food for labour?

[buttershy]

Hi ladies,

I'm 30wks pregnant and a bit OCD about getting organised. I've just started to pack my hospital bag and I'm thinking about foods to include. At the time I'm planning on grabbing some fresh fruit like bananas but some food with longer shelf life I thought I might put to one side now.

If this all seems silly bare with me, I had a hospital stay at 24 wks pregnant and because I was very ill I barely ate anything, got progressively more poorly and had constipation for over 10 days which was just awful. I also was regularly missed when they ordered or brought round food and had one day where plain white toast was all I was served (not good for constipation!) so I feel that I would be more relaxed, especially as I will be nursing baby if I have some good food on hand. I also have hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) so unless I have a planned c-section I will need to eat during labour.

So any ideas on what to bring, what worked for you? What didn't work?

Cereal bars
Plain biscuits (digestives/rich tea)
Chocolate covered raisins and nuts
Fruit purée
Savoury biscuits or plain crisps
Ribena cartons (I've been told these are great for the sugar boost)
Lucozade
Some sort of fruit heavy smoothie to help with constipation
Natural jelly sweets (allergic to a food colouring in regular kind)

Thanks!

Please excuse if this is naive, but would lucozade help your blood sugar, I couldn't eat as from my first contraction I was in established labour and the stronger they got the more nauseous I became and endd up being sick, particularly throughout the pushing stage. I drank still lucozade throughout due to the threat of a drip if I didn't. Afterwards I was grateful for my stash of cereal bars and haribo :)

I packed cereal bars, straws (used hospital water and cups) and dextrose sweets. I ate the sweets in labour, I had the cereal bars on the PN ward after.

I didn't eat anything during labour but did drink quite a lot of coconut water - that helped with the wee situation afterwards too.

I also packed Trek protein flapjacks - they're substantial and delicious. Good luck!

Yeah I took loads but didn't eat anything! DH had plenty of it though so it was useful. Your suggestions all sound good so you are probably on to it, but don't take anything/ let anyone eat anything in your vicinity that has a strong smell! I packed cheese and onion crisps...bleurgh...