What food to pack for labour?

[Nightfall1983]

I'm 30 weeks and I've pretty much packed my hospital bag but on my list it says "snacks and drinks" and I've been trying to decide what sort of things I should take - any advice esp from those who've been there?

Small things that you can chew and swallow quickly and give quick energy - nothing stodgy. I was only in labour for 6 hours though so I don't know what you'd do if you had a 24 hour labour and actually needed proper food?

Anyway I found the following great:
Jelly babies
Lucozade / glucose sweets
Raisins
Cereal bars
Ribena / just cold water

Dont forget to pack a mini bottle of champagne for afterwards ;-)

I packed nothing for my 1st. For my 2nd packed sweets, mints, drinks, crisps, mini jaffa cakes didn't get to eat any because I was in active labour when I arrived then ended up havign EMCS so was nil by mouth for 12 hours post due to suture problems. DH ate the lot.

With my 3rd pretty much the same as with the 2nd but added in a few extra treats like wispa bar and cereal bars. They made me nil by mouth when I arrived so wathced DH eating some but I had hidden the best bits, enjoyed them after birth with a nice cup of tea (had kettle and milk in the delivery room) Think I was in the staff room/ store cupboard.

Midget Gems!!! That was all I packed!

Anything you don't particularly mind throwing up all over the place

mint imperials were brilliant though, definitely recommend shoving a pack in your bag. My Midwife was pleased to fun them too!

I packed cereal bars - tracker bars. Didn't get chance to eat them in labour but they totally satisfied the hunger pangs afterwards - at 3am when I didn't quite fancy the only other available thing - cold toast. :-)

Cereal bars
Lucozade
Bananas
Really nice chocolate for up on the ward

I was in labour for 20 hours (epidural about 10 hours in).
I found cereal bars and dried fruit worked best for me. Mini juice cartons were great too because they give you a good energy boost and have a straw so are easy to drink if you are in an awkward position!
I was told I couldn't eat after having the epidural so it might be worth packing some glucose tablets just incase you end up having one.
I also packed my favourite chocolate bar for when I was recovering on the postnatal wards as something to lift my spirits after the awful hospital food!! Postnatally, the dried fruit (apricots) also helped with constipation (sorry tmi).

I just had Sports Drinks, no food. Good thing too has I had a fight on my hands being allowed to drink those.

Water only apparently

(I'm guessing in case one needs an emergency c-section?)

Cereal bars, snacks for DH, glucose tablets or lucozade. The hospital will have a shop and cafe, after the birth I sent DH there for dinner while I had my stitches. I took bananas as well and DH got me some sandwiches from the shop afterwards. I needed sugary things in labour and proper food about 2 hours afterwards.

I was only allowed water and full fat coke. Really regretted not having a decent meal before going in, as ended up being a looong labour and then EMCS :)

I wasn't allowed anything during labour including water. Which is why they made such a performance about bringing in face sprays - we were told to make sure it was one we could spray in our mouths!

During labour I didn't actually want to eat really, would have killed for a drink though. After the birth I was sooooo thirsty, but had to wait 3 hours before I was allowed anything

I'd packed sweets and chocolate for DH. He said he didn't need anything until I pointed out we would probably be there for hours and hours and he'd miss at least one if not two meals - he quickly changed his mind!

Having said that, I most regretted packing some sweets which smell really strongly of strawberry - had to tell Dh to stop eating them because I really wanted one!

In the hospital I ate loads of chocolate bars and drank cartons of juice. I was there for 4 days and I soooo needed that food during the nights!

Oh yeah and I ate as much as I could face before going into the hospital. Which in the end wasn't much but fortunately I had a short labour so only went 12 hours without food or water.

Thanks everyone for your advise so far - just curious as to why some people were not allowed to eat during labour? I've been told to bring snacks, it advises it on the NHS website, is this something specific to certain areas/hospitals or is it specific to certain people - like if you are more at risk of needing an emc or something?

