Packing Your Baby Hospital Bag the Zero Waste Way.
Your pregnant, congratulations. You’ve been to all your midwife appointments and started your baby classes. Now the midwife keeps mentioning having a bag packed.
You think it must be far to early for that, you’ve no idea what to put in it anyway. Maybe like a few baby grows and a pack of nappies? Maybe you’ll need a change of clothes?
So you start packing. But what if I have to stay in longer than expected? You add a few more outfits for you. Some soap. Hang on there’s going to be a lot of pictures, adds the make up bag. Baby might poo everywhere, adds 10 more baby grows. Suddenly you looking at a full suitcase, 2 back packs and a baby changing bag. You partner askes if you going on a month long holiday. You take it all out and start again.
The problem is you don’t really know what your going to need. You don’t know how long your going to have to stay in hospital or whether you’ll go to hospital at all if your planning a home birth and it’s all so overwhelming.
You were also hoping to be as waste free as possible but you just can’t see how you can do that with a hospital stay.
Stop, breathe, I’ve got you covered.
Through trail and error I’ve come up with the most minimal packing system that will cover all basis. Keeping your impact low and you relaxed.
Everything you’ll need in your birthing hospital bag.
A Bag for you and a bag for baby.
Okay so I’m meant to be keeping it minimal and already I’m telling you to pack two bags but this is purely to simplify things. I found it makes it easier if your partner or midwives offers to fetch something for you or baby if you can direct them easily. It could also be a bigger bag with two compartments. Whatever you have or whatever works better for you. Keeping my things and babies things separate helped keep everything organised.
2. Cotton flannels and some coconut oil.
This is a little luxury to keep you feeling fresh. You might not be able to have as many showers or freshens up as you might like, so a hot flannel and coconut oil will do the trick. Flannels are also great with super cold water on your forehead while your in labour and coconut oil can be used as massage oil for a back rub during the labour too.
3. Lanolin Nipple Cream.
This is a godsend for breastfeeding mothers. I had Lansinoh which most midwives will recommend to you. You may not need it straight away but should you end up staying in hospital longer than you’d hoped it would be useful have it with you. I would also recommend using it before you think you need it. Could help with prevention before the nipples get cracked. I luckily didn’t get sore cracked nipples, this could be down to luck or could be down to the fact I put this on buy the bucket load.
4. Cloth Wipes.
It’s recommend you don’t use single use baby wipes on a newborn and use cotton wool and water on their delicate skin. FYI cotton wool and runny newborn poo are like a serious disaster. Why not treat your lovely babies bottom to some cotton wipes. These work so well with just water and will be kind on babies skin. Then you can then carry on using them for well…. forever. I’m still using those cloth wipes on my 20 month old and I can see them lasting us a long time yet. If you hadn’t guessed already I’m very passionate about using cloth wipes, how they are better for baby, better for the planet and seriously money saving. If your worried about where to start fear not, My Complete Guide to Cloth Wipes and How to Use Them is at your service.
5. Nappies. Cloth or single use.
It’s no secret we love a cloth nappy in this house and I was determined to use them from birth so packed my bag what I thought I would need. I did however take a pack of some Eco single use as well, should we have needed to stay in hospital (which luckily we didn’t) I didn’t want to worry about sending them home to wash or running out.
6. Slip on’s.
I was boiling in hospital. Granted it was the height of summer but whenever I’ve been into hospital I’ve been warm. Therefore I wouldn’t bother packing slippers but some slips on’s or flip flops. You could always put socks on too if you do get cold but you’ll want something to walk around in.
7. A Huge Wet Bag.
For cloth nappies if you use them, cloth wipes, flannels, underwear, any clothing that got grim during labour, or anything you may leak on (blood, milk, it’s such an glamorous time,) muslins baby might be sick on. Wet bags are just great for everything and a big one will see you well during your stay in hospital. You put everything yukky in it and when you get home unsip and straight in the wash. No sorting what needs to go where or touching it as you pull it out of your bag, These Large ones from Baba and Boo are brilliant.
8. A Towel.
Always nice to have your own towel. Although I was grateful when there was a lot of blood post birth the midwife told me to keep mine clean for later and gave me a ton of hospital towels. Did I mention having a baby is grim?
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9. Shampoo Bar and toiletries.
