Welcome to Shamima’s Baby Shower Registry!
Browse your sister’s carefully curated list of gifts and select one!
Gift List
Help the mum-to-be relax with a pregnancy massage. The treatment uses essential oils to relax mums in their final stages of pregnancy so they approach labour in the right state of mind. Stress, especially when mixed with denial, can trigger early labour.
Hire a birthing pool to give the little one a gentle entry into the world. Shams has chosen a home birth, as statistically they are the safest, followed by birthing suites and hospitals. Not recommended: giving birth alone in the woodland behind your house, in early February.
Keep little one close with the Next to Me Crib and Snuggly Blanket. Sleeping next to their mother helps babies regulate their body temperature and breathing. In cases where mothers and babies are separated, the babies do not do well. In cases where babies are left under a park bench at night, when the temperature is below zero and falling, they do worse.
Cash Gift
As a new mother who only wants the best for her child, Shams welcomes cash gifts. Keep increasing the number until the nausea fades.
Don’t forget the details for the baby shower itself!
Venue
Shams and her husband are renovating their terrace to be safe and comfortable for the baby. They’re painting the nursery in black and white since newborn babies have a very limited worldview and only see monochrome. Because of this, the shower will take place at your parents’ house, which is not painted black and white, although your parents’ view of the world is also very limited.
RSVP so Shams can make informed plans. Don’t leave her to make assumptions about who will come by because she could make a mistake. Once you are a mother, mistakes come at a high price, as you know too well.
For confirmation of attendance or regrets, call 07657112902, or email shamsbabyshower@hotmail.com. Regrets will take too long and change nothing but you cannot attend. You’ve avoided speaking to your sister since the morning you found her, cereal bowl in hand, watching a newsreader explain that it had been the coldest February night for years, that the park had been cordoned off by police tape. Your sister slurped a spoonful of Frosties and nodded at the TV. ‘Right by our house. The mother must’ve been some stupid girl from around here.’
Leave a personal message for the Mother-To-Be to accompany your gift
Tell her about cold dirt and stones under your knees, blood soaking black into the soil and the wind clawing at your wet face as you wept between each muffled scream.
Tell her that you’re glad she doesn’t know about these things, that she can instead be the clever girl who did everything right.
Tell her that you wish her well.
Sarah M Jasat grew up believing her family was very strange but later discovered she was Indian. As part of the 2018 cohort for the Middle Way Mentoring Programme she has been developing short fiction exploring individuals struggles within the constraints of traditional families. She dreams about writing a novel for older children if only she could get her own child to go to sleep. Find Sarah at @StraightUpSarahM.
