Labour and birth checklist

It’s worth organising yourself early and making some plans for the birth and afterwards; the more you can get organised now, the easier it will be.

Before the birth:

Keep emergency contact numbers by the telephone including: your doctor, a taxi service, the hospital labour ward and your midwife.
Make sure you have plenty of easy food in the house, like baked beans, cans of soup, and frozen fish to save you cooking when you’re back home with the baby. After childbirth you will need to rebuild your energies with nutritious food.
Check that you have all the things you are likely to need for the birth.

For the birth:

Make sure you can contact your partner at all times.
Have a reserve labour partner ready, just in case your partner (or mum, or sister) is miles away.
Plan how you will get to hospital; if by car, get to know the route and car parks.
If you need to ask a friend or relative for a lift, make sure you know how to contact them.

After the birth:

Have some clothes for your baby to wear home.
If coming home by car, make sure you have a properly fitted baby car seat ready.
After giving birth you will want loose and comfortable clothes, make sure these are ready for you to wear home.
Have coins or phonecards and a list of phone numbers to ring friends and family from the hospital.

Bounty Organiser

You can keep track of your pregnancy milestones with our free online calendar. It lets you enter your baby’s due date which automatically populates the calendar with need-to-know dates such as when to give your MAT B1 form to your employer, the earliest date you can start maternity leave, and when to apply for free prescriptions and dental treatment, the Health in Pregnancy Grant and Child Benefit. You can add in your midwife appointments, scan dates and antenatal classes and select to receive email reminders for them a month, a week or a day before. Plus, print off our useful checklists which cover everything from what to pack in your hospital bag to breastfeeding essentials.