A shampoo bar is an important one for saving on space. In fact the first time I used one was when I went backpacking around Asia for 2 years and needed all the space in my bag I could get. Things haven’t change. It use for washing your face, body and hair in hospital to avoid taking multiple bottles. If you haven’t made the switch to a shampoo bar yet you might fancy reading Zero Waste Hair Care. Switching to Solid Shampoo.
10. Period pants and 100 pads.
100 is probably an exaggeration especially if your planning on use cloth pads to reduce your waste but you get what I’m saying. I knew you bled after birth, I brought a couple of packs of pads. “That’ll do right?” Noooooo No that will not do. I would highly recommend period pants here as extra protection with a pad inside. I’m a massive fan of cloth pads as I became very uncomfortable after days and days of wearing disposable pads. But for those first few hours when your going to need to change them a lot I’d advise getting some super thick pads to go inside your period pants. Your going to go through a lot so although I hate to say it you’d have to have a big stash of cloth pads to see you through, buying loads of these when your not going to need that many normally is likely to be more unsustainable than going single use. After a few days however when things calm down I was soooo grateful to cloth for being more comfortable over the coming 6 weeks that I needed them.
11. a Water Bottle.
I was the thirstest I’ve ever been during labour and post birth, constantly asking for water. Bring your bottle to avoid using the hospital plastic ones and make sure you get some nice cold water in there.
12. Snacks.
I couldn’t eat a thing during labour although Mat needed to dig into some snacks throughout the night, but once she was born and we were comfortable on the ward I could have eaten a horse. The hospital breakfast and lunch were actually very nice and filling (I’ll admit to eating the curry for lunch straight after giving birth) but I also need snacks. And then the fruit, yoghurt and bread my Mum brought it for me too. Don’t scrimp on the snacks.
13.Cloth Breast Pads.
If you only stay in for a day or night your not going to need these but incase you do stay longer until your milk comes in have these to hand. It’s a messy business. In fact my boobs leaked when I fed my daughter until she was around a year so have reusable breast pads was my favourite money saving buy when having a baby. Cloth pads are by far comfier and wash easily. Close Parent Cloth Breast Pads come highly recommended.
14. Muslins.
Probably my top recommendation when it can to My Low Waste Newborn Essentials List. There just great for everything. I especially loved the large ones for using as a cover when breast feeding and a black/swaddle for baby in the summer.
15. Baby Blanket.
The hospital wrapped baby up when she was born but in yukky very hot blankets. As it was warm I switched in to a large muslin but you’ll want a black to go over them for the journey home too. Plus it’s nice to wrap them in something that smells of you and your home straight away.
16. Clothes for you.
Everyone and every list will tell you to pack loose fitting comfy clothes. While this is true and good advice (I worn a loose t-shirt and baggy harem style trousers so nothing was tight on my bump on the way in or on the way home) I’ve got some strange advice to add to it. Which is no-one really warned me how jelly like my belly would feel. Don’t panic about it, it does go down but you can’t expect your belly to contract instantly so where that baby was is just jelly, weird, I felt like my uterus was going to slip onto the floor. And that’s why I didn’t complete enjoy just wearing a baggy top. When I got home I put on a fitted vest top from pre-pregnacy. A comfy stretchy one but it instantly felt like I was being held in and more comfortable. Nothing was swinging around. Yes I said swinging but remember I also said it goes back pretty quick (breastfeeding also helps this process.) Now obviously I then put the loose top back on over the top because I didn’t want the world to see my jelly belly.
17. Clothes for Baby.
This one is hard because I know you going to want to take a mass of pretty clothes to dress them in, you’ll want the perfect little outfit for photos and because well it’s exciting. But then your faced with actually dressing this tiny delicate little one and you can’t even get the baby grow over their head for fear of breaking them. Go with something popper or zipper up. Nothing that goes over the head. Believe me you’ll thank me for this.
18. Your creature comforts.
Last but not lest make sure you had anything you’ll benefit from. Weather than a book to read, music to listen to during labour, a journal. If it’s going to add value then don’t worry about it not being totally minimal.
I wish you all the luck in the world when packing and making the trip to the hospital. If your having a home birth I hope this bag sits at the door unused. Either way I’d love to hear if this helped you in the packaging stages and if it changed anything for you.
Much Love
Hannah xx
You might also enjoy….
How to be an Eco-Friendly Mum.
Zero Waste Postpartum Essentials.
My Low Waste Newborn Essentials.
How many cloth nappies will you need to go full time and ditch the disposables for good?