Baby shower

I’m the last among family, friends, and acquaintances who has gotten pregnant. In our circle, a baby shower is basically never done. I’ve only experienced it once. Back then, I got a message from the best friend of a friend inviting me to a baby shower. I was totally surprised because I found it quite... "American." I’d never even heard of it being done here in the Netherlands before.

Since then, I’ve occasionally seen posts on social media or something about someone having a baby shower, but in my immediate circle, it’s definitely not standard.

So I don’t know what the unwritten rules are for it. It really depends on what the woman in question wants or is used to.

For me, a baby shower absolutely doesn’t need to be like that. But yeah, if it’s common in your area to have a baby shower and the pregnant woman wants one too, then you’ll probably need to check if someone already has in mind organizing it. I’d definitely not organize a baby shower for myself; that feels pretty much the same as organizing your own bachelorette party

I went shopping for baby clothes with my sister. The girls from the sports club organized a little event for her. She thought it was fun. They filled in questions about the baby (name, weight, etc.) and played guessing games.
I wouldn't organize it myself.

Here it's the tradition among the girlfriends that they take care of everything..
I just have to provide 'my house'

I arranged it together with my sister and my mom for my own little sister. It was really nice and a surprise for her.

Yeah, no, after they give birth, I only get a cheaper little outfit or piece of clothing (that's also the custom among my friends) since I already got the big gifts from them at the baby shower

We had a baby shower after the birth.
Baby showin' eh

I don't think having a party right before you give birth is really useful. Everyone ends up at your door anyway to see the baby. Then you can just throw a party right after the birth!
Our son was about 3 months old when we did ours.

For me, they had it all sorted out. My mom, mother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, and friends were there. I thought it was such a lovely surprise; I really didn't expect it. They had made some nice snacks and cute gifts for the little one. We also played a quiz game about pregnancy, childbirth, and kids. Plus, they wrote a nice message for the little one on paper in the shape of a car, to keep for later.

It doesn't have to last long either; I think it took about 2 hours, which felt just right. Especially since I'm 37 weeks pregnant and get Braxton Hicks contractions pretty quickly. I really thought it was amazing that they organized this for me. It was such a nice little push in the right direction, just before the birth.