gifts for midwife and doula?

[emilysometimes]

I'm a first-time mom due May 5 and read on a post here that someone was buying gifts for her midwife. Is this customary? I'll have a doula as well and was wondering if people usually bought little gifts for their doulas or if you're supposed to tip a doula.

Can any of you more experienced moms help out a first-timer?

Thanks!

Emily

[adtake]

I think it depends on the mw or doula and the person.

With my second one I really didnt know the midwife that well and a student actually delivered. So for the midwife I got a set of votives. For the student I bought a scrapbook and did a page for my son that she delivered. Told her she could now have a book of all the babies she delivered.

With my 3rd I wasn't all that thrilled with the mw service so she got flowers. The office staff was great so I baked a big basket of muffins. They still make comments about it..lol

With this one, it will depend on the midwife. If it's who I had with #2 I want to get her a tree of some sort to plant. She seems to like gardening and I think it would be cool to give her a tree in honor of my daughter and her. May even look at a small plaque to go on it. They could plant it at the birthing center.

Will have to see...

Good luck!

[emilysometimes]

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't know either the m/w or the doula well- but I already love my doula, so I'm pretty sure I will get her a little something at least. I know she likes candles. :-)

The scrapbook was a great idea.

[MarchWillow]

Yes it is customary...although I don't think they'd shoot you if you didn't lol. I was really debating who and what to gift. I get a little spooked about some stuff because I don't know just how much they are into all natural...for example, someone said a starbucks giftcard, which I thought was genius...but then thought again-I don't think they drink coffee and would they really use it? I have a few idea's-some cute and cheap tote's with mw slogans on them. I also think I may go down to the bath and body works in our local mall and waddle around and pick out a couple little gift baskets. We all love lotions and soaps and I am sure i can find something with "simple" ingredients...or at least hypoallergenic...There's a great little "smoke shop" in the mall too that has all kinds of potpourri and scented oils and such...I may swing in there if the smells don't make my tummy turn on the way by. My husband is my doula, so he can have my body back in six weeks for his present lol...and a beautiful baby boy to boot!

[robertandenith]

I HAD to post here!!! hehee!!!!!! I am due in Aug but saw your post and couldn't resist!!! I am so in love with my MW and I am doing something special for her, I told my mom to bring her a white dress so she could wear the day of the birth and of course to keep... also I found this!!!! http://www.joyfullivingnaturals.com/...ex.cfm?prod=52 I am going to ask her to use it in our birth but will tell her to keep it It's just beautiful don't you think?!?!?

ps. sorry I failed to mention my mom is coming from Panama

[battymama]

I will be doing up a hamper, with herbal teas, and some home made baked goods, my midwife loves herbal teas. I found these mugs and things on cafe press, i will put the link here, you can search for doula as well.
http://www.cafepress.com/buy/midwife...rchBox/x_9/y_6

and i will also probaly get this:
http://www.goodgiftsshop.org/product...ts&catref=5010
for her as a card.
For my back up midwife i will make up a smaller basket of goodies.

[aishy]

I've been thinking about getting together NB pics of each of my little ones & framing them (probably scrapbooky) for my midwife along with their birth year. She caught all four of them and I'm hoping she'll make it for this one too

A few pregnancies ago there were some CUTE keychains & stuff with midwife slogans on them on Ebay, I don't know if I still have the name of the store but I will check & come back to post if I do/if it is still around. Found it (I had put it in "my favorites") - http://baby.search.ebay.com/_Baby_W0...Zbluemoonlaser

aisling

[happyfrog]

Originally Posted by robertandenith

I HAD to post here!!! hehee!!!!!! I am due in Aug but saw your post and couldn't resist!!! I am so in love with my MW and I am doing something special for her, I told my mom to bring her a white dress so she could wear the day of the birth and of course to keep... also I found this!!!! http://www.joyfullivingnaturals.com/...ex.cfm?prod=52 I am going to ask her to use it in our birth but will tell her to keep it It's just beautiful don't you think?!?!?

ps. sorry I failed to mention my mom is coming from Panama

I've actually MADE a bunch of those weigh slings for my midwife - to help with the cost of the birth. . . not that hard to make really. just time consuming - esp since I prewash the fabric 6x and dry it high heat to make sure there's no possibility of shrinkage down the road. ..

