It is normally considered back luck to throw a party for the baby before his or her birth by most people as the outcome of the pregnancy is never 100% sure unfortunately and there could be also unexpected complications at birth.
Here in Australia, similarly to many other Anglo-Saxon countries, instead the arrival of the unborn child is celebrated in advance with a cute and fun party thrown for the expecting mother with her belly at the center of the attention and with a real ‘shower of gifts’…it is therefore called Baby Shower.
Generally, it is organized during the eighth month of pregnancy, when mothers are more serene as they see the end of the pregnancy adventure (or misadventure for some with many symptoms), and usually they are already on maternity leave and are totally focused on the arrival of the baby.
Generally the party is held in the house of the person who organizes it or the future mother's house although here in Australia (in non-Covid times) you can alternatively rent a party room suitable for the occasion.
The party is usually a female-only celebration but I was recently able to be an ‘outsider’, a spectator, at one of these parties given the fact that my fiancée attended a small baby shower (small due to Covid always lingering out there) and I was able to sneak a peek when I drove her there for the event.
The future mother was surrounded by some friends and by her sisters and, as usual, she received many gifts which later my fiancée told me they were useful gifts to better prepare for the arrival of the baby (in this case a baby girl): hygiene products, blankets, clothes, toys, a diaper cake and a diaper genie.
Being a man when she told me diaper cake it sounded very gross but later she explained to me that it’s a fake cake made of layers of diapers which the mother-to-be will be able to use once the baby is born.
The diaper genie is kind of gross though because apparently it’s a bin that holds up to 100 dirty nappies and that’s awful! LOL
The house was beautifully decorated with pink balloons and pacifiers’ stickers on the windows at the entrance and festoons with baby’s bottles, teddy bears and rocking horses inside the house.
They had a table with a music box, snacks, bright pink cupcakes, sweets, pink Jordan almonds and small party favours for all the participants.
The future mother can usually take care of the organization of the party herself, even if the baby shower etiquette would like the initiative to come from her friends, who shall relieve her from the burden of the preparations.
In this case her sisters had organized it so it was small, cosy and organized at her home.
The invitation cards were themed and these can be bought at any local store or even made online on some special website.
My fiancée told me they played quite a few fun themed games too as Baby shower games are a great way to put the mother at ease and keep her friends entertained.
In one game each girl had to dress a doll while blindfolded and the results were funny apparently.
In another game the girl pretending to be the baby girl had to guess the flavour of the baby food she was given while blindfolded again.
In a third game everyone had to guess the exact measurements of the belly circumference and the last game was another guessing game in which they put some baby items in a bag and the participants, while blindfolded, had to recognize them by only touching them.
There were objects such as diapers and baby bottles, but also other more complex ones, such as tubes of ointment or pacifier holders.
There were prizes for winning such games and everybody got a cute lace bag with cookies as party favour to take home in the end.
By ALBERTO FERRANDO
PHOTO GALLERY
