How to Pack a "Hospital Bag" for a Home Birth

One aspect of planning a home birth that I am thrilled about is there is no transport to another location in the midst of labor. For me, I think this is going to be such an asset as I know I would spend so much of my early labor worrying about when to leave for the hospital.

But since I am not leaving for the hospital, I have no bag to pack. For many moms, it seems like this is a big deal - the Packing of the Hospital Bag. It's the sense that, "okay, this is really happening, and I'm prepared."

For a home-birth mom, the equivalent of packing a hospital bag is collecting all the items for a "birth kit." This includes everything from bendy straws to a birth tub to something to catch (and then to store or dispose of) the placenta - yup, we have to think of everything and take care of it ourselves at home.

So instead of packing toiletries and extra undies, I'm buying plastic to cover my furniture.

Most of the items we need for birth came in the mail yesterday. I walked past the box in my breezeway four times before deciding that I could bring it inside. Then, it sat, unopened, on my kitchen table until David came home. I just couldn't bring myself to open it on my own.

Seeing the items in the kit brought the reality of the whole experience home, and I wasn't ready to face that reality quite yet - at least not home alone.

When David got home, he was anxious to open the box - so I let him rummage through it before I walked over to glance through the items in the box, leaving most of them exactly in their home in the box.

Then, I shut up the box, and put it in the baby room.

I'm nearly 35 weeks, but I'm just not ready to "pack my hospital bag" quite yet. I'm confident that once the play is over this weekend and I can put that behind me, I'll be ready to face the reality of labor, delivery and motherhood - but for now, I've set all those thoughts and the kit that makes them all tangible in a back closet in my mind, in my house.