Getting Ready for Your Baby: What to Do Before They Arrive

Getting ready for a baby comes down to a short list of things that genuinely matter and a long list that does not. The single most useful step is one most parents skip: meeting your baby’s pediatrician during your third trimester. This guide walks through what to do, what to decide, and what to set up, in roughly the order it matters.

What actually needs to be done before the baby comes?

A handful of things matter, and most of the rest can wait. If you do nothing else, do these: choose a pediatrician and meet them before birth, install a rear-facing car seat and have it checked, set up one safe sleep space, and get your recommended vaccines during pregnancy. Everything after that, the gear and the logistics, is easier than it looks and forgiving if you get it wrong.

The rest of this guide takes each item in turn. You do not have to do it all at once, and you do not need most of what stores will try to sell you.

Why should I see a pediatrician before my baby is born?

The most valuable thing you can do before your baby arrives is meet the pediatrician who will care for them. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a prenatal visit in the third trimester for every expecting family.

This is the only routine well visit that does not need a baby in the room. You can ask your questions before the exhaustion of newborn life sets in, and you start the relationship that will carry through the next eighteen years. A good prenatal visit covers feeding, safe sleep, vaccines, circumcision, cord blood, newborn screening, and what the first weeks actually look like. It is also where you learn how the office works: hours, after-hours coverage, and how to reach someone when your baby is sick.

It is especially worth doing for first-time parents, high-risk or multiple pregnancies, and families building their baby through surrogacy or adoption. Most pediatricians offer this visit. Most parents do not take it. To set one up, call the practices you are considering and ask whether they offer a prenatal visit.

How do I choose a pediatrician?

Choose a pediatrician whose approach and logistics fit your family, and decide before birth, because the hospital asks for the name when you are admitted. If your child will have more than one parent, try to attend together so you agree on the choice.

Ask the questions that will shape your daily life with a newborn:

• Are you accepting new patients, and do you take my insurance?
• What are your office hours? Do they include weekends?
• Who answers when my baby is sick after hours, and how fast?
• How do you handle communication: phone, secure messaging, or both?
• How do sick visits work alongside scheduled checkups?
• Which hospital are you affiliated with?
• How does billing and payment work?

Logistics matter, but so does fit. You want someone whose philosophy on raising children sits well with yours, because you will be talking with them often.

Which vaccines do I need during pregnancy?

A few vaccines during pregnancy protect your newborn in the months before they are old enough to be vaccinated themselves. The antibodies you make cross the placenta and give your baby early protection. Plan to discuss all of them with your obstetrician at one visit so the timing works out.

• Tdap (whooping cough). Recommended in every pregnancy, ideally between 27 and 36 weeks. Whooping cough is most dangerous for babies under three months, who are too young for their own shots.
• Flu. Recommended in any trimester. Get it as soon as it is available in flu season.
• RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). Your baby can be protected in one of two ways, and most babies need only one. Either you get the maternal RSV vaccine (Abrysvo) at 32 to 36 weeks, given seasonally from about September through January, or your baby gets a long-acting antibody shot (nirsevimab or clesrovimab) during RSV season, roughly October through March. If you were vaccinated in time, your baby usually does not need the shot. Your OB and pediatrician will time this to the season.
• COVID-19. Get the updated COVID-19 vaccine. Pregnancy raises the risk of severe COVID-19, and vaccination also passes protection to your baby. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends COVID-19 vaccination as standard preventive care during pregnancy.

Protection does not stop with you. Anyone who will spend time around the baby, including partners, grandparents, and other caregivers, should be up to date on Tdap, flu, and COVID-19. This builds a circle of protection around a newborn who cannot yet be vaccinated. These vaccines can be given at the same visit.

Where should my baby sleep, and how do I set it up?

Set up one safe sleep space and use it from the first night. The rules are simple, and they prevent the leading cause of death for babies in the first year. Remember the ABCs: your baby sleeps Alone, on their Back, in a Crib.

