Hospital bag checklist generator

How this checklist is built

Every line in this list carries a supplier for each of the four countries: you bring it, the hospital supplies it, or it genuinely differs between hospitals. Items the hospital supplies drop off your packing list. Items that differ stay on it, flagged, because packing something you did not need costs a carrier bag and not packing something you did costs a great deal more.

This is the part almost every hospital-bag list gets wrong, and it is a factual error rather than a stylistic difference. A checklist that tells a British reader the hospital provides nappies sends her into labour without any.

Who supplies what, by country

United Kingdom

The NHS national checklists put nappies, cotton wool, maternity pads and towels on the patient’s list. Royal Surrey states it in as many words: “Maternity sanitary pads (not provided)” and “Disposable nappies (not provided)”. Birmingham Women’s and York both quantify the pads at about 24 super-absorbent ones, and Norfolk and Norwich explains why: bleeding after birth is like a very heavy period.

What NHS trusts do supply: bed linen, pain relief during your stay, a theatre gown and anti-embolism stockings for a caesarean (Hull says the stockings are yours to take home), birthing balls on the ward, and sterilising equipment at some trusts. What they often do not supply is take-home painkillers — Wirral says paracetamol and ibuprofen “will not be supplied by the ward on discharge”.

Formula is the one item you must check with your own trust, because trusts have moved in opposite directions. Guy’s and St Thomas’ provides formula and recommends you do not bring your own. Milton Keynes changed in April 2024 to require ready-made bottles brought in, 8 to 10 a day, because it has no milk preparation area — while still providing formula where there is a clinical indication. Birmingham Women’s wants a starter pack with teats included. Powdered formula is generally not accepted.

United States

US hospitals supply almost everything for the stay, which is why an American packing list looks so short. Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women lists what it provides under a heading that reads “Items that we provide”: disposable underwear, ice packs, postpartum pads, a perineal spray bottle, nipple cream, body wash and shampoo, cooling witch hazel pads, and a hospital breast pump if you need to pump. For the baby: disposable diapers and wipes, a hat, t-shirts, socks and swaddling blankets. Newton-Wellesley puts it simply: “During your hospital stay we will provide everything for your baby.”

The opened consumables usually go home with you, and that is the intention — but it is bounded. Newton-Wellesley draws the line explicitly: those supplies can be taken home, but “Please do not take hospital linens or t-shirts home.” No hospital says everything in the room is yours.

One place not to over-trust the hospital: Massachusetts General warns patients to bring their own “Menstrual pads (we only provide very large pads)”.

Australia

Australian public hospitals are much closer to the UK model than to the US one, and Australian commercial blogs frequently get this backwards. Townsville Hospital and Health Service asks for “four packets of maternity sanitary pads (these are not supplied by the hospital)” and a packet of disposable nappies. The Royal Women’s in Melbourne asks for 32 newborn nappies, 3 packets of maternity pads, and “underpants — waist-high, full brief (rather than bikinis) and lots of them”.

The Better Health Channel gives the honest version: different hospitals have different policies on what they provide for your baby and for you, so check what yours provides. Private hospitals supply considerably more — Mater North Sydney provides pads, disposable underwear, nappies, baby gowns, blankets, towels and cotton wool — but not uniformly: St Vincent’s Private Fitzroy supplies nappies, wipes, formula and feeding equipment and still asks for two packets of maternity pads.

Canada

Canada sits between the two. The dominant pattern is a small starter pack that is expected to run out. BC Women’s is the most explicit: its starter pack has diapers, blue pads, sanitary pads, baby wipes, mesh underwear and a peri bottle — and it still tells you to bring extra diapers, extra wipes, extra pads and four baby blankets. Mount Sinai Toronto: “The hospital has a limited supply of items such as maternity pads, diapers or wipes.” Sunnybrook says the supply “does not usually last for your whole stay” and sells a $35 hospital supply bag to cover the gap. London Health Sciences supplies towels, washcloths, infant gowns and bottle-feeding equipment, but asks for at least 20 diapers because only 6 are provided.

Receiving blankets are the one thing no Canadian hospital in this research supplies, and Mount Sinai asks for them both for the baby and to line the car seat.

Length of stay

Car seats are not the same rule everywhere

In the United States a fitted infant car seat is a discharge condition backed by state law. UPMC states that Pennsylvania law only permits discharge with an appropriate infant car seat; Stanford Children’s says California law requires you to take your baby home in one. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends all newborns go home rear-facing, and some hospitals run an infant car seat challenge for babies born before 37 weeks, though that practice is contested.

In Canada a car seat is required for discharge if you are driving home, and it must carry Transport Canada’s National Safety Mark under CMVSS 213 — not a CSA mark, which some hospital checklists wrongly state.

In the UK and Australia the duty falls on the driver as a matter of road law, and no hospital ties discharge to it. GOV.UK sets the rule by the child’s age and height, with an explicit taxi exemption. Australian restraints must meet AS/NZS 1754. Do not port the American framing into a British or Australian list.

Planned caesarean: what changes

The packing changes: high-waisted underwear that sits above the incision line, a nightdress rather than pyjamas (Leeds says pyjamas are not suitable), loose high-waisted going-home clothes, and more of everything because the stay is longer. Bleeding still happens after a caesarean and still lasts weeks, so the maternity pads do not come off the list.

Two things people get backwards. Do not shave or wax. Fiona Stanley Hospital: “Do not shave, wax or use hair removal cream prior to your caesarean surgery.” Guy’s and the University of Iowa both say to stop a week beforehand; staff clip what needs clipping when you arrive. Do not buy compression stockings. Leeds gives them to you with the theatre gown, Hull says they are yours to take home, and in Australia your team measures your legs and fits them.

Fasting times are the one instruction no checklist can supply, because hospitals genuinely differ: Guy’s splits it by admission time, Ottawa allows clear fluids until 90 minutes before arrival, Sunnybrook says 8 hours for food and 4 for clear fluids, and BIDMC says 8 hours for everything. Follow the sheet you were given — as Kaiser puts it, if you do not, your surgery may be cancelled.

Remove all jewellery and piercings including tongue studs (a wedding ring can usually stay and be taped), and wear no nail varnish, gels, acrylics, make-up, creams or talc. Contact lenses are the exception that has no universal answer: Sunnybrook says do not wear them, the Ottawa Hospital lists them among necessary medical devices to bring. Ask your own unit.

How the filtering works

Choosing a planned caesarean removes the labour-coping kit — TENS machine, birthing ball, pool clothing, handheld fan — and adds the caesarean packing list and a separate block of pre-operative instructions that are not packing at all. Choosing same-day discharge for a vaginal birth removes the overnight items. Choosing formula or mixed feeding adds the formula line with your country’s specific position on it. Season changes the going-home layers and the car seat advice. Nothing is transmitted: the whole thing runs in your browser.