Snacks for hospital bag

[abrown113]

I'm just packing my hospital bag and I've seen it says to take some snacks with you. How much should I take and have you got any ideas on what is best?

Flapjack. Lots of. But don't spoil your tea and toast. It will be the best thing you have ever eaten in your life!

Tracker bars or similar are good. I also brought little cartons of apple juice, the ones that don't need to be refrigerated. Dried apricots or similar for afterwards (to help avoid constipation!)

To be fair you probably won't eat the snacks and if you do, you may see them again.. Your DP or birth partner may be very grateful for them though.

I took crisps, cereal bars, dried fruit and jellybabys for the sugar. Didn’t eat a single thing during labour, but ate like a Queen in the postnatal Ward!

Snacks good for afterwards mostly. Ward dinner is about 6pm. Breakfast about 7am. You might well be up most of the night feeding, this a long gap...

Also dinner is at a fixed time it's easy to miss... with my first I gave birth at 2pm, got to ward around 6.30pm having missed dinner. Had to send DH for provisions (Maccie Ds as after 4pm on a Sunday is very limited)!

I'd recommend savoury snacks like Jerky/Biltong and oat cakes to balance sweet flapjacks.

Chocolate will melt, even in winter most wards are hotter than the centre of the sun...

The only thing we actually ate were cereal bars. My OH was forcing me to eat through the labour as ketones can stop labour altogether apparently!
This was the middle of the night though - admitted at 1:30am and LO was with us before 7am.

Depending on the time of day you may be much hungrier than I was. Take plenty of high energy snacks - it's a tiring process!

Plain hula hoops
Nakd bars
My fave jelly sweets
Water
Apple juice cartons
Bananas

As others have said I didn't need at all during labour as I felt too rough but was starving after so was glad to have them.

Pack what you love to eat/ your favourite things it will be so nice after.

So stupid questions sorry - they do provide dinner and breakfast then? And then DP can go out and bring food in if I'm hungry or anything. I just want to make sure I'm prepared!!

They provide food after you’ve given birth (tea and toast usually - best meal I’ve ever eaten!) and if you have to stay on the ward for any reason you get meals provided. Your DP will have to sort his own food out.

But hopefully you have a straightforward birth and can be discharged directly from the delivery suite which means you can eat whatever you want at home.

Honestly you will not have time for snacks

Transportable snacks unlikely to go to waste. I haven't managed discharge from delivery room with either of mine - 1 had 12h obs because meconium, other one I failed to pre after labour- nothing predictable about that... there's so many different ways you can get stuck in between you and baby!

Whatever you like - I sent my dh to subway.

Ps everyone is different, with my second I had a proper lunch 90 mins before giving birth, I had already had the subway!

I vomited from the first contraction up until DD was born, 16 hours of on and off sick

I took breakfast bars, peppermint tea bags and dried fruit but the only thing I ate was the dried fruit. Oh and Lucozade sport. DH brought me a takeaway pizza hut on day 2! Other than that I ate what was provided which wasn't too bad tbh!

I packed loads of snacks as I'm always hungry but for once in my life during labour I didn't want anything to eat whatsoever - too busy concentrating! I was absolutely ravenous afterwards though so they came in handy then, and as a PP said they're especially handy throughout the long night if you stay in! I took dried fruit, cereal bars and cookies which all went down well.

I had salted almonds, crisps, chocolate nut bars, bananas, clementines, hard boiled eggs. Filling, easily digestible snacks are best (and a mix of sweet & savoury) as you might get so hungry during the night that you'll need to eat a lot as a meal.

I felt bad sending back hospital food almost uneaten but the taste/quality was so terrible :(. I had DH bring me takeout a few times.

Take whatever snacks you actually prefer. I tried to be healthy with cereal bars and dried fruit, but ended up sending DH to get chocolate and sweets!

Also take some bendy straws so you can drink lying down. & take some paracetamols so you're not relying on the postnatal midwifes coming slowly round with the drug trolley!

Take a good stock for afterwards!

I had lunch but threw it up due to inducing meds, missed dinner because I was giving birth, didn't get much tea and toast because I was holding/feeding a newborn on a bed (I was too nervous to drink hot tea and the toast was placed too far away so I asked for it, got a couple of bites then it went back out of reach) and went up to the ward at midnight, absolutely starving by about 3am. I had zero snacks in my bag (didn't get a chance to buy any as was rushed in with bleeding and DH was unable to go and buy me any). The only reason I managed to survive until breakfast the next day was that afterwards I had a craving for a Snickers so I gave my lovely midwife a pound and she went and got me one from the vending machine.

Take some Eat Natural bars, crisps, cheese... these were the things I wish I'd had!

Ditto lucozade sport. I wasn’t sick during labour but wasn’t exactly hungry either. Loved the lucozade sport (raspberry flavour, not too sweet). Had a bag full of snacks that we worked our way through afterwards so weren’t a waste but probably didn’t need to pack so much. If your partner is prone to getting hungry though he’ll need food so either bring stuff for him or be prepared to be left alone whilst he goes off to find some!

Fruit pastilles

Take cereal bars, sweets, stuff that's easy to eat one-handed (as you may well be eating them once baby has arrived and you're dealing with him/her). If you're induced on the drip you aren't allowed to eat so I laboured 38 hours on a cheese sandwich - my advice is eat a hearty meal at the first sign of labour or if you know you're going in to be induced because I was flipping STARVING!!!

I found I needed the snacks for after the birth once everyone had left for the night, and the evening meal had already been served. I always managed to find myself on the ward starving and you obviously can't leave, or ask for food so my cereal bars were a life saver! After being in that position twice now I think if I did it again I'd take crisps and nuts as well as cereal bars and sweets.