The minute you are given a due date for December, especially later in the month approaching the 25th or the 31st, your mind will probably start to go into overdrive about the holiday period –
- What if it snows and we get stuck on the way to hospital?
- Will my Maternity Unit be fully staffed over the holidays?
- Can I schedule my induction or planned C-section so I’m not in hospital over the holiday period?
- What if baby comes in the middle of Christmas Dinner?
- What clothing will my baby need? Will it be cold? Do they really need holiday outfits?
- Is there anything I can do to ensure my baby won’t have a Christmas Day BIRTHday?
But in the words of Doris Day, que sera sera, what will be will be! Babies have no concept of time and certainly not of festivities, so having a Plan B and an open mind about baby’s BIRTHday is always a clever idea.
During the Great Lockdown Christmases of 2019 and 2020, we all adapted how we celebrated with many ‘second Christmases’ happening in April, May and even over the summer months - so why not in 2023? It’s a great excuse for prolonging the festivities and may help you to safeguard those precious last few days and weeks of your pregnancy, or those early days with your new baby. The pressure to do the holidays bigger and better than ever grows year on year but, where is the harm in stripping it back and focusing on what it means to you and your family?
The Midwives at My Expert Midwife have put together our Top Tips for preparing for a December baby, but our main message to all you ‘December daters’ is to keep calm and carry on! It’s just another day and another month, and what better time to have a new baby than when many towns, cities, wards, and windows are already celebrating and decorated?
Top Tips
- If you have a due date for early December, you may want to hunker down over the festive period with your partner and newborn in the comfort of your own home but be feeling the pressures from friends and family to socialise. Set your store early and let others know your plans – explain how important this protected time is to you and that you would love to celebrate later in the New Year.
- If your due date falls in the second half of December, your thoughts may be more around “spoiling” the holidays for everyone else but, in actual fact, you might find that sharing your concerns with family and friends means that you can put a Plan A and a Plan B in place and relieve that unnecessary stress. For example, if going elsewhere to eat over the holidays, stay within a commutable distance of your local Maternity Unit. If you have other children or animals, make sure someone is available to look after them. And don’t be the designated driver – if you start to labour and everyone else has been drinking, how will you get to the hospital?
- Get an early shopping delivery date booked in and stock up on newborn and new mum essentials: nappies, maternity pads, formula if not choosing to breastfeed, and recovery products such as Spritz for Bits and Soak for Bits. And don’t forget to treat yourselves to some of your favourite treats, too – Christmas is not a time for diets.
- Ensure you have plenty of layers for your new baby. December weather is notoriously difficult to forecast accurately, with temperatures widely ranging from below freezing to positively tropical in double figures. Layering baby up can help with regulating their temperature much easier than putting them into thick snowsuits or fleecy onesies.
- Think about your home and your car as well. You will need to keep your home warm (between 16-20 degrees Centigrade is ideal) so the last thing you’ll want is for your boiler to pack in! Remember that you will also want to take regular showers or baths and will want hot water as well – so get a heating system/boiler check completed in Autumn and lag your pipes so you aren’t worrying about no heating or hot water. Likewise, give your car a health check – think lights, fuel, oil, brakes and tyres, and pre-programme the Maternity Unit into your Satnav.
- Bring out your inner Girl Guide or Scout and be prepared – keep a shovel, a bag of grit and blankets in your car for unexpected snowfalls (fun fact - did you know statistically the UK is more likely to have snow on Easter Sunday than Christmas Day!?). And have a list of emergency contacts programmed into both your and your partner’s mobile phones so that, if stuck, you can call on others for help.
- Have your bags packed early and take them wherever you go so, if needs be, you can head directly to the Maternity Unit without needing to go home first.
- Avoid planning long-distance trips – or plan alternative birthing locations, ensuring you have their contact numbers to hand and a pre-planned route. Don’t forget to have your notes available whenever you go out or travel away from home.
- Don’t worry about staffing levels at your planned place of birth, midwives and doctors provide safe cover every day of the year and holiday periods are no different, with 24 hours a day 365 (or 366 days) a year cover.
- Midwives and doctors will do their utmost best to ensure that if you have an induction of labour or a planned Caesarean Section booked around the festive period that you will either be brought in after the 25th or that you will be home before. However, with the best will in the world there are always occasions where a hospital stay over the holidays will be unavoidable, but you can guarantee that the staff will go the extra mile to make it as enjoyable as possible. It may be worth noting that Christmas Day and New Year's Day babies born to each Maternity Unit will probably make it into the local newspaper, so consider if you are happy to be named and whether you’d like a photo of your baby to be posted by them and let your Midwife know.
- Watch The Vicar of Dibley Christmas Special from 1999, where the fabulous Alice gives birth supported by her delightfully naïve husband Hugo in a stable scene during a live enactment of the Nativity, for some mood-boosting Oxytocin! A great laugh and proof that babies arrive when they decide and, in this case, where they decide. But please don’t worry about setting up a straw bed, just plan ahead and ring ahead to your hospital if you either have any concerns or think you may be in labour.
