Episode 195 - The high powered hospital bag
[0:00] Welcome to the Great Birth Rebellion podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Melanie Jackson. I'm a clinical and research midwife with my PhD. In each episode, I cast a critical eye over current maternity care practice by grappling with research and historical knowledge to help you get the best out of your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum journey.
[0:25] Hello, and welcome to today's episode of the Great Birth Rebellion podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Melanie Jackson, and I've been a midwife for over 18 years, so I've seen a lot of births. And during that time, I've also seen the gear that women use and need for their labor and birth, and some of the things that can just be left behind, some things you don't need to take. So today, I want to talk about what to pack in your hospital bag. If you're leaving your house to get in the car and go to a different location to give birth, either a birth center or at a hospital, you are going to need to pack some supplies. So that's what I want to talk about today. But before we go any further, this podcast has been and always will be free to you, the listener. And to make that possible, we rely on a few very carefully selected sponsors. And the sponsor of today's podcast episode is Poppy Child from Pop That Mama. And Poppy has got the most incredible resource. And the reason I want to mention it specifically today is that through this high-powered hospital bag, which I'm going to talk you through.
[1:36] There's some preparation strategies that I recommend. And one of them is hypnobirthing. Now, Poppy has created the birth box, which is a hypnobirthing technique package. It's an online package that you can use to prepare for your labor and birth. It's also something that can travel with you from home, in the car, and at the hospital because it's something that you practice. It's a skill that you develop and it's knowledge that you acquire. In the birth box, there's also the oxytocin bubble, which is Poppy's own tracks for labor and birth that help you stay in the hypnobirthing zone. So throughout this episode, you'll see reference to the birth box and to hypnobirthing, and I'm referring to Poppy's hypnobirth course in the birth box.
[2:26] This is of interest to you, I suggest that you scroll down to the show notes below the podcast, click the link to get access to Poppy's birth box, and when you type the word Melanie in at the checkout, you will get a 25% discount. Okay, let's get into this week's episode about the high-powered hospital bag. Please note that if you're listening to this and you get to the end and you think, oh my goodness, I cannot do most of those things, please know that even if you can't or don't have half the things on this list that you can still give birth the way that you want because mental preparation is free. Information is free. Having a supportive partner, friend, and family member is free, particularly if you absolutely binge the Great Birth Rebellion podcast. It's completely free to you.
[3:17] So just know that even if you don't have all the special gear, No one can take your mental toughness, preparation, or your support people. So just be confident in those at the very, very least. However, I will say that when you're planning for a baby, there is a financial investment and you have to make decisions about where to best place your money. Most of us don't have an endless pot of money. so consider how many dollar bucks you have spare and then invest those dollars into the most important items or services for the care of yourself and for the care of your baby during birth and early postpartum and many of the items that are on this high powered hospital birth bag list are probably lying around your home can be acquired for free could be purchased second hand or could be borrowed from a friend. So consider all of those options. You don't have to buy everything brand new.
[4:15] The other reason that I've made this particular episode about the high-powered hospital bag is because you can't expect the hospital to have all of the things that you need to be comfortable, warm, hydrated, or help you manage labor and birth without pain medication. They have limited resources and many hospitals can't even provide you with more than two pillows for the birth room. And this is not a criticism. I'm not here to just throw stones at hospital services. It's just a reminder that you need to be prepared. Don't have a high expectation of what's going to be provided to you when you get there.
[4:54] In this list, you'll see that there's a section on what to ask the hospital if they have, so you know you don't have to take it, but it's about understanding what can you provide, what can the hospital provide, and what will you need to provide for yourself. So check what they supply, and then you can pack accordingly. The final thing I'd say before I continue at all is to say my sincerest apologies to women who will be transported away from their communities and away from their homes in order to give birth and I apologize this checklist is just not sufficient to prepare you for or make up for the injustice of having to leave your community in order to give birth.
[5:35] All right we are going to get into this list of a high-powered hospital birth bag. It's a checklist of what to take with you in the car and off to hospital but there's also a section on what you might need in order to keep labouring at home. Now, don't worry about getting a paper and pen because I've put this checklist in a nice, neat document. In fact, if you scroll down to the show notes, click the link to get the high-powered hospital bag checklist and everything that I'm going to talk about today is listed there in a ticker box option so that you can scroll through yourself and tick the items. You can print this off, make sure it's all ready to go, help with your support people to make sure that they can pack everything and bring it all with them as you leave. So just scroll down to the show notes.
[6:23] Click the link there and the PDF version of this podcast episode, the checklist will be sent straight to you for you to use.
[6:32] All right. Now, before you even consider packing anything, let's have a look. I've got a list here on this high-powered hospital birth bag document that I hope you can click, get the link to and have a look. It could be handy to be looking at while you're listening to this podcast, but it's not necessary reading. But I've got a section there on strategic preparation and purchases and acquisitions to consider and these are the things that are not necessarily purchasable or physical items that you could use to prepare for your high-powered hospital birth and when I say high-powered I mean where you feel like you have everything you need to be in control of your birth scenario we can't control everything but we can be prepared. So this list is about helping prepare you not only with your preparation that might not necessarily be items maybe it's just information and knowledge and the things that you should pack to take. So strategic preparation purchases and acquisitions to consider. The first thing on that checklist is a private midwife or doula. Now this if you've got some money to spend on hiring support for your birth, I can recommend private midwife or a doula, particularly if you are giving birth in hospital, because what is important about these relationships.
