Hospital Advice

My advice for new moms in the hospital and postpartum:

1. Don’t wear your socks during labor if you want to keep them.
2. Don’t eat during labor if you can help it.
3. Use your husband (or support person) to communicate to the nurses and doctors for you since you will probably be less coherent to anyone else.
4. Bring your own snacks to the hospital just in case.
5. Bring ear plugs/blinders to the hospital.
6. For entertainment, watch movies on your laptop, bring a CD player, or bring small games. It will probably be hard to concentrate on reading or any other mental activities.
7. When you go home, sleep with a baby blanket or towel under you to protect your bed from leaking breast milk. (You should only need it for a few weeks.)
8. Since babies’ fingernails grow with their skin, don’t bother cutting nails for a few months. Just peel them across when they start breaking on their own.
9. Get Lansinoh for nursing.
10. Use a heating pad and/or ice for afterpains.