E125: Retiring My Old Birth Bag

A doula bag is like a time capsule of real births: the tools that help, the “just in case” items you never touch, and the tiny comforts that keep you steady at 3 a.m. Today we’re doing something oddly emotional and surprisingly useful, retiring my oldest birth bag after hundreds and hundreds of births and unpacking what’s actually inside.

I share the simple gear that supports labor in real life, not in a perfect checklist fantasy. We talk through the binder of prenatal handouts, the visual models that help families understand dilation and baby positioning, and the birth notes I take so clients can have a written birth story afterward. You’ll hear what I carry from my doula and lactation consultant work, including a rebozo I use often, a few essential oils, and the everyday basics that matter more than most people expect like gum, deodorant, socks, chargers, and a toothbrush.

Then the bag takes a turn into meaning. I find a decades-old keepsake from a client and reflect on why support during pregnancy, breastfeeding, postpartum, and even NICU seasons is so personal. If you’re packing your own hospital bag or building a birth center packing list, this conversation will help you decide what belongs in your birth space, what you can skip, and what small “talisman” might remind you that you’re capable and supported.

If you like practical birth prep with a warm, honest tone, subscribe for more, share this with a friend who’s getting ready for baby, and please leave a rating wherever you listen.

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Show Credits

Host: Angie Rosier 
Music: Michael Hicks 
Photographer: Toni Walker
Episode Artwork: Nick Greenwood 
Producer: Gillian Rosier Frampton
Voiceover: Ryan Parker

Transcript

Welcome And Real-World Birth Support

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Welcome to the Ordinary Doula Podcast with Angie Roger, hosted by Hatched and Latched. Here, we explore the many layers of pregnancy, labor, birth, breastfeeding, and postpartum life through the lens of more than 20 years in a busy Doula practice, supporting thousands of families. Whether you are preparing for birth, navigating feeding, or adjusting to life with a new baby, this podcast is designed to offer practical knowledge, thoughtful conversation, and empowering support for the real experiences of parenthood.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Hello and welcome to the Ordinary Doula Podcast. On this podcast, we like to um, I don't know, just like from real world real world perspective, help people prepare for labor, um, for birth, for postpartum, for breastfeeding, that whole chapter of life that is pretty all-consuming when you're in it. Um, some people are in it for a long time, and uh it's a cool chapter of life. So we like to help people during that process, of course. Um, and I want to take you on a little bit of a working session today. Um, I love what I do. I think you know that I absolutely love supporting families, preparing families, and helping them throughout the process of childbirth um and lactation. Just this week I was doing a lactation visit, and this particular particular couple had taken also taken a class, I taught a childbirth class, and um she had commented, I was visiting them in their home, and she'd commented how important it was to take that class and and I mean any class, right? Any kind of preparation, how important it was. She goes, it helped us know so much what to expect so that we weren't afraid, um, we could make better decisions, um, and that helping them through that lactation process was it was cool. It was cool to see it come kind of full

Why It Is Time To Switch Bags

SPEAKER_00 2:10

circle and to be able to see them with the baby on the other side of all that now after so much anticipation of so many months of that. Well, today I want to take you through an odd working session. I'm gonna do something that I have been dreading for a long time and not wanting to do. I think I get a little superstitious in my practices as a doula and a lactation consultant, and it's time. It's just time for me to make this change. And that change is my doula bag. So I have, I think I've told you before my husband calls me the bag lady because I have a different, depending on what I'm walking out of the house to do, I have a different bag. I have four different bags that I take out of the house. One is for birth doulas. If I'm going to a hospital or home birth, I take a certain bag. One is for doing hospital lactation work. I do a little bit of hospital lactation work, so I take my hospital lactation bag. One is my home lactation bag. If I'm doing lactation visits, I take a different bag for that. And then one is my postpartum overnight bag. So if I'm doing a baby overnight, I'll take a different bag for that. So it is time to retire my very oldest bag, and that is my birthday bag. And I want to do that right now with you because I've been dreading it and I thought it'd be fun to do it together. Um, the reason I'm dreading it is because I love this bag. Um, nothing special about it, it's not even cute. I got it. Do you remember Shopco? Is there even any Shopco's? I don't think Shopco is a thing anymore. But I got this just at Shopco, like years ago, maybe oh 12, 15 years ago, something like that, maybe more. This is my second or third doula bag of my career. It's been my favorite one. It is black. I'll have some posts about this on social media. Um, it is a cute little size. I don't know, some people have big bags. I have kind of a small birth bag. So I'm gonna take contents out, tell you what I have in there, and then I'm going to be able to put them into my new bag. And now I did get a new bag months ago, probably like seven or eight months ago. Um, but again, I've this bag's fallen apart. It does honestly, I've been worried the last couple of births I've gone to if some of the handles were gonna start ripping out because sometimes it gets a little heavy when I'm coming out. I was if I had, depending on what is in it when I come and go