[7:54] Particularly if you're a woman who doesn't have access to continuity of carer, so if you've seen a different person every single appointment and you don't know who's going to be with you for your birth, having someone that you know and who's been with you through your pregnancy birth and who will stay with you for your postpartum is a massive game changer on how your birth will go and how you perceive your birth, what your birth experience will be. Private midwife or doula is an excellent option for that.
[8:24] Failing that, if you can't find either or you can't afford either, ask your hospital if they are a teaching hospital and do they have student midwives who are looking for continuity of care experiences.
[8:37] What student midwives need to do as part of their training is to follow a number of women through their whole pregnancy, birth and postpartum. And they can become an amazing resource for you to help support you through your pregnancy, birth and postpartum. And it's a familiar face. they know what your plans are and they're getting ready to help you in the way that you want to be helped and the student midwife is free you do not have to pay for that they're available through public services and some private hospitals so ask about that also if you find that funds are a problem and you can't afford a doula or a private midwife there are also options for example if a doula is training if she's a student doula often they'll have a small number of women that they will serve during their training at a lower cost or for free. So you could contact some doula training centers or services in the area and see if they've got any student doulas who are available to help you for a little bit less money. Alternatively, if you can't access any of those things, it's about preparing your support people to help you in labor and birth. And that will be a special type of preparation, particularly if you're not completely confident that they know how to support you in labour and birth and I'll talk to that in a minute as well.
[9:57] So those are the first two things to prepare or acquire. The next thing, and I put this out on Instagram. So my Instagram post handle is at Melanie the Midwife. If you're not already following, join me there. Every day I release some information similar to what's on the podcast. And I asked on there, what were the three best, like most incredible things that you used during your labor and birth? What helped the most? and there was a number of things that floated to the top and a TENS machine that's the next thing on on the list a TENS machine so many people mentioned the TENS machine and that's certainly been my experience as a private midwife a lot of my clients choose to use TENS machines and find them to be incredibly effective what I will say here is don't just get any TENS machine don't get a cheapo of Temu or wherever. I don't know where people online shop these days, but don't buy a cheap one. They're actually not suitable for labor and birth.
[10:58] The TENS that I recommend is the L-TENS labor specific TENS. The reason it's important that it's labor specific is that the settings on some TENS machines are way different. They might stop after 15 minutes. They might not be strong enough. They might not have big enough or enough pads to put on to actually get a good effect. The labor-specific TENS has got a boost button for labor and birth. You can set all the settings and it just continues and goes for your whole labor. It's a really perfect tool and in fact if you click on the link for the specific labor TENS machine in the high-powered hospital bag.
[11:39] There that'll take you directly to the L-TENS website to buy their specific labor TENS machine. Also consider if you've got a doula or a private midwife or a student midwife or ask the hospital, do they have TENS machines? You might be able to borrow one or your care provider might have one for you to use. You can also hire them because you might not have a purpose for the TENS machine after birth and ask around your friends, does anybody have a labor TENS machine? And you might find that you can borrow one or hire one.
[12:12] Now, going back to the preparation of your support people and the preparation of yourself in labor and birth, and also knowing what things will I pack and take with me for my labor and birth, I've put together a guide to giving birth without pain medication.
[12:29] And it's an online course. It's only a few short modules, actually. I call it all facts, no fluff. Honestly, it doesn't include anything in there that you don't need. No extra words, no extra chatter. It just goes straight into all of the strategies that I've ever seen work that help women give birth without pain medication. So all the strategies and tools are in there, but also there's a whole module for your support people for how they can help you work through labor. And that's going to be applicable at home when they're possibly the only person helping you. Then in the transport on the way, when they're driving you to hospital, what they can do to help you through labor and birth there. and then also their specific role in hospital. Now, I highly recommend this Guide to Giving Birth Without Pain Medication. It's actually one of the cheaper options that are on this list if you are going to invest your money in anything. This is only $27, which is cheaper than some of the other basic tools that I'm going to mention later as an option to have in your bag.
[13:35] Again that link to the guide to giving birth without pain medication is in the show notes so you can go ahead and get yourself a copy of that and you will be so prepared if you do nothing else but listen to binge listen to every single episode of the great birth rebellion podcast and work through the guide to giving birth without pain medication.
[13:59] I'm very confident that you are completely ready for the job of labour and birth. And the reason I say that is that both of the podcast and the guide focus heavily on your mental preparation. And having this mental grit and hacks, the mental hacks to get through labour and birth is a massive win because you can take them wherever you are, home, hospital, and in the car in transit. Okay so the next strategic preparation and purchase could be a good set of headphones or ear pods if you don't already have them and this is about closing off yourself from any external stimulation which can be really full-on when you're transitioning from home in the car and then to hospital an eye mask and I will talk about all of these in detail why and how we're going to use them. But headphones, eye mask, blue light blocking glasses. Here we go. Hang on. I've got mine here. Blue light blocking glasses. Why am I talking about these? I'm wearing mine at the moment if you're watching on YouTube or on Spotify. So these are my blue light blocking glasses. I wear these at night when the sun's going down. And the reason for that is that.
[15:13] Our normal sleep cycles and labor cycles rely on darkness and the emission, the absence of blue light. And the problem is, is that nighttime when you flick lights on or if there's artificial lights on at night, they emit high amounts of blue light. Your body thinks it's daytime and it doesn't activate the melatonin that you need for sleep or the melatonin that you need for labor.
