What Every Expectant Parent Wants and Needs in a Hospital Go Bag

According to PubMed.gov, just five percent of births occur on their estimated date of delivery — while 66 percent take place within seven days of this date. And to ensure you’ll be ready for labor and delivery well before the baby is, it’s typically best to have your hospital bag packed and ready to go at least three weeks before the expected date of birth. To help you out, these tips will cover everything you’ll want and need in your hospital go-bag. Read on and let the packing begin!

Image via Unsplash

Image via Unsplash

Pack Essentials for the Parents-to-Be. Your birthing hospital will likely provide you with some essential items — like hospital gowns, grip socks, labor tools, basic toiletries, and sanitary pads — but you’ll feel much more comfortable if you’re familiar with the items you’ll be using before, during, and after delivery. As such, you may wish to fill your hospital go bag with the following types of items:

 

●      A birthing playlist

●      Reading material

●      Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lip balm, and deodorant

●      Any makeup you plan on wearing during your hospital stay

●      Your toothbrush and toothpaste

●      Hair ties

●      Glasses, contact lenses, and saline solution

●      Your favorite pillow

●      Nursing supplies, including a breast pump

●      Flip flops

●      Several pairs of socks and underwear

 

Your non-pregnant partner will also need a few essential items as he or she awaits the birth of your new bundle of love. A few ideas for expectant dads, for instance, include comfortable shoes and clothing, toiletries, medications, a phone charger, and a comfortable pillow and blanket.

 

Remember Your Health Insurance Card. Depending on the hospital you’ll be delivering at, other required documents may include pre-admission papers, your pregnancy medical file, and any birthing preferences you have. You may also need to provide the contact information of your baby’s primary health care provider.

 

Bring Everything Your Newborn Will Need. In addition to all the different things you and your partner will need during your hospital stay, you’ll also want to pack a few essential items for your new bundle of joy. These items include soft blankets and swaddles, socks and hats, burp cloths, a nursing pillow, an appropriate outfit for your baby to leave the hospital in. Typically, the right coming home outfit will depend on functionality, current weather conditions, and the size of your newborn.

 

Before leaving the hospital, you’ll also need to install an infant car seat — as doing so is mandatory in all states. You can find a National Child Passenger Safety Technician near you, however, if you need help with the installation.

 

Don’t Forget Your New Mom Essentials. As you prepare for the arrival of your new bundle of joy, it’s easy to forget about the things you’ll want or need after giving birth to your newborn. But fortunately, this packing list from Kindred Bravely will help to ensure that you have everything you could possibly need as you prepare for labor and delivery:

 

●      Maternity and delivery gown

●      Anti-slip socks

●      Nursing bra

●      Washable nursing pads

●      Set of nursing pajamas

●      Few pairs of postpartum panties

●      Outfit to leave the hospital in

 

When selecting an outfit to leave the hospital in, make sure it’s stretchy and loose-fitting — and leave the stylish jeans or fitted pants at home. Some great options for postpartum mothers include drawstring yoga pants, joggers, soft nursing tees, and maternity nursing dresses.

 

Prepare for Delivery Day. While you may need additional items depending on your specific situation, these tips will help to guide you as you assemble your hospital go-bag and prepare for labor and delivery. Most babies arrive earlier or later than expected, so don’t put off packing: Start assembling your hospital bag today!

Acupressure for Birth

I just completed a wonderful course on acupressure for birth. I learned a few useful acupressure points in my doula training, and have found them helpful in some labors. I jumped at the opportunity to expand my knowledge with this course! I really enjoyed learning more about how my hands can be used to support a laboring client, beyond simple touch and massage.

Using acupressure for nausea on a client in transition. Photo courtesy of Tara Ruby.

First, let’s briefly discuss how acupressure works. Acupressure and acupuncture are age-old therapeutic modalities, originating from ancient China. When using acupressure, we are focused on certain points of the body that correspond to certain conditions. Research shows that using these points stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. (The autonomous nervous system controls our ‘fight or flight’ responses, while the parasympathetic controls our ‘rest and digest’ functions). We know it is essential for the birthing person to be as relaxed as possible during labor, and the parasympathetic nervous system helps by slowing the heart rate, increasing gland activity, and relaxing sphincter muscles. (Remember, the cervix is a sphincter!) Evan, one of the instructors of the course, summarizes it this way: “acupressure gives us a direct line of influence into the most basic functions of the nervous system’s control over the birthing process.”

