labour bag - what food to pack?

[splashy]

Am 38 weeks and have packed my labour bag, have cereal bars and lucazade tablets, wondered what else to pack? And how much?

Thanks!

Food?!

Was the last thing in the world I wanted when in actual labour

Cereal bars should be fine, if you're hungry your birthing partner will be able to pop out and get you something

I doubt you'll need it though. Good luck

I thought that at first but a friend told me she was ravenous throughout and all the lists talk about food. Been told chocolate is bad so wondering what else to pack..

I would take anything easy to nibble on thats high in sugar - you may well need the energy boost.

dried apricots to keep you regular - best advice I was given! (helps you get out of hospital faster)

I packed loads of food and didn't eat any of it!

Don't take anything chocolate, it'll melt in the heat on labour ward.

Best advice I had was to freeze a 2/3 full bottle of water, then top it up with tap water as you're leaving for hospital to give you cold water for hours. Cold water was the only thing I wanted. Make sure it's a sports top one otherwise you'll spill it everywhere!

But I gave birth within 2.5 hours of getting to hospital. If it'd been a long labour with an epidural I'd have wanted some of my pringles/ flapjack/ dried fruit/ polos/ ginger nuts!!!

Most hospitals have a shop/cafe open late these days and you can always send your partner out for food.

Food was the only thing that got used from my bag and I was in there for 3 days (plus a day in labour)!
The shop was about 20 minutes walk away (huge hospital), but there was a crap vending machine next to the delivery ward (crisps and fizzy drinks).

Luckily I'd packed flapjacks, bananas, grapes, a malt loaf and some chocolate milk, and sandwiches for DH. We scoffed the lot and more that a friend brought by the time ds was a couple hours old (went in at 10am, born 3pm next day).

A sports bottle for water, or two, is vital. Del and postnatal wards are boiling!

Partly depends on how long you plan to stay! Our hospital sends you home within a couple of hours of delivery so it's only a question of what to eat during labour (answer: dextrose tablets). If you need to stay longer then you'll want other snacks, but your OH can supply those.

pack the nicest biscuits you can. I ate nearly the whole box when they moved me down to post natal ward, at 3 am I scoffed the lot! my preference was waitrose chocolate shortbread! you will want sugar and carbs

I was induced so had no food at all during labour which was fine. But I would have loved some nice food after labour. I gave birth at 17.00h and was given NOTHING except a cup of water until the next morning.

sweet drinks may help as a pick me up.

also, after birth, once yo're on post natal ward the kitchen should have food that you can help yourself to,. not much,probably just toast and cereal, but its something. if you want a proper main meal or a sandwich then you can insist to a midwife and they will get you something-but you will probably need to insist.

Bananas. But if you don't eat them all, don't do what I did and forget to take them out of the bag when you get home. I found them three weeks later full of maggots!!

Labour came on quick so the only thing we had was a packet of gingernuts from the car which went down a treat afterwards, after tea and toastandjam from the MLU kitchen, and before lunch which was 7 hours later. You will find you need a massive sugar hit afterwards so dextrose tablets would be the best thing to pack, along with copious amounts of water - G&A makes your throat so dry.

I have ritz crackers (been so tempted to take them out and eat them!!), choc digestives, pear drops and lucozade. plus some peanuts for DH.

If I need anything else, theres a 24 hour tesco 10 mins walk away

Chocolate digestives to dunk in your tea afterwards. Bliss! I kept choking on the toast they made me because of dry g&a mouth but the biscuits went down a treat.

I took cereal bars, glucose tablets, haribo, polos and some chocolate. And Ribena, great for G&A mouth!