[15:41] Anytime you suppress melatonin, you also suppress the other hormones of labor and birth, particularly oxytocin, and your labor and birth doesn't go as well. It doesn't progress as well. And you will discover, if you have not yet been to a birth in hospital, that the hospital is full of constant, never-ending blue light. Your body thinks it's daytime. And when you transition into hospital, the streetlights, if it's nighttime, there's a lot of light pollution. So the red, well the red glasses, the blue light blocking glasses that I am currently wearing, block blue light rays and help you maintain your melatonin so it doesn't disturb your labor and birth. And this is something that women find when they transition into hospital, that their contractions and that their labor slows down. So all of these things that I'm recommending are things that you can use to make sure that your labor doesn't slow down and stall all in the transition to hospital. The headphones, the eye mask, the blue light blocking glasses, you would not wear an eye mask and blue light blocking glasses together, of course.
[16:48] But those things can help block out external stimuli and keep your hormonal flow of labor going. Now, the next thing that you can do is the hypnobirthing course that I recommended
[16:59] initially by Poppy Child, the birth box. And the hypnobirthing course has these tracks in it that you can play through your earphones to get you into the hypnobirth zone. It reduces your level of overwhelm and keeps you focused, helps you work through those labor contractions. And in fact, You'll see in the checklist, if you want to click on there, you can go straight to the hypnobirthing course. And if you type MEL007, you'll get a 20% discount off for that course. These are things that you can prepare ahead of time to be ready for your hospital birth.
[17:35] Now, the next thing, and I was not going to put these in because I have a personal objection to them, just a personal objection, and I'll explain it why. But when I asked my Instagram following what were the real game-changing items through labor and birth, these came up over and over and over again.
[17:56] So I'm putting them in for you, but I don't really think they should be there. But anyway, the birth combs or the birth weapons. So these are wooden tools that you grasp in your hands and you squeeze during a contraction. Now, why am I saying that I'm opposed?
[18:14] Well, I come from a time in midwifery, the good old days, gosh, I'm not that old, but I come from a time where these tools did not exist. Women did not spend their money on them.
[18:27] And yet the babies came out anyway. I have not seen a huge, the make a big enough
[18:34] difference that I think, oh my gosh, every woman needs to have these things. In fact, you could replace it with anything. A ruler could replace a comb, a spiky kid's toy. One of the women on Instagram said she used her kid's spiky dinosaur toy. Perfect. Think about what can I grasp that might make it easier to work through a contraction? I personally held my husband's hand. I think it doesn't really matter what is in your hand, but if you want to grasp something, whether it's your partner's hand, your support person's hand, a rail that's next to you, something, anything, this could make a difference. However, if you want something that is definitely on trend, something that you would purchase, then a birth comb or the birth weapons are something that you could add to your kit to help you work through each contraction. It certainly came up big. A lot of women love them. So I've put it on the list in case you want to consider it. Okay. The next thing to prepare, and I say this mostly because I know that hospital rooms aren't always prepared to help you get into the most comfortable positions for your labour and birth, but there is a tool called the birth sling.
[19:48] And I have one in my birth kit, and I reckon we get it out for half the births that my clients have at home. We've been getting the birthsling out because it helps get them in comfortable positions, particularly with longer or more difficult labor, or if their support person just having trouble getting comfortable and helping hold them up, the birthsling can be a great strategy. And this can be a lifesaver if you're at a hospital that doesn't have the basic resources of floor mats or a peanut ball or a birth ball or a birth stool then the birth sling is going to be one of your most comfortable options to get into helpful upright positions for labor and birth. The other thing that you can consider if you don't want to buy a birth sling but also the hospital facilities are quite poor in terms of comfortable furniture for you to use. Here are a few hacks for how you can alter the room to become more comfortable in that space, even with very limited resources.
[20:48] Firstly, the bed. Don't use it to get up onto. I would raise the bed up super high. There's a little electric controller. Raise it all the way up. Put your bag and supplies on it. Take the brakes off the bed and slide it over to the side of the room and put the brakes back on because then you can use it to lean over. When you're standing, you can lean on the bed. You can use it to store all of your things instead of on the floor. And when you move it out of the way, you create this huge space in the middle for walking and you can use that space to whatever you want to use it for. Then you can put a pillow on the floor if you need to go hands and knees. Put the pillow on the floor and kneel on that. If there's one single chair, you can put the pillow on the floor and bring the chair over to use for your arms and elbows. Your support person could sit on the chair if you need to get into some kind of a squat exercise.
[21:48] The other option is if they don't have a birth stool but you do want to be sitting more upright is you can use the toilet but sit backwards. So your bum is kind of sitting on the arc of the toilet seat instead of dangling down into the hole of the toilet. So that way your perineum is supported, all the pelvic floor muscles are supported. So you can sit backwards on the toilet and put a few pillows in front of you and lean forward onto the pillows and then you've created another comfortable space in a place that doesn't have a lot of resources to keep you comfortable in labour and birth those are a few options there now the next thing that you can take and be prepared with is some kind of birth music playlist or plan the soundscape of your labor and birth. This becomes really easy if you have invested in something like a hypnobirthing course and particularly in Poppy's one, there's the oxytocin bubble, which is a collection of tracks that you can use to practice your hypnobirthing techniques.
