In our years of living in Manila, we have learned that having a “Go-Bag” is essential. We had one in the car which contained clothes and toiletries that will last us for 2 to 3 days. We actually used it several times during big storms when traveling home was out of the question. This saved us a trip to the mall to buy a new set of clothes for the next day or 2 or 3.
Right now, we have a go-bag at home which contains all of our important documents like passports, certificates and etc., sealed in a waterproof bag. In case of an extreme emergency, we just grab it and go.
Go-bag
Google defines it as “a bag packed with essential items, kept ready for use in the event of an emergency evacuation of one’s home.”
On our third trimester of pregnancy, Raissa was advised by her mommy friends to prepare a hospital go-bag in case the baby suddenly decides to pop out. Knowing Raissa, she has already listed down all the things needed for our go-bag. Since we are used to packing light, our clothes are usually packed in sets and each set is placed in a zip lock bag. It makes for easy organizing, sorting and packing. A set would usually contain a shirt, underwear, shorts/pants, hanky and socks.
She prepared our clothes (segregated in 3 piles; one for me, one for her, one for baby), toiletries and other essentials (baby’s medical records, marriage certificate, meds and birth plan among other things). She even drew little illustrations on the contents of Tala’s clothing sets.
Raissa prepared everything quite nicely, I checked her list and took care of the other stuff like laptops, chargers, cables and other things. Everything was planned to a T. Just as we wanted it.
But, needless to say, we still forgot to bring a few more essential stuff. These items are things that you would think are readily available in the hospital. Depending on the number of days that you will be spending in the hospital, you might need more or less of the following.
- Drinking Water – You will need to bring a lot, we drank an average 6-8 liters/day. You can always buy from the hospital canteen but it will be a lot more expensive than buying from the grocery store.
- Plates, mugs & utensils – Most big hospitals have a cafeteria. The food, in my experience has always been good. You can always eat in the cafeteria but we preferred to eat in our room. If you want to take out cafeteria food, they will just wrap it in a plastic bag. If you don’t have plates and utensils, you will have to pay extra for the disposables. And again, they charge a lot for these and it piles up in your garbage bins as well. Better bring your own.
- Dish soap & sponge – Obviously, you will need to wash the dishes after you use them.
- Snack items – Chips, chocolates and etc., to keep the preggies happy.
- Floor rugs – To keep floors clean.
- Bathroom slippers – To keep the bathroom floors clean as well. Besides, the bathroom floor is really cold!
- Hand towels – Instead of using tissue paper, use reusable hand towels.
- Water Heater – Some hospitals don’t have a hot & cold shower. You will need to bring your own water heater if you want to take a warm bath. The water heater will also serve hot water for your needs, in my case, hot water for my coffee.
These are some of the things that we forgot to bring and once we got settled into our room, we realized that the list we made was just partially complete.
Another tip, you can even start packing on your second trimester. Keep in mind though that you might have to repack towards the end of your pregnancy, since you might still receive baby clothes and other stuff that would fit your baby better. We did not re-pack anymore even after friends gave us really small baby clothes. We ended up bringing baby clothes that were quite big for Tala at that time.
If you think we missed something or if you have anything to add to this list, please feel free to leave a comment below. See you in the next post!