what to wear for delivery

I have brought a pretty nightie and light robe to wear after the delievery .... (and when guests come etc)

but what should I pack to wear for the actual delievery ?? I will be at Wgtn hospital... do they give you a gown or something ??

I know a lot of people go naked but I want to have the option of something as well just incase for comfort etc...

Thanks for the advice...

I was offered a gown, but preferred to stay in a comfy old t-shirt, and yeah nothing on the bottom,..when i was in the pool i was naked. Just take whatever u feel comfortable with. There is no way to predict how long labour will be etc, I had heaps of stuff just in case. After 23 hrs of labour then 3 hrs on drips when I was finally allowed a shower (assisted) the midwife couldnt believed that the first thing I did was was my hair and shaved my armpits, lol! It made me feel better! So yeah,..anything goes!

Flissty I have seen those wraps and dresses. They are so pretty, but I just can't see the point in wearing a $120 dress thats going to get covered in blood and amniotic fluid and whatever else happens to com out as well.

This is an interesting thread though, it's something I have wondered about although it's a long way off for me.

I remember the first time I had just an old t-shirt of Mum's on & that was it & then got into one of their gowns.

This time I had on undies cause they were holding in the pads cause I was leaking all over the place, I think I also had a T-shirt on a towel around my waist & I was wrapped in a minky blanket cause when I got to transition I was freezing. I wore their gown again.

I also found I got really hot in the beds so just wore their stunning gowns, least we didn't have to wash them

I'm hoping to have a water birth, no idea what I'm going to wear but I know it wont be one of those expensive dress things- they're pretty pointless. I'm guessing that I'll either be in an old t-shirt of my little brothers (he's over a foot taller than me and a fair bit wider!) or I'll be wearing nothing and just have a nightie there for afterwards. I'm going to have my husband and my mother there with me so me being naked is nothing they wont have seen before (granted it's been like 15 years or so since my mother saw me naked but whatever), and of course my midwife who is probably used to seeing naked women by now. The only thing concerning me is that my husband's mother is going to come up to Hamilton around my due date. She probably wont be in the room while I'm giving birth, but if she is I definitely wont be comfortable not wearing anything around her! So I guess I'll just have to see what happens

Do they offer gowns in birth centres too, or is it just available in hospitals?

I have lava lavas that I will try and wear and I have dps tshirts to wear as well. DP has a big oversize tshirt that now has a tomatoe sauce stain on it altho I could get it out eventually if I tried but he just said for me to use it. Love having a big island dp lol.

ahh yes a lava lava sounds great... my little baby is half samoan too....

thats a fab idea.. will ask my mother in law for a couple...

trust me when you have been in labour for hours and want to get that baby out..you want care who sees you naked.

I had to have a ventouse birth as I had been pushing for 2 hours..I had my legs up in stirrups and a dr/registratar looking up in between my legs lol so very dignified (he had to do the ventous) but I could not have cared less at that stage if the queen of england walked passed I just wanted that baby out.

remember midwives have seen it all it is part of their job and heck if they cant handle seeing a woman (in labour/giving birth) naked then IMO they are in the wrong job.

I had a nightie. I just brought a cheap cotton one from the warehouse. (Not granny lol)

I was getting in and out of the bath so ending up just wearing my dressing gown. my waters broke on that though so i was just wearing a singlet in bed with sheets over my bottom halk coz you get checked so often down there.

Its funny coz i always worried about "what to wear" before having DD, but honestly when the time comes you dont care,

i always say you leave your dignity and the door when you come in and get it back on your way home