[22:56] And then when you put those on through your earphones or if it's playing out through the birth space, your body will instantly slip in to those techniques that you've been practicing but do plan a playlist a soundtrack for your labor and birth that came up again very highly on the list of things that really women found really helpful and valuable as they prepared for their labor and birth so I've already mentioned the tens which came up high the guide to giving birth without pain medication a lot of women commented that they found the mental preparation and the mental grit hacks and affirmations in those really beneficial.
[23:34] People's support was came up very high on the list of things that were super helpful as well.
[23:41] Now, the final thing I'm going to suggest, and there's a few more things on that strategic planning list that we won't have time to talk through, but you can see that when you click the link and print it off for yourself, you can see that. But if you want to really communicate to your care team about how ready you are to make decisions during your labor and birth and how informed you are, can I suggest that you do a very subtle thing and purchase a Great Birth Rebellion shirt. You could get one for your partner too. You could get one for your whole team if you want to. But if you are wearing a Great Birth Rebellion shirt or if you have a Great Birth Rebellion drink bottle or a Great Birth Rebellion duffel bag where you're putting all of your birth gear in, it sends a really strong message to whoever else is in your room that you have prepared. You've listened to the podcast. You invested enough that you went ahead and bought some merch. And so they can see, okay, this woman has been doing some thinking about what she wants and it sends a very subtle message about your expectations during labor and birth. You would like to be listened to and included in the decision-making process of your labor and birth. Hopefully your care team, the staff who's looking after you can notice that and maybe they're wearing one of their own. And then you know you've got a team, you've got a member on your team who's on board with the same things that you are.
[25:08] All right, those are a few things that you can strategically plan for, purchase, or acquire ahead of time. As I said, if you do none of those, if you just listen to the podcast, you will also be prepared. But these are just some added value items that can really help you feel like you're prepared and ready for your labor and birth. Now, let's talk about the bags. I've got a list there of bags, six bags, believe it or not. Now, I myself am an absolute minimalist. I only take the very bare minimum things wherever I go, nothing fancy, no frills. My mom is the complete opposite. We call her the bag lady. She's prepared for everything. There is a bag for everything. She's always got heaps of stuff. So it feels over the top for me to recommend six bags, but here we go. Here's what you need to be prepared with. So firstly, your handbag, which will have all of your personal items in it, including your wallet, your Medicare card, if you're here in Australia, or if you're somewhere that requires a public health card, make sure you take that with you. Your handheld antenatal record, any current medications, anything you need, glasses, contacts have you got any living aids that you need hearing aids anything that you require for your daily living that would normally go in your personal items bag that's your first bag your handbag.
[26:35] Next is a backpack or a self-care bag for each individual support person. So if you've got three support people, they are each going to need a backpack full of the things they need. And don't worry, I've got a list on this high-powered hospital birth bag list for your support people what they need to pack. The next bag is an esky bag because I'm going to recommend that you pack enough food for like two days worth of snacks. One of the really big things about hospitals is even though labor and birth happen on a 24-hour cycle and they don't really stop or slow down, hospitals don't operate that way. So at nighttime, there are very few options for food. Even during the day outside of office hours, it's very hard to get a good healthy meal without having to go a long way to find it. There are some vending machines. means the birth unit does have some amount of food, but it's not high quality. It's not particularly tasty. So if you enjoy nourishing food, I would get prepared for that yourself. An esky bag full of snacks for you, your partner, your support people, what you might need after the birth. I would jam pack that thing through it full. So none of you are ever hungry.
[27:54] A really big factor for women and their support people is hunger. It's insane that hospitals don't provide better food, but the fact is, is that they don't.
[28:04] The other thing that can go in that esky bag is if you have been expressing breast milk antenatally, then that esky bag creates a nice cool spot where you can transport your expressed breast milk from home into the hospital and you can keep it with you if you want in case you don't want to turn it in at the hospital. So that's already three bags that you'll be carrying. Your handbag, a bag for each support person, an esky bag. The next one is the birth bag and that can be taken. Basically, I've kept that separate because there's things that you'll use during your labor and birth that you won't need again postnatally. So once the baby's born, all that gear can be put away and you're done with it. And it can be taken home and away if you're planning on staying in hospital. And you just only have to keep the next bag, which is the postnatal bag. So your overnight bag with anything that you'll need for after the birth. And then you don't have to keep hold of any of the things that you had for birth.
[29:05] The final bag in the six bag list of bags is a plastic bag. Now, the hospital could probably give you one of these, but if you want to be completely prepared, there's a very good chance that your birth clothes will get wet if you're using the shower and bath. They may get dirty. They might get amniotic fluid on it, some blood on it. If you're still wearing some clothes when your baby's born, you'll get all kinds of birth goop on it. And so you'll have wet and dirty clothes after the birth. And the plastic bag is for those. Put them all in, put that in your birth bag and send it home so somebody else can wash it and get it all beautifully nice and ready for you. All right. So six bags. You already know what to prepare ahead of time. You got your six bags.
[29:51] And here's where I will absolutely do a shameless plug for the Great Birth Rebellion podcast merch. It is brand new. If you've been hanging around for a while, you know that we've recently rebranded the whole podcast and all of the merch. And it's currently on sale at 20% off in a pre-sale because obviously we're still printing. So we're going to pre-sale the very first merch run. and I'm going to swap you a little bit of extra postage time for a 20% discount on your entire order. So go ahead, get that. We've got duffel bags, esky bags, drink bottles, ceramic mugs, all the things that you need to really show whoever it is you're in the labour and birth room with that you are prepared.
