A planning guide, not medical advice. Follow the advice of your midwife, doctor or health visitor, and your health service's guidance on safe sleep and feeding.
Key contacts in one place
Write down the numbers you will need in a hurry: your midwife or care team, the hospital or birth centre, your doctor, whoever is driving you, and whoever is looking after other children or pets. Put a copy on paper as well as in your phone.
Pack the bag early
Pack a bag for the birth a few weeks before your due date, with what you will need, what the baby will need, and what your partner or birth partner will need. Your care team or hospital usually publishes its own list, so check it.
The essentials at home
You need less than the shops suggest. Focus on somewhere safe for the baby to sleep, a car seat if you will travel by car, clothes, nappies and feeding supplies. Many other things can wait until you know what you actually need.
Money and leave
Work out what leave you and your partner are entitled to and how pay changes during it, and plan a simple budget for the first months. Find out what support your employer and government offer, and what has to be applied for before the birth.
Paperwork after the birth
There is usually some admin soon after the birth, such as registering the birth and adding the baby to health care and benefits. Find out the deadlines where you live and note them now, while you have time to read.
Plan support for the first weeks
Decide who can help with meals, shopping, other children and visitors, and say yes to offers. Plan some recovery time for yourself as well; the first weeks are demanding for everyone in the house.
Fill the freezer
In the last few weeks, cook double portions and freeze the extra. A freezer of ready meals is one of the most useful things you can prepare: it means one less decision on the hardest days.
Plan ahead, then track the first weeks. The New Baby Planner is a 26-page fillable PDF for any family in any country: a nursery and gear checklist, a hospital or birth bag list, a baby budget, key contacts, feeding, sleep and nappy logs, check-ups and vaccinations, a parental leave plan and a babysitter sheet. The free 3-page starter has a feeding log and a 24-hour tracker.
View in the StoreFrom the Stelaah Store
- ✓New Baby Planner. A 26-page undated fillable PDF planner for a new baby, with feeding, sleep and nappy logs, a hospital bag checklist, milestones and parental leave pages.
- ✓Pregnancy Planner. An undated week by week digital pregnancy planner for iPad and Android tablets, from week 4 to week 40, the birth and the first four weeks at home.
- ✓Free 2027 Family Planner. A free, dated 2027 family digital planner with daily schedules and meals, a weekly chore chart, activities and school, meal ideas and important contacts.
We build Stelaah and the Stelaah Store. These guides cover the everyday problems our planners, kits and tools are made for, in plain steps you can use with or without them.