In today’s installment of my birth prep posts let’s talk about the labor and recovery stations I’ve set up. I shared recently what all I had gathered/ordered for our home birth and today I want to show you how I have everything set up and organized. I tried to set up several “stations” with items grouped together by how/when/where I thought I’d use them so here are my labor and recovery stations.
*In case you missed it – baby boy arrived earlier than I expected! This post & video were already written/recorded and scheduled before he was born so that’s way some of it is talking about my birth in the future tense*
This post contains some affiliate links. If you purchase a product through an affiliate link I make a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you!
(If you prefer videos scroll to the end to see a video I made showing all of this)
Station #1: The main home birth station
This is the area where I’ve collected all of the items I think we might want during active labor or immediately after.
I got a rolling cart to put the majority of our birth stuff on so that it can be moved around to whatever area I’m laboring (or moved out of the way easily for the birth pool).
The cart has:
- Top shelf – mostly medical supplies from our midwife’s birth kit (underpads, bulb syringe, umbilical cord clamp, etc.) plus the vinyl/flannel tablecloths
- Middle shelf – shower curtain liners (one for under the birth pool, one for the bed), washcloths, receiving blankets, and hats
- Bottom shelf – cleaning supplies: paper towels, Thieves wipes, trash bags, hydrogen peroxide
- Hanging off the cart is a spray bottle of Thieves cleaner as well
In the corner of the room is the birth pool, birth pool liner, and hose as well as my exercise ball. There’s also:
- a hamper with trash bag liner (to use for wet towels/washcloths/blankets/sheets/etc.)
- a pack of reusable underpads
Then on my dresser I have:
- snacks for during labor (or after to have for breastfeeding/recovery)
- essential oils I might want during labor (Valor, Grounding, Surrender, Release, spearmint, and my labor roller)
- arnica
- towels
Also sitting on my dresser is a couple of things that aren’t for labor but I’ll want fairly soon after like my nursing gown and the distilled water, herbs, and tea bag to make the peri wash solution for my peri bottle.
Station #2: The bathroom
Next up is an area where I’ll spend a good amount of time after birth – the bathroom! I know from experience that having all of these things easily accessible makes it a lot easier when you’re sore and awkward and struggling to move around.
I have a basket that I put together with my primary bathroom needs. Right now it’s on the shelf but once I deliver I’ll move it to the floor so I can grab from it easily. It currently has:
- Mesh undies and pads for the first day or so
- Disposable ice packs
- Peri bottles – the standard one came in my birth kit but I also ordered the Mama Frida one that comes super highly recommended due to the fact that you can easily angle the water up
- Claraderm spray (full of incredible oils like myrrh and helichrysum and amazing to spray on the perineal area after delivery)
There’s also a pack of Depends on the shelf – once I’ve used up the mesh undies and peri ice packs then I’ll put the Depends in my little caddy and use the homemade padsicles with the Depends for a couple of days.
Then once those (the Depends/padsicles) are used up I have my postpartum cloth menstrual pads for the rest of the time I’m bleeding and a wet bag to store those in.
Once labor is over I’ll move the hamper into the bathroom and use that plus trash can liners as my trash can for a few days. We have a small trash can in the bathroom but it’s going to get filled up quickly with all the pads, ice packs, Depends, etc. you go through so I’ll use a larger “can” (hamper) and trash bag for a few days until that slows down.
I’ll also mix up my peri solution and put the gallon jug of that in my bathroom for quick access to refill my peri bottle.
Oh and I got a squatty potty too that can be used during labor if desired as well as afterward for those difficult early bathroom visits!
Station #3: Nursing Area
Another area I’ve set up is my nursing area. This is a basket by my bed with my must have nursing supplies – after a few days when I’m ready to leave the bed and spend more time in my recliner in the living room this little basket can easily move with me to the table in there.
The basket contains:
- Yeti water cup with a flip top straw lid so I can easily stay hydrated
- snacks (there aren’t any in there now but I’ll pull from our labor stash above and put them in the basket afterward)
- nipple cream
- Silverette nursing cups
- Haaka pump
- nursing pads
- AfterEase tincture
- Some essential oils I’ll want to use fairly soon after birth (helichrysum, Dragon Time, and an After Birth blend I mixed up)
- Comfortone
- Probiotic drops for baby
- my Gentle Babies book for quick reference
And I don’t currently have any burp cloths in there because if I remember correctly babies don’t usually spit up much in the first few days since your milk hasn’t come in yet, but once that happens I’ll stick a few burp cloths in there as well.
Station #4: Baby items
I tried to think through what baby items we’d most need the first few days and put those in one spot. Obviously we’ll have access to the other things around the house but this will at least keep the necessities at hand.
In this “station” I’ve got
- my Boppy pillow
- disposable diapers
- wipes
- Tender Tush (to put on his bottom the first few days and hopefully help the meconium poops not to be so sticky)
- a gown and sleeper
- a few hats
- a couple of swaddles
We also have a pack & play set up in the living room that has more stuff (more disposable diapers, cloth diapers for when we’re ready to switch to those, more outfits, more swaddles, burp cloths, etc.) this way I don’t have to go upstairs for diaper changes and we can pull from that for the first several days/weeks as needed. I did this with the other kids and love having a baby care area downstairs in our main living area since that’s where we spend most of our time!
Station #5: Emergency bag
Not really a station exactly but just one more thing/area I’ve got prepped and I thought I’d share. Hopefully we won’t need this at all but I did put together a tote bag that has a few bare necessities just in case something does awry and we need to go to the hospital. 
It contains:
- my toiletries bag (not a full blown thing with makeup and such, just the absolute necessities like glass, contact solution, extra contacts, toothbrush, toothpaste, ponytail holder, etc)
- a phone charger
- one outfit for me (leggings/shirt/nursing bra/flip flops)
- one outfit and one blanket for thebaby
- one outfit for Michael (shorts/shirt/underwear)
And that’s it! We’re all set up and ready for baby’s arrival now!
Update post-delivery: These stations were SO helpful! We didn’t need the emergency bag (thank goodness!) so I was able to unpack that and put it away but otherwise we used just about everything in all of the stations. I am so glad I took the time to set these up because it was really nice to have everything organized and ready to go when labor started.
You've heard what I have to say...now I want to hear your thoughts!