes. Where this page adds something the NHS does not, it says so in the sentence that does it.

The reason to pack early is not superstition. Labour starting three weeks before the date is ordinary, an induction can be booked at short notice, and a bag packed calmly in March is a different object from one packed at two in the morning by somebody having contractions.

The bag for you, as the NHS lists it

• Your birth plan and hospital notes.
• Loose, comfortable clothing for labour; a dressing gown and slippers or flip-flops.
• Front-opening or loose nightwear if you are planning to breastfeed.
• Three changes of clothes, socks, five or six pairs of knickers.
• Two or three comfortable bras, including nursing bras, and breast pads.
• Two packets of super-absorbent maternity pads.
• A wash bag, towels, and your own pillows.
• An eye mask, for a ward that is brightly lit at all hours.
• Snacks, drinks and a water bottle.
• A fan or a water spray.
• Any medicines you take, and a TENS machine if you are using one.
• Something to read or listen to; a phone and charger.
• Spare glasses or contact lenses, and a spare bag for washing.

Two of those are worth more than their place on the list suggests. Your own pillows change a ward bed more than anything else you can carry, and the phone charger should have the longest cable you own — sockets in hospitals are never beside the bed.

The bag for the baby

• Bodysuits, vests and sleepsuits, and a going-home outfit.
• A hat, scratch mittens, socks or booties — and a snowsuit in cold weather.
• Nappies, and cotton wool or wipes.
• Muslin squares.
• A blanket or shawl.
• A car seat for the trip home.

Pack fewer newborn-size clothes than feels right and more of the next size. Nappies are the same story: one pack, not a fortnight's worth, because the size bands overlap and she may pass through the smallest one quickly.

The bag for the birth partner, which is not on the list

Say this plainly: the checklist registered here covers you and the baby, and does not publish a partner's list. What follows is sense rather than guidance — snacks and drinks that do not need a shop, a change of clothes, a phone charger of their own, a jumper for a cold corridor at four in the morning, coins or a card for the car park, and something to sit on. A partner who has not eaten for fourteen hours is no use to anybody, and hospital catering keeps office hours.

The small bag you can find in the dark

One addition worth making to any list: split the packing in two. A large bag holds the clothes and the towels; a small one, a different colour, holds the things somebody has to find quickly while you are otherwise occupied — notes, phone, charger, water, lip balm, hair tie, snacks, a pen. Tell your partner which bag is which before the day, not during it.

What stays in the car: the car seat, a coat, and a spare change of clothes for whoever is driving. What stays by the door: the large bag. Nobody should be carrying four things at once.

The car seat gets its own section

Because the car seat is the one item you cannot leave without if you are going home by car, and the only one on the list you cannot buy on the way.

The AAP's list of seat types for infants and toddlers is rear-facing-only seats, convertible seats and all-in-one seats, and which is right depends on her age, size and needs. Read the vehicle owner's manual and the seat manual each time you install it. Either the vehicle's seat belt or its lower anchors will do — the two systems are equally safe and generally only one is used at a time.

The instruction that matters most here is about timing. Everyone benefits from professional help with an installation, and the AAP suggests expectant parents in particular consider working with a certified child passenger safety technician before the baby is born. Learning the straps in a hospital car park, in the rain, on no sleep, with a newborn already in your arms, is the situation that advice exists to prevent.

Timing, and the stay that runs longer than planned

Only 1 in 20 arrive on their due date, which is the NHS's reason for saying pack at least 3 weeks ahead; about three weeks ahead is therefore the honest answer to when. There is no published figure here for how long you will be in, and the length of a stay varies enormously — but an induction or a caesarean often means longer, and that is worth packing for as a possibility rather than a plan. Passing that on as common experience rather than as guidance: an extra set of clothes and an extra phone charger cost you nothing if you come home the same day.

What the first night is actually like

Mostly feeding. Colostrum is very concentrated, so she only needs a small amount — about a teaspoonful at each feed — and she may want to feed quite often, perhaps every hour to begin with, moving to fewer, longer feeds once more mature milk arrives after a few days. As a very rough guide, at least 8 to 12 feeds, or more, every 24 hours in the first few weeks.

That is why the bag is packed for a night of feeding rather than a night of sleeping: snacks, a water bottle you can open one-handed, nightwear that opens at the front, and no expectation of a stretch of sleep. Feed at the earliest cues — restlessness, sucking fists or fingers, murmuring, turning the head with an open mouth — because a crying baby is harder to feed than a stirring one. How often to breastfeed covers the first fortnight, and it is not possible to overfeed a breastfed baby.

The two things to write down

Not objects, and not on any published list. First, the phone numbers: the ward, the midwifery unit, your partner, one other adult, and whoever has a key to your house. Put them somewhere that works when a phone is flat — on paper, in the small bag.

Second, who is looking after anybody else at home: other children, a dog, a neighbour's spare key, the person who will cancel things. Agree it in advance with a named person and a fallback, because the call that arranges it always comes at an inconvenient hour.

The ride home, and the first sleep in it

The seat you fitted weeks ago goes in the car with the straps already adjusted, and the going-home outfit is the one item worth having somewhere obvious. Bulky coats do not go under harness straps.

Then the first sleep at home, which is the same as every sleep after it: babies go down on their back, on a firm flat sleep surface with a fitted sheet and nothing else, in a cot, crib or Moses basket clear of blankets, pillows, bumpers and soft toys, in your room. Nothing weighted, at any age. Nothing needs to be bought for that — the newborn essentials list and the nursery checklist cover the room, and newborn wake windows covers the shape of the first fortnight, which has an order rather than a clock.

A newborn rhythm sheet and a printed day sheet are worth putting in the bag: in the first days somebody will ask how often she has fed and how many wet nappies there have been, and a piece of paper answers better than a memory. This page is general information, not medical advice, and it cannot see your baby.