The Practical Gear Inside A Doula Bag

SPEAKER_00 4:20

from births. So I'm pulling things out. Um, I just pulled out a binder, and this is actually the I'm a pretty simple human, and this is the same bag I also take to prenatal visits when I'm preparing people. So I'll take this to their first and second prenatals and their birth, same bag. Um, and I just pulled out a binder. In this binder, I have um I have little handouts that I'll give, little visuals that I leave with people as I prepare them, so I walk them um through in the kind of through the stages of labor and coping mechanisms, and I have some visuals. So I hold my my handouts basically. It also has in it um my birth notes. So I have a page that I've created years ago that I'll take birthnotes on so I can keep track of what goes on during someone's labor. I love providing a birth story, which I do for all my clients. They have kind of a written um, I'll I'll type up their notes in a little cute format, but they have a um a memory, a record of how their labor went because a lot of times uh we forget that. Okay, diving into my bag again, just pulled out a handful of pens. Great, glad I have some pens. Okay, pulling out now. This is something I'm going to throw away, um, but something I've had for a few years now. And this is a a variety of masks back in the COVID days. You might hear me um working these masks. Back in the COVID days, we had to wear masks. Well, we couldn't go to hospitals for a while. Um, but then when we did, we had to wear masks. So I have a variety of masks that were given to me, sometimes by hospitals, by clients, or ordered or specially fit. Um, I think I might not keep those in there, but those are some nice. I got some um N95 masks, a couple of them that were probably specially fitted to me at some point. That's taking up a little bit of space that I really don't use. Um, what else do I have in that compartment? Oh, I have some gloves. So some sterile gloves in my size that I carry just in case. I have never used them. Um, but just in case there's something that goes awry at home and we get a quick home birth or something, then I have that. I also have a cord clip, didn't know I had that. Um, just in case we need that. And I do carry a couple things again. I have accidentally caught a couple babies just because nobody else was in the room, but I don't make a practice of it for sure and have a couple things just in case. All right, next little pocket here. This I do use a lot, taking it out of the inner pocket. This is my rebozo, and it's um, I love this rebozo. I've had it for a really long time. It's um I have a couple different ones, but this one's my favorite. Um, it's a kind of a gray color with some rust colored fabric on it. Um, I got it from a place in Mexico, and I absolutely love this rebozo and the work that I get to do with them. I pull it out at well over half my birth, I think. Um next little thing I'm pulling out is a bag of visual aids that I use at um all the time at my prenatal visits, and so this has like a cervix in it and miniature style, right? Like not a real one, a model. Um it has a uterus, it has an amniotic sac, it has a baby and a pelvis, and so I pull that out and help people understand how babies rotate, descend all that. I keep it on my birth bag as well because I do like to sometimes use it. We'll pull that out as we're if we're needing to demonstrate anything at a birth. Next thing I'm pulling out is a little heat pack. This little um heat pack, I don't use it too often. Um, have another little tiny pelvis model. All right, now I have my little bag of essential oils. I do pull that out at quite a few of my births. Um, I only carry probably looks like about eight with me. Um, I probably use three of them more than others. I have a couple of spoons here that are wrapped in plastic just in case we need to do a little spoon feed or something after a delivery. If we have a baby who's with a NICU or not latching well, if we need to, I mean we can get that at the hospital too. I have some personal things in here for me. I have here's some deodorant, um, I have a little bottle of ibuprofen, which I hardly ever use. I have an extra pair of socks just in case I need to switch out socks. I have a little battery pack of fairy lights that I don't use very often. I have a little hand massage tool that I very rarely ever touch. Um, a little drink packet of emergency, it looks like. If I want to put that in my drink, I'll usually carry a water bottle in here too. Here's a couple more pens. Aha! Here is a joke. Um I am pulling out this tiny little baby. Um, it's about half an inch high. One of my girls, as a joke years ago, um, ordered about 200 of these, and she has just for the last several years plopped them in funny places throughout our house and our things. And we'll find these little tiny plastic babies in random places, which is kind of funny. So jokes on me. Um next, what do I have

