Student Midwife Placement Bag Checklist: What to Pack

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What's in Amy's placement bag? | Top packing tips | More shift essentials | Choosing the right bag

A student midwife placement bag is a shift bag packed with clinical tools, comfort supplies, and study resources.

This guide covers ideas for packing your bag, including 3rd-year student Amy's real placement essentials - and extra tips for packing and what to take to help you feel prepared and organised.

Download my Free Printable PDF Checklist with ideas for your placement bag to print out or save to your phone!

Q. Hi Amy - thanks so much for sharing your recommendations for what to pack for placement. Please tell us where you are in your student midwife journey, and why you want to be a midwife?

"I have just started my third year and gone straight into intrapartum placement ... I've wanted to be a midwife since I was a lot younger but hated schooling and was more interested in my boyfriend (NOW HUSBAND!!) at the time... and buying a house and having my own babies etc. After the birth of my second child, I suffered from significant post natal depression and PTSD and this is when my ADHD was also queried."

"At the time my doctor advised that doing something for me may help with coming through the cloud and prioritising my wellbeing... and I said I've always wanted to be a midwife. I looked into the specifics and took all the numbers back to my husband and we discussed it and I thought I'd give it a bash!! Its been a rocky road and once my diagnosis for ADHD came through and I'm now medicated things have just gone from strength to strength❤️"

Amy's placement bag essentials

"Placement can be scary but it doesn’t have to be!!! The midwives aren’t expecting anything but passion and proactivity for learning… baby needs changing? Go for it! Observations? That would super helpful and great initiative!

I have separate rucksacks for placement and theory blocks and this is my placement block version. Pretty much everything in here is OPTIONAL… but I would say… pens, notebook and hairbands are an absolute must!!!"

The bag & everyday shift essentials

• A really big rucksack: "A massive Smiggle rucksack I found at a charity shop - such a good charity shop haul!"
• Spare tights (side pocket essential): "In my side pocket, I always carry spare tights. Laddered tights are just not a good look!"

"Whether tights are mandatory depends on the university and trust.... at a previous trust I was at they were very strict on tights and student uniform... the trust I'm at now are a lot more common-sense based - although I tend to go with other members of staff - I'm never the first to take my tights off XD"

• Hairbands: "Into the many pockets, I always carry a shopping bag (not that I ever use it!), but you cannot have too many hairbands."
• Mini lanolin nipple cream samples: "Handy little tester packs of Lansinoh Lanolin nipple cream collected from conferences. Really handy, especially for those postnatal visits and wards."

• My "little walking pharmacy": "12-hour shifts feeling rubbish is no fun, so although you can't carry it around with you, it's nice to have in your bag to support anyway. (What things do you keep in there?)

In my bag I pack: 
- paracetamol
- ibuprofen
- germolene
- plasters (normal ones and blister plasters)
- heat packs 
- MORE hairbands
- Some small change - emergency snacking etc
- My walking pharmacy does follow me everywhere so I also have wound spray and steristrips #mumlife

• 1.5-litre water bottle: "Quite big, but means I know how much I'm drinking. Placements in hospitals are a really dry environment, so it's really important to stay hydrated."
• Fresh-up care bag: "Stocked with a toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, perfume, deodorant - really nice to have a freshen up at the beginning and the end of a shift. On placement they do have showers, but otherwise body-sized wet wipes are really good for a freshen up. Also in there are fresh knickers, as you never know what you'll get covered in!" 

Clinical & holistic birth gear

• Personal adult & infant stethoscopes: "Totally optional, but I bought myself both an infant and adult stethoscope. I'm a bit of a germophobe, so the fact they go in other people's ears is urgh! That's just me! I'd only ever heard of Littman stethoscope... so no research really done to decide what to get. I actually got my neonatal one off vinted BARGAIN!" 

• Pinard stethoscope: "My Pinard for listening to fetal hearts." 

"Its gold standard practise to first auscultate with a pinard before using either a handheld sonic aid or CTG transducer although this doesn't happen very often in practise due to time or staffing constraints but also training.

We have a short skills sessions with them but similar to breech birth... its taught at uni level but because its so often escalated to a casearean. A lot of qualified midwives just don't have the skills or confidence to facilitate a vaginal breech so we don't see it."

• Wooden labour comb: "Picked up on my travels at a car boot sale to see what I could find! It's a beautiful labour comb, lovely to show women that there are alternatives to medicinal-based pain relief."

Neurodivergent support & tech essentials

• Bone-conduction headphones: "They don't go in my ear, they are really discreet, and they help with ADHD overwhelm as I can put calming music through and still hear everything."

"I've had no one have an issue with me wearing bone conducting headphones at work... I don't wear them as much now as I've got a lot more support around me and the coordinators are amazing at the trust I'm at."