[30:40] All right. Now I mentioned earlier that the hospital doesn't always have everything that you need. So a few things that you can ask them about. Do they have a birth ball, a peanut ball, floor mats, a birth sling, or a birth pool. If they have one or all of those, you know that you do not need to be prepared with that. Again, I've got that checklist on the PDF if you want to have a look at that. Make sure they have it. If they don't, then you get to make decisions about whether or not you'll add them to your kit and take them with you.
[31:09] Right, the next list you'll see if you've got the PDF in front of you is the laboring at home list of things to have ready at the house before you transfer into hospital so firstly maternity pads 100 if your waters break you are going to need to wear that if your waters break the water is just going to keep flowing you'll need to wear a pad have them ready.
[31:33] Disposable incontinence underwear. These are a little bit different to the maternity pads. They're disposable, they're bigger, but also you can wear them for longer. I would recommend getting both, especially if your waters are broken for a day or so. It means that you don't have to worry about constantly changing your pad. Make sure they're white so that you can keep an eye on the colour. You'll need a drink bottle with a straw and the straw part is important because you do not want to be chugging back and holding up the drink bottle or glass or whatever you're going to drink from. A straw is the easiest way.
[32:09] The next is electrolyte replacement drinks. Now there's a caveat here. So I don't normally just recommend these all day every day but it's hard work during labor and birth. You'll probably be sweating, your body's working hard. If you just drink water you will get dehydrated and that can really impact on the outcome of your labor and birth. So if you purchase something, an electrolyte that comes in a sachet, which means that you don't have to purchase all these big plastic bottles of ready-mixed electrolyte drinks, I would purchase a sachet, particularly the ones that are not full of sugar and artificial colors. As low sugar and low toxicity as possible you want it to be mostly food and electrolytes and because they're in sachets you can you can dose yourself into your current water bottle and they're really easy transportable so there's a few products there's the hyro or the mini and me electrolyte options those are two particular ones that don't have a lot of sugars and artificial colors so electrolyte replacement drink sachets. You'll have pillows at home, a birth ball, towels. Now, microwavable heat packs and hot water bottles. Why? Why melt?
[33:35] Hear me out. I'll explain this now, but not again. So the microwavable heat packs, they're like the wheat bags and they're really handy. If you're at home, you don't need to do anything. You just put them in the microwave. Beautiful. Hot water bottles are handy because you don't need a microwave.
[33:52] However, the reason why they're both on the list is I'm going to recommend that you take both with you to hospital for a few reasons. Let's get into it. So this is one of my bugbears. The OH&S issue at hospital with hot water bottles is I'm sure historically support people have heated up heat packs for women who are in labour and possibly they've heated them up too hot and women have gotten burnt. Women are susceptible to this because when you're in labour and birth, you're so busy thinking about the pain of contractions that the other sensations are dulled. So if somebody's putting an overheated heat pack on your skin, there just could be subtle and repeated micro burns that end up leaving you blistered and burnt. I'm sure this has happened more than one time and hospitals decided, well, that's it. We're not going to leave support people in charge of the heat packs anymore. And a lot of hospitals have banned people bringing in their own heat packs. However, you are autonomous and free citizens and you can make a decision about that as well. So take the microwave of a heat pack with you. You can use the public microwave to heat it up. And I would suggest if it's already warm, just give it like another minute. You don't need to give it two or three minutes and make it piping hot. Just needs to be warm enough. And then you just come back and keep heating it back up over time as it cools down.
[35:21] But also, if you get busted, if someone catches you and says, hey, actually, you're not allowed to be using that, you could switch to hot water bottles, which you would be using hot water. I'll do half-half again. You don't want to make it too hot. But you also have access to boiling water in a hospital. And the reason I say this, I don't, like, this is not senseless rebellion against hospital policies. But what often happens is that the hospital heat packs that they have are really actually gross. They soak them in this, I don't know if it's the same everywhere, here's what I experienced. They soak them in this water bath, which is set at a particular non-skin burning temperature. Then they wrap them in a plastic bag, then they wrap them in a towel, and then they'll come and put it on you. It's not hot enough. It gets cold too quickly. And then before you know it, the midwife has to go and do it again if they've got time. So I feel like hot water bottles really fall by the wayside with hospital care because they're actually just finicky and too hard to manage whereas if you give your support people the job of keeping your heat packs hot and then you just have to kind of be stealth about it and see if you can avoid anybody noticing that you're using your own heat packs but I was just taking both because it gives you some options.
[36:39] We already spoke about the snacks. So having your snacks ready at home and making sure they're nicely packed in your beautiful Great Birth Rebellion Eski bag. Your eye mask, again, ear pods or a Bluetooth player for the soundscape. Again, at home, you might want to block out the external environment and your hot eye mask and your ear pods are the thing for that. Your TENS machine and your birth comb or birth weapons or toy Tyrannosaurus Rex if that's what you're going to hold on to. So those are the things you can use for labouring at home. Now the other thing is I'm hoping that you've gone ahead and gotten the Guide to Giving Birth Without Pain Medication because it's got a whole list in there of your pain management toolbox. It's kind of like You could put together a birth box of pain relieving tools that you can sift through and use and be ready with to work through your labor and birth. So if you've gotten that guide to giving birth without pain relief, you're sitting there that I recommend some kind of bag or kit that you can literally pick and choose from what is going to work for me at this point. And have all of your things in there, ready to use, easily transportable for the car ride, which is exactly what we're going to talk about now.
