For Hannah

Lauren Bracewell - 10 Feb 16

My lovely friend (the aforementioned Hannah) is going to have her first baby In June in the very same hospital where I had the gorgeous Mathilda in November. I promised her a list of handy hints (or ‘things I wish I’d known’) so, Han, here they are just for you.

1) The hospital is hotter than the sun.
2) You will not need a dressing gown.
3) Or a blanket.
4) Tell your visitors (but most importantly your birth partner) to wear shorts, regardless of the weather outside. I gave birth in winter and my husband wore his. Looked ridiculous on the journey in, but the last laugh was his.
5) Don’t take your own pillow – waste of bag space.
6) Do take your own towel – theirs are rubbish.
7) On top of taking toiletries, take wipes for yourself as well as the baby. Showering in the shared bathroom on the ward (if you’re kept in – and nearly everyone seems to be) isn’t terribly practical and you will get very sweaty (see point one).
8) Do not take the recommended 20 maternity towels. They take up a whole suitcase. Take ten, maximum – a kind soul can always bring in more if needed. Have loads at home.
9) Have a box at home of stuff you might need if you stay overnight, but don’t necessarily want to lug in. That way, you can give your partner a list of what you need and it will all be in one place.
10) If you’re lucky enough to have a mum as marvellous as mine, get her to pop in to your house while you’re in hospital. Mine tidied up, took all the dirty washing away, changed the bed and left food. When you get home from the hospital at half ten at night, it is bliss.
11) Don’t buy paper knickers, they give you a sweaty bum.
12) Buy lots of cheap, black cotton knickers, a size or two up from what you’d normally get. I bought multipacks from Tesco. If any get ruined you can throw them away, they are really comfy and they can go with your nursing bras, handily replacing (for a while at least) all the pretty knickers you already own but can’t get into.
13) Take a cotton hat for the baby to wear in hospital. Regardless of the tropical temperatures, the staff will insist.
14) Ditto a baby blanket.
15) Take two baby outfits in different sizes – you never know what size of infant you’re going to get. Your partner can bring in more clothes in the right size if you need them.
16) Ignore people who tell you not to buy newborn sized clothes. Had I not bought a pack of vests and a pack of sleep suits ‘just in case’, we’d have had a naked baby on our hands.
17) As a general rule, the cheaper the shop, the smaller the baby clothes are. So, Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s are good for a little baby; whereas Mothercare, Mamas and Papas and Next come up big.
18) Take a sports style water bottle in with you. You will be constantly thirsty throughout your stay – see point one.
19) Buy a couple of baby spoons. If the baby has trouble latching on, you can hand express the colostrum onto said spoon and feed them that way. We had no such spoons and had to use a Spork, which melted in the boiling water we used to steralise it.
20) Don’t bank on getting any sleep if you’re kept in. But don’t worry, as there will be your very own brand new human to keep you company.

Lauren Bracewell

An arts-administrating, play-directing, workshop-leading, teacher-training Essex woman and mum to Mathilda.

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