Pregnant? A Golders Green mum runs a service to set you up for the big day

When I went into labour with my first child I found myself rummaging through my knicker drawer at 2.30am, wracked with increasingly painful contractions, while I threw items into an overnight bag.

Meanwhile my headless chicken of a husband was busy chipping bits of ice from the freezer into a thermos flask in the misguided belief that this was vital for the birth.

Call it denial, or anxiety, but despite the fact that Joe was born on his due date, I still hadn’t finished packing the all-important overnight hospital bag.

By babies two and three, I had learnt my lesson, but I could have done with parent-of-three Karen Snyder, whose fledgling business involves selling a complete kit of all the necessaries for a new mum’s hospital stay.

The 35-piece kit includes arnica, flip-flops, bedsocks, hair bobbles, a cooling fan that also sprays water, miniature toiletries and a set of clothes for the newborn as well as newborn’s nappies and botty cream.

The former marketing manager for Madame Tussauds explains the genesis of myHospitalBag, which she runs from the loft of her Golders Green home.

“I am quite organised and, nine years ago, when I was pregnant with my first child, I began to collect pregnancy magazines. When my maternity leave began, I laid out all the magazines and spent my first day putting together what was to become known as “my baby bible”, which contained everything I needed for the arrival of my baby – what to take to hospital for labour and post labour for me, my baby and my husband and the essentials needed for starting our lives together in and out of the home.”

Snyder’s daughter Tami was born in 2003 and, thanks to her “bible”, she was totally prepared.

“As my friends panicked and prepared for the arrival of their babies, I found myself sharing this list which I had lovingly and meticulously created. As it became more well-known, I began to receive calls from even further afield.”

When her son Coby was born in 2006, she noticed while spending time with other mums how many didn’t have the time to pack their hospital bags or panicked and worried about the mere thought of what to put into it.

She had finally found the perfect way to share her baby bible. Following the birth of Ari in 2008, Snyder had to wait until he started nursery before putting together her idea. She spoke to midwives and new mums and sourced products as well as a “visually pretty” bag that people would be happy to use post birth for gym kits or weekend stays.

“These days, people don’t want to do things themselves and would rather pay someone for a stress-free solution. The aim of myHospitalBag is to make the 48-hour stay in hospital more comfortable. The bag is even big enough to leave space to add a few home comforts and the �85 cost including delivery is cheaper than buying everything separately.”

For further information, visit www.myhospitalbag.co.uk.