• Fidget toy: "Helps with ADHD, I have a fidget toy kept on hand."
• Heavy-duty power bank: "Charges my headphones, iPad, phone - has all the cables with it and keeps loads and loads of charge." (is that because it's hard to find places to charge at work?)

Study tools & resources

• A stash of pens: "Going into the main pocket, I carry a lot of stuff! You can never have too many pens - I normally carry a few biros and some highlighters."

• Customised "book of knowledge": "I carry loads of random things! I had a book last year and I filled it cover to cover, so this year I've streamlined the process a bit so I've got four main areas that we will look into especially while on placement. It's almost like an address book so I can categorise it all a bit better." (please tell us more about what's in it?)

• Weight conversion chart: "If you put 6 and a half into Google it does not come out with the right pounds and ounces! Most Trusts will have this, but I have one myself."
• BRAIN acronym reminder: "First of many bits of Womb to World Art merch! This bookmark with the BRAIN acronym really helps me to understand and remember that women can say no - and why!"

• Student midwife planner: "The Student Midwife Planner is undated, so you can really design it exactly how you want." (Have you found any bits of it particularly helpful, was there enough space for tracking assignments and placements?)
• Birth record book: "My birth record book holds up to 960 births, which is obviously more than the 40 we need, but it's a really lovely reminder. I'm also getting the reflection book as well because it's beautiful! Hannah’s artwork is unique, colourful and super fun plus her page isn’t all about sales, it’s open and honest and raises awareness for women’s health along the way."

Q. Are there any other things you’d like to add to your placement bag, or wish you could add if they weren’t too big/heavy? 😀

"I'd like to get a thermos bottle rather than my big huge 2litre one to keep my drinks cold... there's not a whole lot of air movement within maternity due to the nature of keeping babies warm etc so a cold drink I found has been essential. 

Also at my uni our MORAs are electronic and although we can access them on the hospital computers, if the staff need access to records they obvious prioritise us... so it would be great if I could take my laptop!"

Thank you so much Amy for giving us a nose inside your bag and being a contributor on my blog! Watch Amy's video to see more of her essentials.

What else might you want to pack for placement and night shifts?

Every student midwife’s placement bag looks a little different depending on the ward, the season, and personal shift habits! Here are a few extra items you might want to tuck into your rucksack to make those 12-hour shifts run just a bit smoother:

Clinical helpers

• Maternity pharmacology logbook: Practicing drug calculations, noting down unfamiliar medications, and tracking drug administration notes on shift.

• Flexible tape measure: Wipeable tape measure for measuring fundal height on community placements - although disposable ones are mostly used these days.

• Maternity abbreviations cards: For decoding notes, abbreviations differ by Trust.

• Personal tourniquet: You may wish to carry your own personal one as I hear that NHS ones can be less comfortable for women. Check your Trust's infection control policy first.

Shift comfort & self-care

• Intensive hand cream: Constant hand sanitising and scrubbing between appointments takes a real toll on your skin. A rich, fast-absorbing hand cream in your pocket or bag is a total lifesaver.
• Hydrating lip balm: Hospital air conditioning and ward heating are notoriously drying. Keeping a nourishing lip balm on hand stops you feeling parched midway through a night shift.
• Chewing gum or mint sprays: Perfect for a quick refresh after a hasty tea-break snack or before stepping back out onto the ward to support a family.
• Spare hair ties & kirby grips: Having extra hair ties, soft claw clips, or kirby grips in your bag is great when you need to get your hair securely off your shoulders and out of your eyes before a busy shift or entering theatre.

Snack box & hydration boosters

• A dedicated snack pouch: When shifts get busy, sit-down lunch breaks can get delayed. Stash non-perishable, high-energy snacks like flapjacks, nuts, dried fruit, or oat bars in a front pocket so you can grab a quick bite when you get a free minute.
• Electrolyte drink tablets or squash drops: If you find drinking plain water all day boring, dropping an electrolyte tablet or mini squash concentrate into your water bottle helps keep your energy and hydration levels steady.

Practical ward hacks

• The "lend-a-pen" stash: Keep a pack of cheap black biros specifically to lend to doctors, mentors, or colleagues. Then keep your favourite student midwife pens hidden safely in your own tunic pocket!
• A small zip pouch for small change & badges: Having a secure, designated student midwife pouch for your fob watch, name badge, and locker change stops them from getting lost at the bottom of a deep bag between shifts.
• A compact travel tissue pack: Always handy for your own pocket, whether for a sudden runny nose or a quick, compassionate hand-off during an emotional moment.

Over to you! What is the one item in your placement bag you couldn't survive a 12-hour shift without? Share your must-haves in the comments below!

If you have a student midwife story to share, please let me know - I'd love to share it.