• Use a firm, flat surface. Nothing that inclines more than about 10 degrees. A fitted sheet is the only bedding.
• Keep the space bare. No bumpers, blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, or sleep positioners.
• Use a crib, bassinet, or play yard that meets federal (CPSC) safety standards. Check for recalls, especially with a used or hand-me-down crib, and never use one with missing or broken parts.
• Skip inclined sleepers, baby nests, pods, and loungers for sleep. They are for awake, supervised time only.
• Keep the baby’s own sleep space, a crib or bassinet, in your room and next to your bed for at least the first six months, when the risk of sleep-related death is highest. This is room-sharing, not bed-sharing, and it is associated with a lower risk of sleep-related infant death.
• Never sleep with your baby on a couch or armchair. That carries the highest risk of all.
• Keep your home and car smoke-free. If anyone smokes, now is a good time to quit, because smoke exposure raises a baby’s risk of SIDS.
• For warmth, use a wearable blanket or sleep sack instead of loose blankets, and dress your baby in one more layer than you are wearing. Keep the room comfortable, not hot.
• If you swaddle, place your baby on their back, and stop swaddling as soon as they show signs of rolling. Skip weighted swaddles and weighted blankets.

What do I need to know about the car seat?

Install a rear-facing car seat and have it checked by a certified technician before your due date. You cannot leave the hospital without one, and correct use sharply lowers crash injury. About half of car seats are installed or used incorrectly, so checking yours is not optional caution. It is the norm.

• Place the seat rear-facing, in the back seat, and keep your baby rear-facing for as long as possible, until they reach the height or weight limit of the seat.
• Have it checked by a Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician. Find one through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) or Safe Kids. Do not assume your local fire station has one on duty. Many no longer do.
• A new seat is safest. If you reuse one, confirm it was never in a crash, is not recalled, and is not past its expiration date, which is often around six years.
• Dress your baby in thin layers. Buckle them first, then lay a blanket over the straps. Bulky coats under the harness create slack and make the seat less safe.
• Place the chest clip at armpit level and keep the harness snug.

How should I get ready to feed the baby?

Decide how you plan to feed, learn the basics before birth, and line up support, because feeding is a skill both you and your baby learn. Breastfeeding is recommended, and formula feeding is safe and a good choice for many families.

• The AAP recommends feeding only breast milk for about the first six months where possible, then continuing alongside solid foods for two years or longer if it is working for you and your baby.
• Expect to feed often. Newborns eat roughly every 2 to 3 hours around the clock at first, including overnight. This is normal and expected. Your pediatrician will tell you whether to wake your baby for feeds, based on weight and growth.
• Breastfeeding is natural, but it is not automatic. It is a skill you and your baby learn together, and a slow start is common. Take a prenatal breastfeeding class in your third trimester, and know how to reach a lactation consultant (an IBCLC) before you need one. Help in the first few days makes the biggest difference.
• Breastfed and partly breastfed babies usually start a daily vitamin D supplement within the first days. Your pediatrician will go over the details at the first visit.
• Set up a feeding spot at home: a comfortable chair, water within reach, and burp cloths.
• If you are breastfeeding, wait until it is well established before introducing a pacifier. If you are formula feeding, offering a pacifier at sleep is fine.
• If you plan to use formula, have bottles and one formula on hand. Follow the preparation instructions on the label.

What should I decide ahead of time?

A few choices are easier to make calmly now than in the delivery room. Settle them during your third trimester and note your preferences in your birth plan.

• Cord blood. You can donate your baby’s cord blood to a public bank, pay to store it privately, or do neither. The AAP encourages public donation and does not recommend private banking as general insurance, partly because a child’s own stored cells may carry the same genetic condition that would need treating. Private banking makes the most sense when a sibling has a condition treatable with a stem cell transplant. Decide early in the third trimester and register by about 34 weeks. This is not a decision to make once labor has started.
• Circumcision (for boys). The AAP finds the health benefits of newborn circumcision outweigh the risks, but not enough to recommend it for every boy. The decision is yours, based on medical, religious, cultural, and personal reasons. Discuss it with your pediatrician or OB before birth. It tends to be simpler in the newborn period than later.
• Delayed cord clamping. Many providers wait 30 to 60 seconds before clamping the umbilical cord, which raises your baby’s iron stores. Ask your OB whether it is part of your birth plan.
• The birth plan itself. It also covers where you will deliver, pain management, and your feeding intentions. Hold it loosely. Labor often changes the plan, and that is normal.

