Looking for something special to celebrate the strong & beautiful women in your life? We have great gift ideas to celebrate your child’s birth mom this Birth Mother’s Day!
Birth Mother’s Day is an opportunity to thank and recognize the selfless sacrifice birth moms make when creating an adoption plan.
Birth Mother’s Day Gifts
Celebrating Birth Mother’s Day is important for the entire adoption triad. Birth Mother’s Day celebrates the unbelievable sacrifice a birth mother makes for her child when creating an adoption plan. It recognizes their role in creating a family not just during placement but even years later. On this day, honor your child’s birth mother by remembering her story and if possible, share with her one of these great gifts ideas. Birth Mother’s Day can be a painful time for your child’s birth mom so recognizing her role in your family and showing your appreciation is so important.
Most birth mothers welcome having a special day to honor their sacrifice. Birth Mother’s Day makes these women feel special, recognized, and heard. This day brings recognition to friends and family who may not have known it existed and spreads awareness of their journey and experience as a birth mother. Taking a day to celebrate birth mothers, alleviates the stigma that many women face and instead offers them empowerment.
However, some feel guilty or selfish for having Birth Mother’s Day. It can serve as a reminder that “I was not able to be the mother I wanted for my child.” Every birth mother’s experience and decision to celebrate is unique. Some women may want to celebrate with their loved ones, while others may need to take the day to be alone and mourn. And that is okay.
Birth Mother’s Day can be an emotional and lonely time. If you know a birth mother, reach out to them, and see how they want to celebrate. Birth mothers feel acknowledged and not alone when adoptive moms reach out to them on these days. Especially during the pandemic, when so many feel alone, make an effort to recognize and send love to your child’s birth mom.
Want to show appreciation for these wonderful women? We put together a list of personal and unique gifts to honor the strong and beautiful mothers in your life!
1. Photo album:
DIY a photo album or scrapbook of your child’s life so far. These pictures can be comforting for a birth mother to reflect on her decision. Include captions, personal messages, fun facts, and favorites of the adoptee, and even consider including the adoptee’s goals. It can be fun to look back on his/her career goal in the future!
Using air dry clay, capture your child’s handprint forever. This DIY jewelry dish is a beautiful keepsake for all of the adoption triad.
2. Adoptee’s Handprint Clay Jewelry Dish:
This DIY clay jewelry dish is an entertaining craft to do with the adoptee. All you need is air dry clay, washable paint, paintbrush, rolling pin, parchment paper, pencil, a small glass bow, and a Xacto knife or scissors.
First, place parchment paper on the table and use the rolling pin to roll out the clay until it is about 1/4 of an inch thick. Then, trace the adoptee’s hand using the pencil onto the clay. Cut out the hand using scissors or the Xacto knife. Take the small bowl and place it upside down. Now, gently mold the clay hand onto the bowl to mold it into the shape of a dish. Allow the clay to dry for 24 to 48 hours on the bowl. Finally, decorate the dish by painting a heart at the center of the dish using your birth mom’s favorite color!
For a step-by-step tutorial with pictures, visit the blog Simple As That.
3. Handwritten Letters:
This thoughtful and meaningful gift gets your friends and family involved too! Have your friends and family write a heartfelt message to your child’s birth family. Ask them to write about what they love about the adoptee or the sacrifice the birth mom made. You can give each person a card or custom notecard to write on. After receiving the notecards back from your family and friends, gift them to your child’s birth parents. Don’t forget to include a note from yourself and even the adoptee if they are old enough!
4. Journal:
Journaling can be a therapeutic gift for birth mothers at any point after placement. It can help them cope with the happy and sad times they may experience. Consider gifting a journal with prompts inside to help them begin their journey to writing. Leave a personal note on the first page of the journal thanking and recognizing the birth mother. It can be comforting to have kind words to surround yourself with when you feel lonely.
Another fun DIY keepsake perfect for the birth mom that loves to read or journal.
5. Personalized Adoptee Bookmark:
To the birth mom that loves to read or journal! This is the perfect keepsake and all you need is a picture of the adoptee, scissors, card stock, contact paper, a glue stick, and a tassel! For a step-by-step tutorial, click here.
Start by taking a picture of the child posing like they are holding onto a rope and hanging down. Bonus points for silly faces! Nest, print the photo on a 4×6 piece of paper using an at-home printer or local store or pharmacy. Cut out the photo as close as possible to the child’s body. Using a glue stick, mount the photo on a piece of card stock to make it sturdier, but DON’T glue the hands down yet! Cut out the cardstock along the child’s body. Then, slip the tassel between the photo and card stock. Now glue the hands to the card stock to secure the tassel. Finally, adhere contact paper to the back and front of the bookmark leaving some additional room around the edges.
6. Recordable books:
A unique way to capture and preserve the voice of your child’s birth mother! Recordable storybooks make a great gift for the entire adoption triad. If you have an older child, consider recording them reading the storybook. Or, have the birth mom record herself as a memory for the adoptee. Some books, like this one, are more suitable for adoption storylines, so be sure to look at the description.
Consider planting a tree that blooms during this time of year to honor your child’s birth mother.
7. Plant A Tree:
If you are not in an open adoption, you can still honor your child’s birth mother. Plant a tree that blooms during this time of year in honor of your child’s birth mother. It will be a beautiful reminder of her sacrifice for your family.
What creative ways are you celebrating Birth Mother’s Day? Let us know by posting to #AFTHBirthMothersDay on Facebook and Twitter or commenting below!
My first birth mothers day (an outsiders perspective) (wordpress.com)
5 Things Birth Mothers Want You To Know – (pregnancyadoptionoptions.com)