[38:00] Now, the thing with the car ride is that you've been laboring at home. Hopefully, you've waited till labor's well established and you're thinking, whoa, this is getting really strong. I think birth's getting close. Let's get in the car, which is the worst time to get in the car. But it's also the best time to get in the car because you don't want to be at hospital too long. You just want to get there for the birth if you're aiming for a low intervention birth because we know the longer you're at hospital, the more interventions you're likely to get. That's no surprise. There's been research on that. So this car ride can be one of the hardest parts of your labor and birth because not only are you feeling that labor's strong enough that your baby is about to come out, but now you've been stripped of your beautiful, comfortable nest environment at home and confined to the car. So this is a list of things that are going to make your journey in the car as comfortable as possible.
[39:00] Bring the eye mask with you. Bring the headphones and the ear pods so that you can't see anything untoward or any bright lights and you can completely stay in the zone. You've also got your earphones on so you can stay in, you can create your own little sound bubble. Take four towels in the car just in case the baby's born in the car. Take your heat packs because you can use those in a confined space. Take your TENS machine in the car. These are all things that can help with pain management in a small space. Your blue light blocking glasses. If you don't want to wear your eye mask, put those on. Take two pillows in the car because you can get comfortable on those. Maybe in the back seat, you can change some positions, get all nice and comfy.
[39:49] Take a disposable vomit bag. Now, at home, you can vomit in places like a bucket or a toilet or the sink. When you're in the car, there's not many options. and it's not unusual at the end of your labor and birth or even in the middle to feel like you need to vomit or have a little vomit. So if you take a disposable vomit bag and get them from chemists, have those in the car ready to go. Box of tissues for tears, snots, vomit cleanups, have your baby seat installed by 36 weeks and the other really transportable item are your birth combs and your birth weapons. So you're going to create a little mini birth space in your car so that you're as comfortable as possible for the journey and hopefully your labor flow won't get disturbed by transitioning to hospital.
[40:39] Now, if you heard our episode on how to manage a fast labor, you'll also know that there's a checklist in there of what to do if your baby's born before arrival. What do you do if your baby is born in the car? So I would encourage you to go back to that episode. It's episode 192 of the Great Birth Rebellion podcast. And there's a list in there. Again, you can click the link in the show notes
[41:04] of what to do if your baby's born before arrival. So that's a list of things to take with you in the car to keep your labor flowing to avoid being, overstimulated and just in case and if the baby's born in the car or if you have a little roaming in the car but you're going to stay as comfortable as possible with all those tools, so now you've gotten to the hospital and you're moving your way into the labor room so what are you taking with you you're taking your private midwife or doula or you're meeting your student midwife there definitely take your tens machine the birth comb and your birth weapons definitely you need your drink bottle with a straw because the hospital will provide you with them but in these teeny tiny little cups and you've got to fill up the jug and anyway take your own drink bottle it's way nicer. Your electrolyte replacement drink should be there in your bag as well. All right now this is the first time you're going to need warm socks maybe even those ones with the little non-slip little grippy bits underneath. I'll tell you something about hospital rooms.
[42:02] Is that usually they're either too cold or too hot. It's very hard to find a Cinderella temperature in a hospital because it's a central air conditioning. And so often the rooms are set too cold, which is not appropriate for labor and birth. Or they can be too hot. And you know, if you're a midwife, you know there's that one room that's always too hot. And then there's that other one that's always ice cold. And we always try not to put the women in those rooms. We know the rooms that have got a better temperature. But anyway, you want to be prepared in case it's freezing in your room. Warm socks. Bring those two pillows from the car that you bought. Bring them in with you because hospitals are notorious for not having enough pillows to get comfortable. Bring those in.
[42:48] So the other thing is comfy clothes to labor in. You do not have to labor in that horrible hospital gown unless you're planning on getting an epidural. Your own clothes are appropriate and more suitable. So something comfy that's just loose fitting. You might want to wear your mama nappy and a nice loose Great Birth Rebellion top just to really drive home that message. Your two heat packs your microwavable one and your hot water bottle your fully charged bluetooth speaker or your ear pods and also something i will really mention here and it's on the list i haven't mentioned it yet but when you're taking your phone which i'm sure you and your support people will make sure you take charges you could be there a while and lots of people are interested in updates or you might be using them using your phone to play music through then make sure you've got a charger for it and you've got your ear pods charged eye mask we already mentioned these hair elastics oh my gosh labor and birth is full on you're doing a marathon so you want to have your hair out of your way if you can make sure you remember your hair elastics all of those snacks labor snacks snacks who support people snacks for after birth really i'm driving home the snacks can you tell I like snacks definitely take food don't rely on them to be able to feed you.
