Your half of the bag
Thirty-two weeks is the packing week, not the week she tells you it might be time. Raising Children says consider the bag packed by then, in case labour is early. That includes a planned homebirth, because a transfer bag is still a bag.
Know what is in it so you are not ransacking a suitcase between contractions. Her side, from the getting-ready page, is the pregnancy health record, comfortable oversized shirts, extra underwear, warm socks, lip balm, a water bottle, snacks, basic toiletries, maternity pads or period-proof underwear, pyjamas and day clothes, slippers, and baby basics.
Nappies, singlets, socks, tops, bottoms, one-piece suits, large cotton or muslin wraps. Easy-open tops if she is breastfeeding, a maternity bra, breast pads. Music, pillows, a TENS machine, oils, blankets, if she wants them and the hospital allows them.
Ask what the ward already gives you before you pack three of everything.
Your side is on the birth-support page and it is not cute. Snacks you will eat. Comfortable clothes.
A phone charger. Labour can go for a very long time. A dead phone and a hungry man are a bad combination in a plastic chair.
The drive is a plan you make while everyone is calm. Car or taxi. The route.
How long it takes at night, not at lunch. Parking cost and where the car actually stops. Petrol in the tank from now on, not from the morning you notice the light.
Which entrance is open after dark. Who has the other children if there are any. Before you roll out, call ahead so staff can be ready.
If it is moving fast, or you are worried about her or the baby, you do not white-knuckle the freeway. You call 000.
Coming home is part of the same plan. If you are in a car, you need a properly fitted rear-facing child car seat with an inbuilt harness. Fit it before the due week. A seat in a box in the hallway is not fitted.
The birth plan sits next to the bag, and it is a guide, not a contract the universe signed. Who is in the room. What she wants to wear.
How she wants to handle pain. What she wants to avoid. Who cuts the cord.
Whether she wants to keep the placenta. Share it with the midwife or doctor beforehand and ask for it on the record. Then talk about a plan B, because her plan and the baby's plan can disagree, and what she wants can change on the day.
A female clinician can be requested and still be impossible if things turn urgent.
Before the birth, line up food and people for the return. Someone who will cook. Someone who will not stay for four hours.
The freezer counts. The phone number of the hospital stays where you can find it without thinking.
You are not packing a mood. You are packing the things that stop you being useless when the day arrives early.
Source: Raising Children Network