What happens at the hospital, and what should I expect?

In the first day or two, your baby gets a set of standard screenings and shots, and you set up the first pediatrician visit before you leave. It can feel like a lot in the first 48 hours, and that is normal. Knowing the sequence ahead of time makes it easier. This section describes a hospital birth. If you are planning a birth center or home birth, your care team arranges the same newborn screening, vitamin K, and eye ointment, and the first pediatric visit still applies.

Newborn screening is three separate tests, not one:

• A blood spot test (a heel stick) at 24 to 48 hours, which checks for dozens of rare but treatable conditions. Results go to your pediatrician, so ask about them at the first well visit.
• A pulse oximetry screen, a painless sensor on the hand and foot, which looks for critical congenital heart disease. This matters because some serious heart problems cause no signs at birth, and prenatal ultrasound misses about half of them.
• A hearing screen, done before one month, because language begins developing at birth.

Each state runs its own screening program, so the exact conditions and logistics vary.

Soon after birth, your baby also gets a vitamin K shot, which prevents a rare but serious bleeding problem, and antibiotic eye ointment (erythromycin), which prevents a serious eye infection. The first dose of the hepatitis B vaccine is given at the hospital. If you did not get the maternal RSV vaccine, your baby can receive an RSV antibody shot (nirsevimab or clesrovimab).

Mild jaundice, which causes a yellow tint to the skin and eyes, is very common in the first week of life. The hospital may check your baby’s bilirubin, the substance that causes it, with a light meter on the skin or a small blood test, and your pediatrician watches it closely after discharge.

The first pediatrician visit is usually within 48 to 72 hours of going home. The pediatrician checks your baby’s weight, feeding, and skin color for jaundice, and reviews the screening results. Give the hospital your pediatrician’s name so the results reach the right office. Before you are discharged, complete the birth certificate paperwork and make sure the car seat is in the car.

How do I get our home and our life ready?

Newborns need very little at first: a safe place to sleep, food, diapers, clothing, and you. Set up the essentials and wait on the rest until you know what you actually use.

• Set up the sleep space and install the car seat before your due date.
• Stock the basics: newborn and size 1 diapers, wipes, diaper cream, a handful of onesies and sleepers, a few swaddles or sleep sacks, and a digital thermometer. For a newborn, a rectal temperature is the most accurate, which is the number your pediatrician will ask for.
• Wash the baby clothes and make up the bassinet ahead of time.
• Cook and freeze meals, and stock easy food, because the first weeks leave little time to cook.
• Prepare siblings and pets. Talk with older children about what is coming and arrange their care for your hospital stay. Let pets get used to the baby’s gear and sounds in advance, so the new arrival is less of a shock.
• Take a newborn care class and an infant CPR class in the third trimester. They build confidence for the questions that come up at 2 a.m.
• Handle the logistics now: confirm your insurance and how to add the baby, plan any parental leave, save your pediatrician’s office number in your phone and share it with anyone else caring for the baby, and pack your hospital bag with your ID, insurance card, birth plan, going-home clothes for you and the baby, and the installed car seat.
• Babyproofing can wait until your baby is close to moving.
• Line up help, and be specific about what you need. “Bring dinner Tuesday” or “hold the baby so I can shower” is easier to give, and to accept, than “help.”

You do not have to have everything perfect before your baby arrives. Get the essentials in place, and let the rest wait.

How do I prepare for the emotional side?

Plan for your own wellbeing the way you plan for the baby’s. The early weeks are demanding, mood changes are common, and support is far easier to arrange before the baby arrives than after.

Postpartum mood changes are common and treatable. Perinatal depression is the most common complication of pregnancy, affecting roughly one in eight mothers, and it can begin during pregnancy or anytime in the first year. Brief “baby blues” in the first two weeks are normal. Sadness, anxiety, or hopelessness that lasts longer than that, or that gets in the way of caring for yourself or your baby, is worth a call. Partners are affected too, so watch out for each other.

