Before The Baby: The Shared Checklist

Setting up the load before it sets up you.

Before the Baby: The Shared Checklist is a 106-item preparation list for pregnancy, organised under the six Mama Toolkit themes, with a column for who is doing each task and a suggested trimester for when. It is written for couples expecting a baby in Australia — first or not — who want the practical work of getting ready shared by design rather than landing on whoever thought of it first. An unassigned checklist slowly becomes one person's checklist, and pregnancy is the one stretch where that can be set up differently instead of renegotiated in a crisis.

Format: PDF, print-ready
Length: 14 sections, 106 items, 45 pages
Delivery: Instant download by email — yours to keep, including future updates.

Why a checklist, and why now

Almost everything in the first twelve weeks is decided by default: whoever is home does it, whoever thought of it owns it. This list moves those decisions forward into pregnancy, when there is time to research, price and agree them, and it gives each one a name. Every task has space for initials or a B for both, a suggested trimester, a tick box, and a lined space for the research outcome, so the list works as a record of what you decided as well as what you did.

What's inside

1. Mama Health — birth care options, the pelvic health physio, vaccinations, the six-week check, a sleep plan for the first 12 weeks, recovery planning including caesarean, and a printed helplines page.
2. Pelvic Floor & Birth Recovery — an antenatal assessment, your risk factors, perineal massage and birth positions, protecting the pelvic floor in the first six weeks, and the postnatal check that decides when exercise resumes.
3. Mental Health & Emotional Preparation — the GP conversation, one person with permission to say you need more support, a perinatal psychologist check-in, a weekly 15-minute couple check-in and a protected solo hour each.
4. Community & Connection — one peer at the same stage, your partner's own network, a mothers' group joined before the birth, and who fields the announcement replies.
5. Household & Outsourcing — the outsourcing budget and its review dates, a doula or night nanny priced in advance, family help said out loud, the meal train, the help menu for the fridge, and the services worth trialling while there is still headspace.
6. The First 12 Weeks: Who Does What — a written division of nights, feeds, admin, visitors and the house, agreed before the birth, plus the default-parent rule for when the baby cries and you're both home.
7. Legal, Admin & Leave — health insurance and its waiting periods, the will and a named guardian, both partners' leave paperwork, Paid Parental Leave, and myGov, Medicare and Centrelink set up before the birth.
8. Work & Career — the right to return, spouse super as a standing arrangement, the handover document, and keeping the network warm during leave.
9. Motherhood Penalty Questions — six questions to answer as a couple: entitlements beyond the minimum, the super gap, return-to-work conditions, a cashflow for the leave period, and the five-year trajectory.
10. Baby Items — pram, pump, car seat and its fitting, carrier, cot and current safety standards, and the small starter stock that is all newborn sizes need.
11. Childcare — daycare waitlists in the first trimester, the childcare start date worked backwards from the return to work, a babysitter in both phones, and the backup plan.
12. Baby Care Basics — safe sleep including co-sleeping, feeding cues, the warning signs, one settling technique learned before 2am, the newborn checks in hospital, and the first 48 hours at home.
13. If This Isn't Your First — the older child's care during the birth, preparing them, protecting their routine, and daily one-on-one time.
14. The Partner's Own List — his leave stack and when he takes it, a flexible return, the antenatal classes, his own group, and taking responsibility for communicating the birth and newborn-bubble preferences to his family.

Two closing sections round it out: a Resources page grouped by section, with the evidence and services behind the items, and a Helplines page built for the fridge, with every number in one place and space for your own.

Who it's for

• Couples expecting a baby in Australia who want the preparation shared, with a name against every task.
• Anyone pregnant with a first baby who wants one list instead of forty tabs.
• Parents expecting a second or third, with a short section for the older child.
• Partners who want their own list — leave, work, support, and the family conversation — rather than a share of hers.

How to use it

Print it, or work from the PDF. Sit down together once in each trimester and go through the items due, put a name against each, and use the lined space under every task to note what you found out and what you decided. The suggested trimester is a guide, not a deadline; the aim is that it is done before the baby comes, not before the weekend.

For the full picture, the checklist comes from Chapter 1 of Becoming: The Guide for Early Motherhood.

Digital download. No refunds once the file has been sent — questions before you buy are always welcome.