Things I have been happy about having on hand post-partum:
food in the freezer
comfy coordinating jammies to wear around the house
plenty of comfort stuff on hand (pads, witch hazel pads, soothies, comfort food & drink)
I WISH I had some nursing nighties.
And this is cut & pasted from my birth story... reflections on what L&D prep I did and the result. HTH!
IN RETROSPECT…
I’m really glad that I had my own birthing clothes, even though I was skeptical about how important they would be. I’m glad that I had my Soothies with me for post partum use!! My nipples are still sore, but they thanked me for having Soothies along. It was nice to have my birthing tanks for under the hospital gown, and I now wish that I’d had some ample nighties with easy breast feeding access instead of the hospital gowns. I was REALLY happy that my sister had brought cookies and chocolates, as we enjoyed them while we were in the hospital.
A lot of the things I did to prep for labor didn’t get utilized – I didn’t listen to any of my labor music, or use any of the massage oil I had picked out and carefully scented. I didn’t eat my labor treats. I didn’t really even call on the mental imagery I’d picked out to help me focus, or use any of the birth positions I’d read about. Even though I didn’t use the music, imagery, birth positions, massage oil, etc. I still think that giving them all thought and planning really helped me to prepare mentally for the birth. I felt ready. I had packed my birthing tool kit, literally and figuratively, and knew that I had a lot of coping mechanisms at my disposal and that really helped my mental state.
The thing I was disappointed NOT to use, though, was the labor tub we had rented. Even though we called to give the company a heads up before we left for the hospital (at about 3:30 AM) and called as soon as we got to a room (about 4 AM), it took until 5:25 AM for the tub to be delivered and another 30 minutes plus to get set up. By the time the tub was ready, the telemetry was not working and I had to be on a standard monitor. I was also about ready to push and not up to the task of climbing back out of the bed. The woman setting the tub up didn’t seem motivated to get it ready very quickly. She clearly didn’t think that I had time to use it (asked my sister and doula and midwife all about my dilation, etc. and made it clear that she was really skeptical about my getting any use ouf of the tub). This became a self-fulfilling prophecy. I’m still irritated about this because I was REALLY looking forward to using the tub, and we paid $250 to rent it.
My birth plan was helpful but I don’t feel like my midwife really had time to read it. If she had, she might have helped me more with measures to prevent the tearing. But like I said, I didn’t care about tearing by the time we got to the pushing phase, so I can’t really blame her. The best part was that the anesthesiologist actually read my plan (while I was roaring through a contraction) and did NOT offer any pain meds for delivery, but did tell me what her recommendations would be if I needed another section, based on my anxieties with the spinal the first time around. Maybe she didn’t offer pain meds because I was already at 7 cm, I don’t know, but I was really impressed that she read the plan!
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