[44:14] Your robe so you're comfy and warm. Take a few face washers. Now, one of the things that's in the Guide to Giving Birth Without Pain medication is the absolute gold solution, the gold thing of a cool washer on your forehead or your shoulders or your chest. Don't underestimate the power of that thing. Oh my gosh, it's so easy. You take it from home, fill it with cold water or you can ask the hospital for a jug of cold iced water plunge that face washer in there onto your forehead it is heaven take your own because it's not guaranteed that the hospital is actually going to have those take a few of your own magnesium spray okay so this kind of goes with your electrolyte replacement sachets that i just spoke about earlier you could get cramps magnesium is something that is going to be used up a lot while you're working hard and leg cramps and back pain is horrid when you're in labor and birth and the magnesium spray is a really effective way of alleviating leg cramps during labor and birth you can either make this on your own or buy a pre-made magnesium spray just have a google magnesium spray how do you make it super easy super cheap.
[45:29] The other thing you are going to bring with you is all that preparation you did for your labor and birth. So all of your birth decisions and intentions, have you written them down? If you've been listening to the Great Birth Rebellion podcast, you'll have all that information. But write some of the most important things down, the important decisions that you've made, your important intentions. If you've been doing birth mapping, have all that strategy printed out that you can hand over or that your support people can read over while you're in labour and birth. And if you've done the guide to giving birth without pain medication, you'll know that there's the affirmations that you can start doing, all that mental grit stuff and mental preparation. But some women do like to have little affirmations printed out, some visual things that you can see, affirmations printed, some pictures that make you feel all cosy and warm and gooey that you might want to put up in the birth room, something, you know, to set, to help you work through each labour contraction. Those are the visual reminders.
[46:34] The other thing you should pack is a swimming costume or bathing suit for the shower or the bath if you're planning on using those to labour in. And again, this is the same for your support people. I've got a list for them and they also have swimmers on the list because they're going to help you in the bath and in the shower. Now this next thing oh one bugbear of mine is you know in preparation for this episode i did do a sleuth around the internet to have a look what other people have put on their hospital birth packing list and almost all of them said to pack fairy lights can i just say how insane that is what we know now about blue light what i just told you about blue light and the emission of blue light rays and how they impact upon your melatonin and oxytocin flow during labor and birth. Don't bring fairy lights unless they're only the red lights. So I showed you the blue light blocking glasses. What you can also get is these little reading lights. This one's a bit broken. They usually have a little clip on them, but we've got four of these at home at night time when the sun starts to go down you can see this i'm turning it on right now this is set to only emit orange and red light rates there's no blu-rays no blue.
[47:52] That gets emitted but you can still see so I would suggest having some of these portable red light reading lamps they clip onto things and instead of taking fairy lights take these if you want ambient light for your labor room these are super handy postnatally as well for those nighttime feeds where you don't want to turn the lights on and disturb your melatonin for the night is you can turn on the red light instead and prefer and avoid those blue light rays during the night time but they're super portable they're super flexible they're chargeable so they don't need batteries and those instead of putting fairy lights put those in and they'll be really handy for the for the birth room but also your postnatal space afterwards okay that's that, And lip gloss, and this is not a fashion accessory. This is not makeup. Hospital air conditioning is so drying. And when you're working hard during labor, your lips are going to get super cracked. So take some lip gloss and don't forget your expressed breast milk if that's something that you have done for your labor and birth. That's going to be in your esky bag.
[49:03] Now, what should your support people take in their backpack? Warm, comfy clothes. All right. The hospital is not particularly interested in providing pillows and blankets and a cozy place to sleep for your support people, but they will probably need a rest at some point. So if they're wearing warm, comfy clothes, maybe swimming with a hood that's all cozy, they can kind of.
[49:27] They can have a little rest in those without getting cold. They'll need a change of clothes because it could be a long time and they don't want to, if they get smelly in their clothes and dirty, they want to change.
[49:37] Swimmers so they can support you in the pool and the shower. Snacks for them, a drink bottle for them. They can take their own bed pillow if they want, but even better is encourage them to take a travel pillow. There's a high chance that there's nowhere for them to lay down and rest in the birth room but they could prop themselves up on a chair or lean against like I've leaned against a wall before to have a little nap but if they've got a travel pillow it means they might have a little bit more of a comfy rest even if they can lay down that can double as a little pillow they should take their phone and charger their own toiletries including deodorant toothbrush toothpaste and a little towel maybe a little camp towel that they can use to freshen up there is nothing worse than being up for 24 hours starting to get a little bit whiffy and smelly having bad breath and then also trying to support your partner in labor and birth her she's going to be really attuned to how you smell so try and stay fresh think about your hygiene and just replenish that every sort of you know 12 hours or so have a little bit sniff a little bit of a toothbrush make sure you're all fresh and ready to help I would also take some closed-in shoes for action it's like the action shoes from going from the car to the birth room and carrying all the bags and being present but then also throw in a pair of waterproof or slip-on shoes so thongs if you're helping in the shower.
[51:07] The other thing I recommend that your support people take is, and I'm not usually this way inclined, but some paracetamols like a panadol and ibuprofen. So these are pain relieving and anti-inflammatory medications that you could use if, for example, your back's a bit sore. And you know, what happens is when you get tired or hungry or a bit stressed is you could get a headache. And that is going to really limit your capacity, your support people's capacity to be fully present for the woman who's actually laboring. So if you start to feel sore or headachy or a little bit off, just take a panadol or ibuprofen, knock those symptoms on the head just for a short time because you need to push through and be present. So be prepared with those, just what, you know, whatever medications you need, but particularly the pain relieving ones for you. All right so that's what's happening for the home, the car and the birth room and obviously anything that you had in the car for using for pain management and pain relief you'll bring that in with you to the
[52:13] labor room so that you can keep using it. So now your baby's born, it all went well, your decisions were respected, you felt as though your support people were present.