Your pediatrician will check in on your mood at the 1, 2, 4, and 6-month visits, but you do not have to wait to be asked. If something feels wrong, call your pediatrician or your OB. Schedule your own postpartum checkup too, usually about six weeks after delivery, because your recovery matters as much as the baby’s. Postpartum Support International offers free, confidential help by phone or text at 1-800-944-4773.

Common myths about getting ready for a baby

• “We need a finished nursery and a lot of gear before the baby comes.” Newborns need a safe sleep space, food, diapers, clothing, and not much else. A nursery is nice to have, not a requirement, and your baby will sleep in your room anyway. Buy the basics and wait on the rest.
• “The fire station will install our car seat.” Many stations no longer keep a certified technician on duty. Find a Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician through NHTSA or Safe Kids.
• “Inclined sleepers and baby nests are fine for sleep.” They are not. Babies should sleep on a firm, flat surface that meets federal safety standards. Use those products only for awake, supervised time.
• “Breastfeeding should come naturally.” It often takes practice for both of you, and a slow start is common. Asking for help early is the norm, not a sign that something is wrong.
• “Private cord blood banking is a smart insurance policy.” The AAP does not recommend it for that purpose. A child’s own banked cells may carry the same genetic condition that would need treating. Public donation is encouraged.
• “A healthy-looking baby does not need newborn screening.” Some serious conditions show no signs at birth, and prenatal ultrasound misses about half of critical heart defects. Screening catches them in time to treat.
• “Room-sharing means bed-sharing.” They are opposites. Share a room, not a bed. Bed-sharing raises the risk of sleep-related death.

The bottom line

Most of getting ready is logistics, and you will handle it. The one step worth protecting is the prenatal visit, because it is the start of a relationship rather than an errand. It is the only well visit that happens before there is a baby in the room, which makes it the clearest moment to choose the person who will know your child for years. At Essential Pediatrics, we keep each physician’s panel to about 300 children, rather than the 1,500 to 2,000 typical of most practices, so the pediatrician who meets you before birth is the same one who answers the call later. If you would like to meet us before your baby arrives, we would welcome the conversation.

Frequently asked questions

When should I see a pediatrician during pregnancy? In your third trimester. Most pediatricians offer a prenatal visit, and it is the best time to choose your baby’s doctor and ask your questions. Call the practices you are considering to schedule one.

What if I haven’t chosen a pediatrician before delivery? It is common, and the hospital can help. A hospital pediatrician will care for your baby while you are there, and the staff can give you names of local practices. Try to choose one before you go home so your baby’s first visit, within a few days, is with the doctor who will continue their care.

Which vaccines do I need during pregnancy? Tdap between 27 and 36 weeks, a flu shot in any trimester, and the updated COVID-19 vaccine, which is recommended as standard preventive care in pregnancy. The maternal RSV vaccine (Abrysvo) is given at 32 to 36 weeks, seasonally from about September through January; if you are not vaccinated for RSV in time, your baby can get an antibody shot (nirsevimab or clesrovimab) instead. These can be given at the same visit.

Where should my baby sleep? On their back, on a firm flat surface, in a crib, bassinet, or play yard with nothing but a fitted sheet, placed in your room for at least the first six months. Not in your bed.

Do I need a new car seat, and who installs it? A new rear-facing seat is safest. Install it yourself following the instructions, then have it checked by a Certified Child Passenger Safety Technician rather than assuming it is correct.

When is the first pediatrician visit after birth? Usually within 48 to 72 hours after you leave the hospital. The pediatrician checks weight, feeding, and jaundice, and reviews the newborn screening results.

What if my baby comes early? Try not to worry if everything is not finished. Hospitals are prepared for early arrivals, and the things that matter most, a safe sleep space and a car seat, are quick to set up. Your care team will guide you on anything specific your baby needs.

Do I have to decide about circumcision and cord blood before birth? It is best to. Both are easier to decide calmly in the third trimester than during labor. Talk them through with your pediatrician or OB ahead of time.

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