I think the most helpful things I learned in this course were how to use acupressure for postpartum and cesarean births. In the postpartum period, we can utilize points for fatigue, uterine recovery, and lactation. When supporting a cesarean birth, we can not bring things with us into the OR, and many of our comfort measures that we use in labor are not appropriate. Using acupressure allows us to help the mother to remain calm and be present during their surgical birth. It can also help alleviate some of the discomforts common to cesareans, such as headache and shortness of breath.

Acupressure is useful for many situations in labor, birth, and postpartum; everything from anxiety and nausea, to bleeding and lactation. For most conditions, there are multiple points that can be stimulated to increase the effects. It is important to be trained in acupressure, as some points can induce labor, and should not be used without permission of one’s care provider. On the other hand, using inappropriate points will not bring about the helpful effects we desire.

Further Reading:

www.acupressureforbirth.net

Acupuncture or Acupressure for Pain Relief during Labor

Acupressure to reduce labor pain: a randomized controlled trial

Acupuncture or acupressure for induction of labor

1820s Motherhood

Last week, while a friend was in from out-of-town, we were able to tour the Isaiah Davenport House here in Savannah, GA. I was immediately intrigued by this photo:

This is a silhouette of Sarah Davenport, given to her as a gift after delivering her 10th child (7 survived infancy). It was done in 1828 by a silhouette artist by the name of Master Hanks. The thing that blew me away is that this piece was made when she was one week postpartum!

This and some of the other artifacts (pictured below) made me wonder, what was it like to be a mother in the 1820s.

With further research, I have compiled some interesting tidbits about birth in the 1820s.

1. It was deadly.

If a woman were to survive the birth itself, she was susceptible to childbed fever, now known as puerperal fever. The quick-progressing symptoms of this bacterial infection of the reproductive tract consisted of extreme abdominal pain, fever, and weakness. It took many years for doctors to learn the cause of the disease, which was eventually found to be caused by the lack of sanitation at the time. Doctors would often go directly from autopsies to births, with no hand hygiene between. The idea of doctors spreading the disease was first proposed in the early 1790s by Alexander Gordon, but was not accepted until 1885. It remained a problem due to carelessness in antiseptic routine, until sulfa and penicillin were introduced as treatments in the 1930s and 40s. We also cannot neglect the fact that deliveries were much more traumatic in this time, causing more wounds and a greater opportunity for infection to set in.

If women did not succumb to the fever, there were of course other deadly complications such as postpartum hemorrhage or obstructed labor. In fact, women wrote their wills upon finding out they were pregnant. Non-deadly, but life-altering, complications also occurred. These included damage from untreated infections and venereal diseases (antibiotics were not widely used for nearly another century),  uterine prolapse, and fistulas.

Cornelia Augusta, Isaiah and Sarah's ninth child, died of childbed fever in 1853 at age 29.

2. Pain relief

Ether was first used in 1847, and chloroform shortly thereafter, but obviously were not available for Sarah's births in the 1820s. These medications also made the use of forceps more common, as they made it difficult for women to push effectively.

3. Doctor or midwife?

Before the 19th century, all births were attended by midwives. In the 1820s, most births were still at home (only 5% of deliveries occured in hospitals by 1900), but began to be attended by doctors as well. Sarah most likely had a home birth with a midwife, but we can't be certain.

 

Sources:

http://www.davenporthousemuseum.org/

https://www.bellybelly.com.au/birth/why-women-used-to-die-during-childbirth/

https://www.fitpregnancy.com/pregnancy/labor-delivery/checkered-history-delivery-room

http://www.loyno.edu/~kchopin/new/women/bcabortion.html

Birth: The Surprising History of How We Are Born by Tina Cassidy

Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America by Richard Wertz & Dorothy Wertz