If you're birthing outside the home taking along some stuff to make the environment feel more familiar is really good on a few levels. Firstly you know where it's been and it hasn't had lots of strangers using it and secondly the familiar smells from home will help your brain settle back into labour in a strange place. So rather than fancy bed stuff, your own pillows and duvet straight off your bed are the best idea.

You can also take cloths to throw over clocks since the clock is the last thing a birthing woman needs.

Women I know have found a big dark piece of polar fleece useful too as it's lighter than a duvet but can still be very warm if you start shivering. You can put it in a lovely spot in your home where you spend time focussing on your upcoming birth, perhaps meditating and connecting with your belly babe. That way it too is familiar and your brain will recognise the Labour Snuggle when you start needing it.

Some women find an MP3 player with headphones is great because it helps you seal off from the outside world and get those endorphins pumping. Some nicely written signs for the door and wall are good too to help staff get into the mood of your birth. "Natural birth occurring within. No unnecessary talking, please be quiet." whatever suits your needs.

Getting naked can help keep staff who aren't comfortable with natural birth away. Strange but true. Birthing in the toilet is also helpful as really good staff are happy for you to do what works for you. You are, after all, the one birthing the baby and they are there to support you not tell you what to do. You're the expert

A big suitcase to open on the bed with your gear in it can make the bed harder to get onto and if you want to avoid unnecessary monitoring this can be good for you. A handheld doppler gives a better reading that CEFM anyway. You can move the bed anywhere you like too.

Of course you could just birth at home and make a very beautiful nest I had an altar in my bedroom with all my Blessingway gifts, statues, candles, beads, my Blessingway necklace and pics of my older child. And I had a birth pool in my study where I do all my best work and where my daughter was born Candles from friends were burning night and day and that was lovely like having them there