Whenever someone has a new baby, people love to celebrate them by bringing gifts. If you have the honor of visiting a family and their new baby in the hospital, don’t come empty-handed. While stuffed animals and balloons are sweet and thoughtful gestures, there are some better ideas that we believe the family will appreciate much more. Here are my favorite gifts to bring to a new family in the hospital that they’re sure to love!
Best Gifts To Bring a New Family in the Hospital
From helpful services for the whole family to postpartum gifts that will help mom, these 10 gifts would be perfect for a family welcoming a new baby:
1. Maternity Robe and Matching Baby Set
The first few days or weeks after having a baby, a new family usually wants to take it easy. The new mom has been through a lot! During this time, she wants to wear things that are comfortable for her recovery and for baby to also be comfy and cute. So, make this time extra sweet by bringing mom and baby a cozy, matching maternity robe and baby set! The robe will allow her to cover up easily after a feeding, and she’ll love being able to document the beginning of her journey while matching her sweet little one.
2. A Nice Nursing Gown
If the new mom decides to breastfeed her baby, getting her a nice nursing gown is a wonderful gift. Rather than a top and pants set, I always recommend getting a nursing gown instead. Recovery after childbirth is a sore and sometimes messy process. Changing her pads regularly and taking care of herself after birth makes a nursing gown the preferred item to wear. She’ll love having several of these to wear during postpartum. They’re easier for her to change her pads and use at the hospital (and even back at home).
3. A Portable Sound Machine
Hospitals have a lot of noise and can keep the parents (and baby) awake! Bring the family a portable sound machine to clip onto mom’s hospital bedrail to help her catch some more ZZZs. This will help drown out the unfamiliar noises as she tries to get some rest and recover after birth. She can also use this for many months to come when she’s on the go with baby!
4. A Heating Pad
I know a heating pad isn’t the most glamorous gift, but hear me out. Giving birth takes quite a toll on the mother’s body. Afterward, she’ll experience aches, pains, and soreness she’s probably never experienced before. To help her relieve uterine pains, back pain, or wherever she’s feeling discomfort, bring her a heating pad. The warmth it provides will help ease her pains and give her comfort, which is an amazing gift to give.
5. Hospital Survival Kit/Self-Care Bag
We have this idea listed in our Unique Baby Shower Gifts list, but we had to include it here as well because it makes an awesome Hospital Stay Survival Kit! You can also think of it as a DIY self-care bag. Get creative with your gift, and put some of your favorite little things that you think would be helpful during the mom’s stay at the hospital. Place them in a jar, basket, or box, and you’ve got an amazing gift for the new parents! Some ideas I would include are:
- Chocolate
- Wipes
- Lip balm
- Mints
- Gum
- Coffee gift card
- Under-eye concealer
- Electrolytes
- Hand sanitizer
- Dry shampoo
- Deodorant wipes
6. Gift Cards
While bringing a home-cooked meal during the first few weeks when the family is home is always welcome, a nice gesture is to bring a few food gift cards to the hospital. The family can use them while at the hospital or even when they get home. You can ask them what their favorite restaurants are or bring gift cards they can use for food delivery. I highly recommend sending them an UberEats or Doordash gift card, allowing them to order just about any food they might be craving. And I’m sure the mom will be craving lots of things she couldn’t eat during pregnancy!
7. Food
Speaking of food, while it may not seem like a great gift for a new family, trust me, for a new mom, it’s one of the best! After bringing a baby into this world and possibly not being allowed to eat for hours before or during labor, new moms are hungry. She worked hard to bring her baby into the world and probably worked up an appetite! Plus, her partner may not have had time to eat and will appreciate the food, too. A few vending machine snacks while supporting his laboring partner definitely isn’t enough.
I recommend asking them what they’d like to eat and placing the order for them. Then, you can pick it up and bring it to them when you visit. If you’d also like to bring food from home (so they have snacks on hand), some good ideas are nuts, trail mix, cheese sticks, fruit, cookies, or anything delicious you love to cook or bake!
8. Your Photography Skills
If you’re a mother, you know that, most of the time, you aren’t in the pictures because you’re the one taking them. I always tell people that one of the best gifts you can give a new mother is pictures and videos of her with her kids. So, when you’re visiting, take pictures/videos of the new little family together! Most would love to have those first few hours or days documented. This is a really sweet gift to bestow on them, as their memory might be fuzzy thinking back to those first days, but they can remember this time better with a couple of sweet pictures. And if you’re a professional photographer, bonus points! This is an amazing gift!!
Note: Just give mom a heads-up before you start snapping away to see if she’s up for it. If she doesn’t feel well enough to do it at that time, you can always offer to do it the next time you see her. But if she’s up for it, great! Then, send whatever you document to her when you leave. She will treasure those pictures and videos more than you know!
9. Professional Photography
If you’re not the best at taking pictures but love this idea of capturing the family’s first days together, many hospitals today partner with a local photographer and offer professional photography. I would first ask the family if they’d like this as a gift, and if they would, you can contact the hospital to schedule the photographer to take pictures of the new family member and parents. These frame-worthy pictures will be some of the most cherished photos they’ll own.
10. Massage Services
As I mentioned, labor and birth can take a toll on the new mother’s body. She worked so hard and could use some pampering and relaxation. See if she might be interested in a postpartum massage! Some hospitals in major metropolitan areas offer spa services for moms during the postpartum stay. If not, contact a massage therapist who specializes in prenatal and postnatal massage and offers in-home services. Consult with them to see if they’d be willing to go to the hospital and do a postpartum massage since you’d like to give that as a gift. As a former licensed massage therapist myself who offered these services, this is something a newly postpartum mom truly loves!
Additional Tip for Choosing What To Bring
First of all, any gift you bring to the new family will be very appreciated because it shows that you took the time to do something thoughtful for them. So, thank you for making the effort to show you truly care! I’d just like to share this additional tip before you choose a gift to give them in the hospital: Try not to bring anything that requires the new parents to pack it up and bring it home with them.
I know I listed several items above that the parents would need to pack in their bags; however, these are smaller things that are easy to pack and are super useful immediately postpartum. But there are a few things my clients have received that they wish would’ve been given to them while they were at home instead of the hospital. They were:
- Flowers: While flowers are a beautiful and wonderful gift, they can be challenging to bring back home. Since mom can’t carry anything heavier than the baby, she’ll probably be escorted in a wheelchair while holding her little one when leaving the hospital. Her partner will be juggling all their bags and a breastfeeding pillow, making sure everyone is safely loaded in the car. If you’d like to give flowers, I suggest waiting to send them until the family is home.
- Balloons: Because the family will only be in the hospital for a couple of days, they won’t be able to enjoy the balloons you got them for very long. And trying to load them in the car with a newborn is too much. Again, if you’d like to send balloons, wait until they’re back home.
- Big stuffed animals: I have seen some HUGE stuffed animals delivered to the hospital rooms once a baby is born. These are super cute and really show your grandiose gesture! However, trying to bring these giant stuffies home is another thing. This is why, again, I recommend waiting to send this until the family is home.
As a birth and postpartum doula, this is my approved list of what to bring a new family in the hospital. I know these items would make them so happy. Let me know what else we should add to our list and what gifts people brought you as a new family in the hospital!