The Keepsake That Still Matters

SPEAKER_00 9:05

in here? What else? I'm getting into pockets I hardly ever open. Um, and I'm sad to say goodbye to this bag, but it is time, it is absolutely time. See some more pens. Wow, I have acquired a lot of pens. Um, and then I have I just pulled out a little container of hand lotion. This hand lotion is gone for all intents and purposes, but the the container of hand lotion I keep on purpose. This is probably over 21 years old, and uh this was given to me by a client that long ago. Um, a client that meant a lot to me and who was really poignant to me. She had very little. She couldn't pay much for her doula services. I think her sisters um got the money together for her to have doula services. She was a single mom. Um, her baby came early, like at 33 weeks, was in the NICU. Um, and I got a community group together to give her things she didn't have a lot, and so uh found a group that helped donate everything she needed for her baby after he came home. And he's now we keep in touch on social media, and he's grown and big and great. Um, but she as a gift gave me a little packet of these three um different scents of hand lotions, and that was always very special to me. And so I this was my favorite scent. I don't even know what it smells like, if anything, anymore. But I keep this as a little token, kind of um a talisman, if you will, as a reminder in my bag about how much I love my clients and how important they are to me. Um, so that is just a little reminder. I have a couple external pockets here. Okay, I have some gum. Good to know. A couple maxi pads, little tiny maxi pads for me. Um, wow, more pens. You guys, embarrassing how many pens I have in here. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen. Thirteen pens. All right, just in case. And I do take notes at birth, but I do not need 13 pens. I could make better use of space there. And then I have a little um pocket on the outside where I keep my name tag. Um, I'll wear a name tag when I go into a lot of hospitals. And just has says that I'm a donadu. I also have one with my logo on it. Um, and some business cards if people ask for it. And that is the contents of my birth bag. A lot of times it'll have a granola bar, uh charger. I'll usually I usually will have a phone charger in there as well, um, and a water bottle. So, oh, wait, there's one more side pocket here. It's important. Toothbrush and toothpaste. So I do have toothbrush, toothpaste if I need to dash out of birth and refreshened. There's deodorant gum toothpaste. Um, sometimes that's really refreshing on those long births as well. So, and I now have a new bag, similar components, and I'm going to be putting everything into my new bag, which is sad and exciting. I will commemorate this old bag by throwing it away, probably. But I am so grateful to it and for all the literally hundreds and hundreds of births it has attended with me. Um, and wow, it's just kind of a weird moment for me. It is tearing on the inside, the lining is, yeah, it's time. I'm glad to be retiring it, but so grateful for the service it's given me. And even more than that, the many, many hundreds and hundreds more of home visits that it's gone with me to to help people prepare for labor and birth. So thank you, birth bag. I sure appreciate the work you've done and the families that you've helped me serve. And I'm gonna pack all this stuff into a new bag. So that's a little glimpse into as to what is in my birth bag as you prepare a birth bag for the hospital or the birth center, wherever you're giving

Build Your Own Birth Bag Comfortably

SPEAKER_00 12:45

birth. If it's a home, you don't need to prepare a bag, just prepare your space. Um, but what do you need to take with you? I I know what I take with me. I really don't use a lot of it. You may find that you don't use a lot of things that you take to birth as well, but what's important to you? Um, what are the things, the creature comforts, if you will, that um the things that are yours and only yours, and maybe they have no other meaning, just like my little empty lotion here that was that's 20 years old. Um, maybe they don't have a whole lot of other meaning except just to you. Um, so kind of consider that as you prepare for for labor and birth and what you're gonna take. You probably don't need 15 pens, um, but you could take them if you want to. Apparently, I just keep stashing pens just in case. Um, but yeah, consider what you need for your comfort to set up your space in your birth space. That's all I got for you today. Thanks for hanging with me today and for being with me on the Ordinary Deal podcast. We are hosted by Hatched and Latched. Please go with but visit our website, hatchedunlatched.com. We've got all kinds of services there for families in this chapter of life. It's a pretty great chapter, and we like to support you in that chapter. So visit hatched and latched.com and hope to that you'll come back next time for our next episode, whatever it will be on. Um we're probably not sure yet, actually. Um, but

Website, Ratings, And Closing Thoughts

SPEAKER_00 13:55

thanks for being with us here today. And as always, please go out and make an important human connection with someone that you know or someone that you don't. Digital in person, um a wink, a nod, a smile, a handshake, make a connection with someone because we need each other. We're important to each other, and I'll see you again next time.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Thank you for listening to the Ordinary Doula Podcast with Angie Roger, hosted by HatchdenLatched. You can find episode credits in the show notes and more information by visiting hatchdenlatched.com. If this podcast has been helpful to you, please leave a rating wherever you listen to your podcasts. Your support helps us continue having thoughtful conversations about birth, breastfeeding, and postpartum life. Be sure to tune in next time as we continue exploring the many experiences, questions, and realities surrounding the journey into parenthood.