I was a low risk pregnancy, so I wasn't expected to have problems. I was meant to be water only, but the senior midwife (one of the three there throughout) overrode the other two and let me have Lucozade.

I guess it must be a just in case thing.

I did scoff down a bowl of muesli when I went into labour though which I later shat out, pellet by pellet into the birthing pool

I have been told to pack snacks for me and dh. In the bag so far we have Pringles
Jaffa cakes
Gummy bears
Cereal bars
Rolos
Capri suns which I have frozen so they will be cold
Lucozade
Fizzy water as I am not keen on plain water
Oh and a nice ready meal for after incase I give birth at a time when the costa coffee is not open as apparently the hospital food is not good.

didn't eat anything - or want to, My only advice would be not to pack anything offensive- my Dp decided to have a bacon sandwich - which didn't help the way i was feeling.
I have to say i look back on the advice cynically- I can't believe I was concerned I'd be bored and packed things to do

I wasn't allowed to eat in case of EMCS / reaction to aneasthetics etc. I'm abroad and they were the rules in the clinic I gave birth in.

tomverlaine I took a book with me and read a fair amount, and slept a fair amount too (epidural)

I didn't want to eat during labour, but it was just under 6 hours so it didn't really matter. I was very thirsty afterwards, so I'd recommend taking in some orange juice or apple juice in cartons.

I would definitely recommend packing something for your birthing partner as you'll be fed by the hospital e.g. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, but they won't. Maybe a Cornish pasty? Not sure what else to suggest, something in a packet that doesn't need refrigerating!

I have never felt hungry in labour but then had quite short labours 12 hours for ds and 4 ish hours for dd. I did suck on a few mints and sip water but just did want to eat.

I did pack food for DH second time around as they do not get fed usually. I packed crisps, cereal bars and those soup in mug things with pasta which the mw did for DH.

Good luck x

I'm in France so the rules are no food or drink in case you have an emergency CS or an epidural (I think) as it stops your food being digested or something so you're likely to be sick. Think thats why.

My mum had warned me anyway not to eat once I went into labour as she was very sick. As it happened I managed not to be sick until I was pushing (ah I remember the look of panic in DH's eyes when I said I'm going to be sick now )

There was a vending machine selling sandwiches which DH ate plus he ate my first meal (sandwiches, salad, yoghurt etc.) when we went up to the room at midnight because I didn't like anything Next time I'l definately take something savoury for me to eat afterwards - I was stuck with twixes and kitkats until morning.

"I can't believe I was concerned I'd be bored and packed things to do"

I agree! I took an easy book with me and my music but ended up just lying on my side (midwife's orders) thinking about nothing much for hours and getting annoyed with the bloody beeping machine which kept going off as my blood pressure dropped but no-one came in for me only for DS who's heartrate kept dropping.

Jelly beans! They were small enough that they didn't make me feel sick, sugary enough to give me a bit of a boost, and it was a welcome distraction to try and guess the flavours!

With DC2, I vomited a couple of times in the afternoon & then started having contractions at 7.30pm & he was born at 9.10pm so, effectively, I hadn't had lunch or supper and, due to the quick labour, was in shock. I had a couple of lucozade sweets whilst in labour & then had jelly babies and cartons of ribena immediately afterwards which, together with the toast & sugary tea I was brought, helped deal with the shock. I got up to the post-natal ward at midnight when obviously there was no food available in the hospital but there was a kettle so the MW got me some hot water so I could make up an instant porridge (a tip from another MNer) and felt much better after that and a banana. I seem to recall having a Mars Bar at about 3am and then some digestives at about 5am.
Breakfast was brought to me at about 7am but I'd opted for cornflakes and was feeding DS when they arrived so they were horribly soggy by the time I got around to eating them so I had another instant porridge and an apple. Lunch, despite being a jacket potato with beans which you would have thought would be hard to get wrong, was vile so I had about two mouthfuls of that and then another banana, some more digestives & some chocolate.
I ate prunes & apricots at frequent intervals throughout the night & morning as I was really worried about being constipated.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that its not just labour you need to think about but what happens afterwards too.