A push present is the gift a partner gives to mark the birth of a baby. The tradition says jewellery. The women we host say the best push presents are the ones that give her an intentional pause for what matters most, and real help in the months when time runs shortest. Here are ten that do, including one you would need to give early.
A push present is a gift from a partner to the mother, given around the birth. The name is American, the habit is old, and there are no rules about what it should be or cost. Most default to a necklace or a ring because jewellery is easy to buy from a hospital corridor. That is also its weakness. She will wear it twice a year. The gifts below get used every week.
This is the one push present that cannot wait for the delivery room. Women join a mom'z retreat between week 14 and week 35 of pregnancy: five days at a private luxury estate near Barcelona or Lisbon, with daily birth preparation, prenatal movement sessions, gourmet meals prepared by a health nutritionist, all drinks and snacks including the late-night cravings, all activities, and pampering that includes a prenatal massage from a therapist trained in pregnancy work. Childbirth educators are on site for the whole retreat and a midwife is on call around the clock, which is rarer in this category than it sounds. Close to 1,000 women have come since 2023, and each group keeps a curated WhatsApp group afterwards that is still going years later. A gift certificate covers any amount, refunds in full within 90 days if she cannot use it, and she picks her own dates. Give it at the end of the first trimester, around the week 12 scan, and she gets the version of it she can still enjoy.
One professional, five nights, and both of you sleep. Ask any second-time mother what she wanted after the birth and this answer comes up before anything in a box.
A doula in the postnatal weeks cooks, holds the baby while she showers, and answers the 2am questions. Book a package of visits rather than a single one; the fourth week matters as much as the first.
Twelve evenings, booked and paid, with the babysitter arranged each time. The babysitter is the gift. Without that part, the voucher stays in the drawer.
Her back carried the pregnancy and now carries the feeding. A course of five or six sessions with a therapist trained in postnatal work, starting when she feels ready, lands better than one token visit.
The photographs she has of this year were taken on a phone, by her, of everyone else. One session with a photographer, in the last weeks of pregnancy or the first weeks at home, fixes that.
Free. Saturday and Sunday until ten, the baby is yours, and it holds for six months without renegotiation. Several women have told us this beat every object they received.
Not a surprise weekend away with a newborn. A standing promise: one night, a good hotel, food she did not order for anyone else, taken whenever she wants in the first year.
Some women want the necklace, and that is a fine tradition. Then let her pick it herself a few months after the birth, when she can try it on feeling like herself, rather than unwrapping your guess in a hospital bed.
When parents and friends ask what to give, point everyone at one thing. A contribution toward a retreat, a doula fund, the night nanny. Ten people at 50 each buys something none of them could give alone. More ideas for the wider circle are in our gifts for pregnant women guide.
Tradition says at the birth or just after. In practice the timing should follow the gift: experiences she uses while pregnant, like the retreat, are best given at the end of the first trimester; help for the newborn weeks is best announced before the birth and delivered after. The only wrong timing is buying it in the hospital gift shop.
There is no rule. Match it to what the next six months actually need, not to what photographs well. A free, kept promise beats an expensive object.
No. A babymoon gift is used during the pregnancy, a push present marks the birth. The Solo Babymoon certificate works as either, because she chooses her own dates between week 14 and week 35.
Women join mom'z retreats between weeks 14 and 35. Childbirth educators are on site for the whole retreat, midwives are on call 24 hours a day, and a clinic specialising in prenatal care is always a short drive away. She should clear travel with her own midwife or doctor first, as with any trip in pregnancy.
Yes. Partners do not come, which is exactly what makes the room work, and a chauffeured transfer collects her from the airport or the city centre.
She may mean it. She may also mean she does not want another object. The gifts on this list that cost time rather than money are the way past that sentence.
Written by Shirin Fardi, childbirth educator. Last reviewed September 2026.
