Preparing for Birth Day – A Dad’s Guide to Pregnancy

The time is nigh! (It’s nearly time for those that don’t speak old english)

You are within a month of your due date and the anticipation is growing. You have likely survived the morning (all day) sickness by now and your wife is ready to get this baby out of her. She is likely having a lot of feelings about what is about to happen, swinging from terror to joy in just mere moments. You are about to hold your child for the first time and that is an amazing thing, but first some logistics. What do you need to do to prepare for Baby Day (B-Day)??

More from this blog series: A Dad’s Guide to Pregnancy

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What to Pack

In my opinion, you don’t need much. My wife and I decided to do natural births at the birth house down the street and they let us go home within hours of having a baby so we didn’t need to prepare for a long stay, but it is better to be safe than sorry (you never know what is going to happen). If you know you’re going to be at the hospital for longer, then you’ll want to pack more.

Car Seat – The only MUST HAVE item. You can’t bring a baby home without one. Unless you are having a home birth this is essential. This one for $120 is totally fine.

Snacks – Whatever you wife likes to stack on. Labor can take hours (or days) so something nutritious but not too heavy is good. Granola bars, nuts, jerky, muffins, yogurt, etc.

Hydration – You’ll also want some good hydration drinks. Something like coconut water is a healthy alternative to Gatorade or other sports drinks filled with sugar and crap. Water or tea is also great.

Clothes for baby, mom and yourself – We like to do tub births which means my I strip down to my underwear and usually get messy. Your wife will also need a change of clothes (obviously) and your baby will need some type of onesie. These ones with no legs are great for new borns. Bring yourself and your wife something cozy for after and a blanket for the baby is nice too but you’ll want to do as much skin-to-skin as possible.

Phone charger – To charge your phone

Music – If your birthing center doesn’t have speakers for music then bring your own bluetooth speaker.

Birthing Comb – Some moms like these to squeeze on to help with pain management

Identification – Bring both your driver’s licenses and also your insurance card.

Birth Plan – We’ll talk about this more below
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The Birth Plan

You may have heard that you need a birth plan, if not, you’re hearing it now. This is basically just a short document that you can give to the hospital or birth house that outlines what you want the delivery to go like. It doesn’t have to be complicated or overly detailed and you’ll want to stay flexible but it is good to have a basic idea of your desires.

Something like this will suffice:

Where do you want to have baby? – Birth House

Who will watch your kids? – Mother-in-law

When do we go in? – Whatever our midwife suggests. (the 5-1-1 guideline, contractions five minutes apart, 1 minute long for more than an hour) You can use an app for timing contractions. Start counting from the beginning of one contraction to the beginning of the next.

How will we drive to the birth house? – Fast

Who do you want in the room? – Husband and midwife

What to do during labor – Walk, breathe, workout ball, breathe, walk, pray, sing, yell, moan, etc

Do you want constant monitoring? (Wires attached to your wife throughout labor) – No

No you want any medication – No, natural birth is the goal (nitrous oxide as needed)

Birth/labor positions – standing and in tub for delivery

Do we want vaccinations right away? – No

Do we want our baby taken? – No. We will be skin to skin until we load our baby into the carseat to go home.

Who gets to see the baby when we go home? – No one for 24 hrs. Family only for 2 weeks. Friends when we are ready.

Will we announce the birth on social media? No – Ask sisters to refrain.

Food for when we get home – Hearty soup in freezer ready to heat.

Something like that is plenty for a birth plan. You’ll just want to make sure you and your wife are on the same page about these things and it’ll be your job to advocate for your wife while she is in labor. Doctors like to push stuff on you and recommend more than is necessary to avoid liability. Knowing what you want will help you to stand up to the pressures and expectations that everyone will be throwing at you during birth.
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Time Off

You’ll want to inform your boss of your delivery date and let them know that you’ll have to be ready to leave at a moments notice. If they are not cool with that, quit. You’ll want to take a few weeks off after the baby is born to take care of your wife and connect with your baby. Make the proper arrangements to make sure this happens.

Visitors

You’ll want to talk about this well before the due date arrives but it will be your job as the dad and husband to enforce this rule. You’ll also want to talk with in-laws and parents and siblings about what the expectations are so you can be focused on game day. You also don’t have to tell people when you are going into labor unless you really want to. You get to decide who visits and who knows.

Food

You’ll want to have some food prepared for when you get home from delivery. Having a nourishing soup frozen and ready to heat up is a good idea. You’ll also want to be well stocked on teas and other staple pantry items. Read the first 40 days book for inspiration on this. Prepare as much as you can beforehand because time will be more limited after the baby comes.

Conclusion

That is it! Now you just wait. There is no such thing as a due-date. Babies come whenever they want, so be patient and do your best to stay active. A watched pot never boils so just go on long walks and have lots of sex and get ready for your new baby to come!

More from this blog series: A Dad’s Guide to Pregnancy