Beyond the Casserole: Gifts for New Parents That Experts Say You Should Consider

New parents are exceptionally fatigued, and that fatigue can even increase their risk for postpartum depression and anxiety. As much as the “village” provides food and cleaning, the new parents might just need to string together a few hours of sleep, which can be exceptionally challenging if a parent is breastfeeding. Siobhán Alvarez-Borland, who’s a postpartum doula and mom of three young children and is based near Atlanta, says that a simple gift is holding the child while both parents take a midday nap. 

But if a group wants to get involved to chip in on an overnight doula’s time, the new parents can get some real sleep in those trying wee hours of the night while someone else feeds and cares for the baby. “Set up a fund where friends and family can donate towards services the parents might need, like the out-of-pocket expenses for a lactation consultant, night nanny, or postpartum doula,” she says. Gifters don’t have to be deterred by the fact that it can be too costly to buy this every week or nightly. Even a few hours helps.

With each of my new babies, I’d stash their hospital mementos and ultrasounds into an envelope, and shove it somewhere in my office, wishing I was the kind of person who could figure out how to find and keep up with a “baby book” to preserve all those sweet memories. But, let’s be real, it just wasn’t going to happen. 

Services like Chatbooks and Qeepsake are perfect giftable services to fill this need exactly. Chatbooks is a monthly photo book service where a parent can simply auto-upload photos from the past month from their phone’s camera roll onto the app, and the service does the rest of the work, from choosing the best pictures and weeding out random screenshots to asking you which cover photo you prefer. Then, it ships the book to your house. This is an inexpensive service that will keep giving back to a new parent throughout the year. At the end of the year, they’ll have 12 months of memories they didn’t have to work to preserve, and they can decide whether to continue the service. 

Similarly, Qeepsake will text the parents a prompt, at times they set up, asking a specific question about their child, such as “What was your favorite moment with baby today?” They compile the responses and pictures you submit, and parents can order these books, and check off the burden of baby book-making from their to-do lists.

If you meet a new parent, especially one who is breastfeeding, chances are they are starving. Keeping up with your own nutrition as you care for a new baby can quickly fall by the wayside, Alvarez-Borland says. “Set up a meal train, with the information included on how to send the new parents meal delivery gift cards as well. New families need real meals, and when you’re in the thick of those first few weeks, nutrition can easily fall by the wayside.” An incredibly simple way is to have multiple people donate whatever they can by Venmo-ing some money to you. Then combine their donations into one DoorDash gift card, which can be electronically sent to the recipient via email or text. They can order takeout right to their door without anyone having to guess about their diet needs or preferences. 

Similarly, Oster recommends HelloFresh or other meal-prep services with varying levels of giftable choices. “Some of these meal delivery services are a little more postpartum-oriented,” Oster says, pointing to how postpartum parents can sometimes benefit from specific foods, such as bone broth. But in the months following the baby, there are also spikes such as at the 3- to 4-month mark, when parents are often headed back to work. Meal services are still beneficial then. “Things like HelloFresh are a pretty valuable thing indefinitely,” she says.

EveryPlate, which is owned by HelloFresh, is a lower-priced meal-delivery service that offers easy-to-prepare and fast meals that are still healthy. It’s easy to adjust the schedule through its app, making it useful to parents with unpredictable schedules in new baby days. “It’s easy to forget to eat,” Oster says.

The village can offer to watch the baby for date nights, which is always helpful. But sometimes they need to stay with the baby or are too tired to put on real clothes and head out into the world. In those cases, giftable services and subscriptions that help parents bond with each other and the baby are nice to have. Here are a few to consider gifting.

Bitsy Boxes
These women-owned subscriptions include a variety of products in each box that help encourage bonding with your growing baby through play.

Crated With Love Date Night Subscription Box
Sometimes, the thought of getting out of the house seems daunting, especially with a newborn. But you still need to connect with your spouse. Enter a budget-friendly date night box!

Panda Crate
A collaboration between KiwiCo and Seattle Children’s Hospital, this was inspired by the vision of helping busy parents nurture naturally curious and creative babies. Each monthly crate offers research-backed, developmentally appropriate products and resources for that baby’s current age.

Bookroo
Monthly book deliveries, based on the age of the child. An easy way to build your child’s library and get those 1,000 books read before kindergarten.

Rainy Day Boxes
These can be sent to a new mom as a reminder she’s thought of, especially postpartum when a lot of focus is on the baby, and the new mom can often be forgotten amidst it all. They include uplifting notes, and moms can open them when they have a quiet minute to themselves or need a bit of a boost, even at 2 a.m. during a tough night.

You could come do the laundry, which sure piles up with a new baby, but then there’d be a visitor hanging out all day at the parents’ house, which can sometimes feel in the way. Instead, gift new parents a laundry service, such as 2ULaundry, which does your laundry based on your specifications. They pick up, wash it, and deliver it back to you. Look for more specific services near you, including local options, as this one is available right now in six major cities. Poplin, for example, offers service in around 500 cities.

Keep in mind that most services can be split among multiple members in the village who want to send a gift. You can also try to see what people might want ahead of time, or wait to gift something specific and meaningful once they are in the so-called trenches. “Before you have a child, it can be quite difficult to envision how much you will need and what it is,” Oster says, adding in those first few weeks some parents might just want to “cocoon” with their baby (cuddle and chill) without visitors, but may still need help through services. In the end, having a village willing to help however they can is the best gift of all.