I'm going a slightly different route on gifts for the midwife(s) (I'll have 2 midwives and an apprentice at the birth).

I'm buying a bunch of: http://www.createforless.com/Bulk+No...2-fa33c20cca5c

because I know they'll get used. The midwife mentioned that when she does appts, the folks with little boys in particular have a tendency to take the measuring tapes home with them. . .(my kids did it one week, *bag over head*) - I brought it back, but still, had a light bulb moment - esp if I make a simple tote to hold them - that can be reused for something else. . .

BettyAnn
who needs to get ordering the tapes AND making the totes. ..

[chirp]

i have no idea!!!!

and i've been thinking about this for a while now.

the only thing i can thnk of is that my midwife has said on multiple occassions that she is a coffee-holic...so i was thinking, like, different kinds of organic, gourmet coffee. Maybe going to whole foods and picking out a few and decorating them in nice bags.

i would bake (since I bake a lot) but she once said something about carbs being her downfall...and although that may mean she might love a pumpkin bread er something, i don't want to make her feel bad for eating it!!!

so i guess I'll have to think of something else!

[gabbyquilts]

I was thinking about getting mine a netflix subscription, but then someone on here said they were getting theirs sigg bottles, and mine has commented on my bottle "collection", and I thought that might be cool. We have a living green expo this weekend that is really huge and usually just about all crunchy businesses remotely local to us are there selling stuff and I thought I would look there before I order anything online.
Its also kinda tricky because I absolutely want to get my MW something awesome, but her assistant has been at all of my appointments and even did one solo while she was at a birth. I like her plenty, but she isn't really the one i painstakingly chose so I don't feel that bond with her. I am thinking of maybe spending half of what I spend on the main one. Do ya ll think this is ok?

I also thought the must get an awful lot of baby pictures, and wouldn't nice scrapbook albums be nice, but they don't really have the time to scrapbook, so would it be a waste?

What do you think midwives do with all of those baby pictures?(she has been practicing for about 30 years and I think she does a max of 8 a month)

[merry-mary]

I agree that it depends on your midwife/doula and your relationship with them.

I had a hospital birth with an OB. I sent her a thank you note, as she was very supportive and encouraging of my natural childbirth and worked well with my doula. That's all I did -- I may have sent a picture of the baby too? But I don't remember.

For my doula, I sent her a very heartfelt letter - took me a few weeks to finish it. I also sent her a bouquet of flowers.

[chirp]

my midwife glues or pastes er whatever all the pictures onto foam board in her office. it really makes the place look nice. she's got like, 4 HUUUGE board full of baby pictures, and a table with baskets full of baby photo albums in the waiting room. she also has some pretty nice drawings of mothers in labor and just after labor...and i like the way her office looks, its not really cluttered...so i wouldn't want to give her anything that would contribute to clutter...i'm sure with all of the woman she sees it's hard to keep the clutter down!!

[emilysometimes]

You women are wonderful- thanks for all the great ideas!

I'm thinking little baskets with herb tea and candles will do the trick.

Thanks again,
Emily

[symesa]

Originally Posted by battymama

I will be doing up a hamper, with herbal teas, and some home made baked goods, my midwife loves herbal teas. I found these mugs and things on cafe press, i will put the link here, you can search for doula as well.
http://www.cafepress.com/buy/midwife...rchBox/x_9/y_6

and i will also probaly get this:
http://www.goodgiftsshop.org/product...ts&catref=5010
for her as a card.
For my back up midwife i will make up a smaller basket of goodies.

I LOVE both those ideas -- the "We have a secret in our culture and it's not birth is painful. It's that women are strong" is awesome! But the bikes for midwives is simply spectacular!!!!