Spoil your partner and show how much you appreciate her with a push gift!

Of course, you don’t have to spend money you don’t have. There are other things that are just as appreciated as diamonds and jewellery. To come home to a nice clean home with a bouquet of flowers and a well-stocked fridge perhaps? Or why not a new pair of PJs, bathrobe or comfy slippers? There are many suggestions – but if you know your partner well, you know what she would appreciate the most.

But not just anything will do in the States…

In Hollywood, the stars display one diamond after the other when they have given birth – having a baby equals being showered in diamonds. And the celebs outdo each other with everything from diamond-studded crosses to rings valued up to 250,000 USD. Of course, this is not as common here in Sweden; back in the day, the mother had to settle for a bowl of porridge at the bedside. Luckily, some things have improved since then.

The idea that the partner should give the woman, after having given birth to their child, gold and precious stones as a “thank-you-for-a-job-well-done” is a new-old tradition. In ancient records, you can find data stating that a woman who has given birth to a baby wouldn’t get anything but had she given birth to a son, she would have gotten a “beautiful gold ring with a stone”.

Similar traditions can be found all around the world, jewellery as gifts are common in India. In the US, ”push gifts” have become increasingly popular in recent years, and now there are back again after having been “in hibernation” for a number of decades.

Some think that a push gift is completely unnecessary, materialistic and a bit ridiculous – you are two people involved in having a baby and the baby is a gift in itself! Others see the gift as a sign of care, something the new mother is well-deserving of after nine months’ pregnancy and delivery to top it off.

There is no right or wrong. It’s just bad luck if the parents-to-be have a different view of it. Something you need to talk about before the baby comes perhaps? More than one new mother has cried a tear or two of baby blues because she didn’t get a push gift from her partner who had no clue that they were expected to bring one…

In the ancient agrarian society, the new mother got a bowl of porridge. And that was a fully female thing. Men did not participate in this tradition: not the father of the baby nor anyone else. The women in the neighbourhood came with porridge to the one who had given birth, especially during the 1800s. But times change, and as more and more women gave birth in the hospital – and had to stay for almost a week to rest up – the porridge tradition vanished. It wasn’t needed anymore.