BumpBirth

The hospital bag list, minus everything you won’t use

Midwives and 312 readers told us what they actually unpacked.

20 October 20261 min read✓ Reviewed by a registered midwife

On this page 2 sections
  1. Pack these
  2. Leave these at home

In short

  • Pack it by 36 weeks.
  • Bring a long charger and more snacks than you think.
  • Leave candles and the outfit with 14 poppers at home.

Most hospital bag lists are written by people who sell bags. We asked our readers what came home unused and built the list backwards.

Pack these

0 of 6 ticked

Leave these at home

Candles (not allowed), a full makeup bag, more than one book, and the cute going-home outfit with 14 poppers.

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Ellie Grant

Ellie looks after our pregnancy and birth coverage, working with midwives and hundreds of reader panels.