Before You Pack
Your baby is born at your own maternity unit or hospital, not at Limi Children's Hospital. We care only for babies, children and teenagers, and our neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) takes newborns who need specialist care after birth. Ask your maternity unit for their own list too: some units provide pads, gowns or nappies and others ask you to bring everything.
- Pack by 36 weeks. Around one baby in ten is born before 37 weeks. If you are carrying twins or have been told your baby may come early, pack by 32 weeks.
- Plan for three days, or five if you are having a caesarean section. A long first labour and a day or two of recovery is common.
- Use one bag you can carry, plus a small bag for labour (snacks, phone, flask, wrapper) so nobody has to search through everything at 2 a.m.
- Put the documents folder on top, and tell your partner where the bag is.
- Plan the journey now. Who drives, at night as well as in the day; a second driver if the first is away; fuel in the car; money for a taxi as a back-up; and the fastest route in traffic.
Documents
Your Records
Payment and Identity
Contacts, Written on Paper
For You
For Labour
After the Birth
Phone and Power
For Your Baby
Clothes and Wrapping
Nappies and Cleaning
For the Journey and the First Nights
Keep It Plain for the Baby
No powder and no perfume. Keep the cord clean and dry. Put nothing on it unless a health worker has given you chlorhexidine for it, used as they show you — no shea butter, oil, ash, toothpaste or methylated spirit. Powder can be breathed in, and anything else on the cord can carry infection.
For Your Birth Partner
The Person Who Comes with You
What Not to Bring
Herbal mixtures (agbo) or a bottle "to help the labour".
Some herbal mixtures make the womb contract too hard, which can harm the baby, and they can hide danger signs from the team. Tell the midwife about anything you have already taken.
Baby powder, oils, shea butter or a "cord medicine".
Powder can be breathed in. Anything on the cord can carry infection, including tetanus. Keep the cord clean and dry. Put nothing on it unless a health worker has given you chlorhexidine for it.
Glucose water, gripe water or water for the baby.
A newborn needs only breast milk. The first thick milk (colostrum) is small in amount and exactly enough.
Feeding bottles and formula "just in case".
Unless a health worker has advised formula, leave them at home. Early bottles can make breastfeeding harder to start. If formula is needed, the team will help.
Gold jewellery, lots of cash, an expensive laptop.
Wards are busy and you will be sleeping and feeding. Rings may also need to come off before a caesarean.
A glass (mercury) thermometer.
Mercury is poisonous if it breaks. A digital thermometer is safe and cheap.
Visitors are part of the celebration, but keep the numbers small in the first days. Newborns catch infections easily, and you need to rest and learn to feed.
If Your Baby May Need Special Care
Some babies are known before birth to be more likely to need a neonatal unit (NICU): babies expected early, twins or triplets, babies whose scan has shown a heart or other condition, babies of mothers with diabetes or high blood pressure, and babies who are growing slowly in the womb.
- Ask your maternity team now which neonatal unit they would send your baby to, and how the transfer would happen.
- Carry copies of all scans and letters so they can travel with your baby.
- Plan for a second bag. If your baby is transferred, a parent usually follows. Keep a small bag ready with a change of clothes, a phone charger, pads and breast pads, and a cup for expressing milk.
- Your milk still matters. If you are apart from your baby, ask the midwife to show you how to hand-express colostrum in the first hours; it protects a sick or small baby.
Limi Children's Hospital runs a NICU and a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU), with emergency assessment and inpatient care day and night. Maternity teams: call us before a transfer so our team can prepare. Read what to expect when a baby needs the NICU, see our newborn and NICU services, or, if you have been told your baby may need specialist care, call us before the birth on 0813 408 5400 to plan it with the neonatal team.
Questions Parents Ask
When should I pack my hospital bag?
By 36 weeks, and earlier (by 32 weeks) if you are expecting twins or have been told your baby may come early. Babies born from 37 weeks are full term, and labour can start any time from then.
When should I go to the maternity unit?
Follow what your midwife told you, and go straight away, day or night, if your waters break, you bleed from the vagina, you have a bad headache or blurred vision, you have a fit, you feel your baby moving less than usual, or you have a fever. Do not wait for the bag if you are bleeding or the baby is moving less; someone can bring it later.
What extra do I need for a caesarean section?
Two more days of pads, pants and nightwear; high-waisted cotton pants that do not rub the wound; loose clothes for going home; and someone to help carry the baby and the bag, because you should not lift anything heavier than your baby for several weeks.
Should I wash the baby's clothes before packing?
Yes. Wash new clothes, shawls and wrappers once in mild soap, rinse well, dry them in the sun or iron them, and pack them in a clean bag.
Can I give birth at Limi Children's Hospital?
No. Limi Children's Hospital cares only for babies, children and teenagers, so births happen at maternity units. Our neonatal team takes newborns from maternity units who need specialist or intensive care after birth.
My mother says I should put shea butter on the cord. Is that safe?
No. Anything placed on the cord, even something clean-looking, can carry infection. Keep the cord clean and dry, and fold the nappy below it. Put nothing on it unless a health worker has given you chlorhexidine for it. Signs of infection are in our newborn warning signs guide.
Sources
- World Health Organization. WHO recommendations on maternal and newborn care for a positive postnatal experience. 2022.
- World Health Organization. WHO recommendations: intrapartum care for a positive childbirth experience. 2018.
- World Health Organization. WHO recommendations on newborn health: guidelines approved by the WHO Guidelines Review Committee (cord care and chlorhexidine). 2017.
- WHO, UNICEF and partners. Born Too Soon: decade of action on preterm birth. 2023.
- Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria. Nigeria Every Newborn Action Plan. 2016.
- American Academy of Pediatrics. Car seats: information for families (HealthyChildren.org).
Written for parents and carers in NigeriaClinically reviewed by Limi Children’s Hospital cliniciansLast updated September 2026Next review due September 2027