[52:23] Your belly's full because you got all those yummy snacks now it's the day after the birth now if everything's gone beautifully well you can discharge home from the hospital go straight home you don't have to stay postnatally and in fact I would recommend that if you've got some good support at home have the baby if everything's well go straight home if not if you do stay in hospital if you need to stay in hospital or if you plan on staying in hospital.
[52:49] The day after, you kind of need the same amount of stuff to stay comfy. So I've got a list of things for the day after the birth. Again, all your toiletries, toothbrush and toothpaste, hair elastics and toiletries. Do not rely on the hospital to have delicious soaps and shampoos. They don't. All they smell like really hospital-y and horrible. And in fact, if I were you, I'd do your absolute best to choose items, soaps and shampoos and things that don't have a lot of perfumes in it. Your baby's really relying on being able to actually smell you, who you are as a person, rather than artificial fragrances. Important for establishing breastfeeding and bonding. So do your best to avoid foreign soaps and shampoos. The other thing is Arnica pills. Great for if your vulva's sore, a bit swollen, or if your bum hole hurts. That That happens too after birth just because the baby comes past there. Your magnesium spray can help for those cramps. Your mama nappies, so those incontinence nappies, white ones, to help with that early day blood loss so that you don't mess up your beautiful jammies. Baby nappies, take some thongs for the public shower. Again, snacks is on the list. Snacks, snacks, snacks. They're not going to feed you great food in hospital, unfortunately. Have snacks.
[54:13] Your drink bottle too because your milk's going to be coming in. Super thirsty. Keep that full. A few baby jumpsuits. Just a couple. You don't need a lot. I reckon a baby sleeping bag thingo. You don't have to rely on, again, the hospital blankies. A baby sleeping bag. A newborn stretchy wrap. So this is for baby wearing. I would recommend taking that with you because in the early day, you might feel like getting up for a little walk down the corridor. You can strap your baby on and take it with you. and also the journey from the hospital room down to the car. If you've got your baby strapped to you, that makes it easier to walk.
[54:50] Carry anything hopefully you're not carrying anything but you can get to the car with your hands free pack some baby wipes i love the water wipes they're really low toxicity low fragrance there's not a lot of chemicals in those some soft comfy long sleeve pajamas for you again post that awards cold some going home clothes for you undies sucks now don't not get this that a sauce bottle or a plastic bottle you can get them for like two dollars a fresh clean one or you can buy those pump drink bottles that have the squirty lid tops, or if you've got a bit more cash you can get the designer peri bottles the purpose of this is to fill it with water and while you're weeing after the birth all of your weaves for the first two or three days you might need to squirt water on your vulva and your perineum while you're weeing to dilute your urine stream because those first wheeze can be a little bit stingy. I would take that with you for sure for every single wee for the first day or two depending on how you feel.
[55:57] The next thing, take a thermal mug with your preferred beverage. Oh my gosh, if you're a tea drinker or if you have a particular hot drink that you really like, I just feel like being deprived of that and the first day after having a baby is scandalous. And so if you can bring the gear that you need to have your preferred drink and put it in a thermal mug. Now, this is a hack for the rest of your life. Now, listen up.
[56:24] Thermal mug this prevents this means you can make yourself a hot tea or a hot whatever it is you want to drink and it stays hot for whatever task interrupts your tea for the next two years you know that you can come back to that thermal mug and it's going to be hot also it'll have a lid so prevent spills you know in your day-to-day life with your little people take that with you have that next to you in hospital when they serve you tea and coffee in hospital they're in these tiny little mugs and they've got this tiny little finger hole and you can barely pick it up and then your tea or coffee is all cold before you even get a chance to drink it it's not anyway take a thermal mug and we've got a great birth rebellion one exactly for that it's ceramic it's delicious you could give that a go uh breastfeeding friendly tops
[57:15] i would not recommend breastfeeding bras Maybe the singlets. You want something loose fitting that's easy to get your boobs out that won't actually compact your boobs. They should be bejoubling around at this stage so they can function properly. And we already spoke about the red lights.
[57:34] For breastfeeding in the nighttime. All right, that is the day after the birth. Now on the list, on the PDF list that you can click and download, I also have a list of things that you could have waiting for you at home. I'm not going to talk about those today. And also a list of the great birth rebellion podcast episodes that I think you should prioritize if you are planning a high powered hospital birth. It starts with this episode 195 and there's a list of others that can help you and your support people get ready for labor and birth. This episode is going to teach you what you need to pack, to take with you. The previous episodes are going to help you with your preparation so that you
[58:15] can be prepared for a high powered birth in hospital because that's what it's about. Being informed, making decisions that you believe in and having people around you who respect you. And if you want to get through labor and birth without pain medication to optimize the function of your body, work through the Guide to Giving Birth Without Pain Medication, and sister, you are ready. That has been today's episode of the Great Birth Rebellion podcast, and I'll see you in the next episode.
[58:45] To get access to the resources for each podcast episode, join the mailing list at melanethemidwife.com. And to support the work of this podcast, wear the rebellion in the form of clothing and other merch at thegreatbirthrebellion.com. Follow me, Mel, @MelanietheMidwife on socials and the show @TheGreatBirthRebellion. All the details are in the show notes.
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©2026 Melanie The Midwife
