When most women find out they are pregnant, they have visions of watching their belly grow, shopping for baby items and enjoying outings with friends and family. Of all the visions swirling in their head about what their pregnancy will look like, very few envision spending days or weeks lying in a hospital bed due to a high-risk pregnancy condition.
But for a handful of women, the safest place during their pregnancy is hospital based bed rest. I was one of those women, having spent 43 days on an antenatal unit (for high-risk pregnancies) and another 14 days with my son in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit).
When I first peed on the stick and went screaming to my husband and daughter that I was pregnant, I had hoped this pregnancy would be different. Having been confined to 13 weeks of home-based bed rest with my daughter, I was optimistic I would have a “normal” pregnancy this time around.
Sadly this wasn’t the case. I was once again diagnosed with placenta previa, a condition where the placenta covers the cervix. As baby grows, so does the risk for bleeding (due to pressure on the placenta) and pre-term labor.
Since I now lived over 20 minutes from the nearest hospital, it was determined the safest place for me and my baby was the regional hospital over an hour away. This is where I was to spend the remainder of my pregnancy, with no chance of early release for good behavior.
If you have been told you either may need to be admitted or will spend the remainder of your pregnancy lying in a hospital bed, here are some tips to help you prepare and to keep you sane.
Packing
Forget all the packing for hospital checklists on baby websites. These are meant for women spending one to four days in hospital. You can use them as a reference but if your stay is expected to be longer than a week, you need to get comfortable. Trust me — you don’t want your hospital room to look like a hospital room. That gets depressing fast.
I know this sounds cheesy, but think of your hospital room like your college dorm. What items did you bring with you to personalize your space? No you don’t need the microwave to warm up Kraft Dinner at 2 a.m. But you do need items from home that make your space reflect…
