Tool
The hospital bag checklist for dads
Most hospital bag lists are written for her and give the dad one line: "snacks and a phone charger". This one is written the other way round. Tick as you pack — it saves in your browser, so you can do it over three weeks in ten-second bursts.
When the bag needs to be in the car
- Bag in the car from
- 36 weeksPacked over three weeks in ten-second bursts, not in one panic.
- First-time labours starting before 38 weeks
- ~1 in 5Which is the whole argument for packing early.
Source · NHS — What to pack for birth · Reviewed JUL 2026
The Dad's Birth-Day Kit
Two pages: the hospital bag list, and the birth-day cheat sheet — how to tell labour has started, what to say and what never to say, and who to call.
The emailed version isn't open yet. In the meantime the checklist above saves in your browser and prints to one page — that's the whole kit.
When to pack it
Have it in the car from 36 weeks. Around one in five first-time labours starts before 38 weeks in the ordinary run of things, and you do not want to be assembling a bag while timing contractions.
The car is part of the bag
The car seat has to be fitted and tested before the due date, not on the day. Most services will not discharge you without one, and fitting a seat correctly for the first time on no sleep, in a hospital car park, in the rain, is a genuinely miserable experience people describe in detail on the internet every week.
Sources
1 source · Reviewed JUL 2026 · Editorial policy
Every figure on this page links to its primary source. If one is out of date, tell us and we'll fix it.
