I remember when I gave birth to my daughter, I received so many gifts. My hospital room was filled with so many bunches of flowers, I mean, they were so beautiful but there was no room for them all! So, some of them had to be put outside in the hallway. Not to mention, the smell of the flowers was so irritating. I was in such a small confined room for days, so the last thing I needed was to smell roses all day.
I felt so ungrateful to ask for them to be moved, so I just put up with the sensory overload. I remember sitting there thinking “not another bunch of flowers”. When I had to leave the hospital, we had to make multiple trips to the car, and then, of course, they wouldn’t all fit in my car! When I got home, I received even more flower deliveries. You get a sense of my frustration, right?
There are so many other things that are more useful for a new mum, so here are 7 practical gift ideas:
1. Fruit basket delivery The best thing for any new mum is some healthy food to eat. She will be so sick of eating hospital food, so whether you deliver a fresh basket of fruit to her hospital room or when she gets home, consider yourself a thoughtful friend.
2. Home cooked meals Dropping off some home cooked meals or ordering some through a good caterer will earn you heaps of brownie points. New mums are often so exhausted, especially when breastfeeding, they often find themselves wanting to catch up on sleep rather than preparing a meal. Meals that can be frozen are a godsend, things like soups or lasagne.
3. Entertainment Breastfeeding mothers often find themselves up at all hours of the night, often nursing for hours on end. A good gift idea is ordering a subscription service to streaming services like Netflix, or you could buy her a box set of a television series you know she loves. Another option would be to order her a subscription for a parenting, mother or baby magazine.
4. Cleaning service A house cleaning voucher is a saviour for time poor mothers struggling to get all the house chores done. I would rather be catching up on much needed sleep than scrubbing the shower!
5. Clothes ironing service Who wants to be sitting there catching up on ironing when you can be snuggling with your newborn? A voucher for her local home ironing service would also save a new mum a lot of time in the early weeks of caring for a newborn.
6. Massage voucher Giving birth, being in hospital, and breastfeeding for hours on end can put a lot of strain on a woman’s body. A gift voucher for a massage would be a beautiful treat, there are also some that can come to her house too if she has difficulties finding a baby sitter.
7. Breastfeeding products If you know she is breastfeeding there are lots of helpful products you could buy her and make up a hamper. Here are some ideas: disposable nursing pads, washable nursing pads, lactation cookies, lactation tea, relaxing tea blends, nipple cream, soothing breast gel pads, nursing covers etc.
