hospital bag - money?

[addictedishavingagirl]

all the lists i've looked at say to take money with you to hospital, is there a reason for this? some hidden costs you only find out about once your in hospital? the mw says before you can have your baby here, you need to pay the 'birth toll'? or is it just incase your new baby ends up in a hostage situation and you need to hand over your life savings to get her back?

its a genuine question btw, i'm just very tired!

bump?

Morning, I don't remember taking any money with me.

I guess its mebe a just in case thing for the phone or if there's a trolley with newspapers etc, although the liklihood of you wanting to read a newspaper is quite slim, you might want to buy a drink or some sweets though that you might have forgetten or didn't realise you wanted.

Having said that there was no trolley when I was in the hospital and you could use your mobile in certain areas so I didn't spend any money on anything. Also DP was allowed in to visit from 12.30pm to 9.30pm everyday so he could pay for things if needed, lol.

I would probably take a few pounds just in case.

Good luck, when are you due?, x.

We ended up paying a small fortune in parking. Unless you can find free parking, take lots of pound coins!

Hi There
I took money with me when i went into hosp to have my two children and it came in handy as the days are long and the baby sleeps a lot so was good ot be able to buy magazines and sweets! from the shop downstairs! also the bounty womn comes around to take the photos so was good to be able to pay her for them there and then rather than forget about it and have another thing to pay once i got home. Hope that helps????

As mentioned food/drinks/magazines, also TV cards are available in most hospitals for about a £5 each, you may also be able to buy photgraphs of your baby from the hospital photographer so maybe a cheque book for emergencies.

We spent nearly £100 in hospital parking when I had DS! That's central London for you!

I would keep money in your hospital bag in case you need to get a taxi to hospital in labour. Or for parking. Also change for vending machines etc.

I was going to say parking - your partner may also want for vending machine - they wouldn't let mine have a cup of tea when I was on the maternity ward.

i took change for car parking, vending machines/shop for dp and tv cards for me! i was in 3 days and loved having the tv/radio to lie and watch when i was feeding ds.

good luck!

car park, vending machine, newspapers, food for your DH from shop. some hospitals charge for watching TV.

am by the £100 parking, we paid £25 in parking (also London) and I thought that was steep.

and yes we did want newspapers, DS2 born at 7am on Saturday morning, and we were there all day....

We took money with us in the hospital bag, but that's because we caught a taxi each way, and also because DH went out to buy us our meals during the day. UCH was brilliant, but only in terms of medical care. The food was dire - thanks be for Pret and Wasabi.

Check with your midwife on parking - DH specifically asked our midwife and apparently the labour ward have passes to give to partners of labouring women so they don't have the situation of rushing out mid-labour to top up the ticket machine!

I'm going to have money in the emergency bag (aiming for a home birth) for food/drinks, payphone (it's sods law DH's phone battery will die just when he wants to ring everyone!) and so that DH can get a taxi home if he comes in the ambulance with me.

The cooked meals were vile so I got DH to get me paninis from the cafe at about a fiver a pop!

Ditto on the parking, we were blue lighted to hospital but DH had to drive over to visit and was never issued with a parking pass so spent about £20 on parking for no reason!

Good luck

ahh thank you, i'm only 23 weeks, but am just writing lists of things i need where, by when and for what reason! (i'm a list maker )

your parking and newspaper/sweets/tv card scenarios are much better than my 'birth toll' or hostage scenarios!