The gift of giving

I have a confession to make

I have a confession to make; I have been guilty of frivolous spending on junk my baby really doesn’t need. Whether it’s because I’m a first-time mother or not, I don’t know, but in the first few months of my pregnancy, I was coming home with Tiffany & Co rattles and importing special PVC-free teethers from France. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but as my pregnancy progresses, I’m finding myself becoming increasingly consumed with guilt over my sheer fortune in life.

Now, I don’t mean material good fortune (because although the above items much suggest otherwise, I’m anything but wealthy), no, I mean the sheer fortune of being born in a country like Australia where we have access to quality medical care and the assurance that our babies will receive a first-rate quality of life. We’re in a position to be able to give birth knowing that should anything go wrong, we’ll have a team of medical professionals work around the clock to make sure you and your baby are safe, we’re free from war, famine and this is all due to the accident of birth – in the great lottery of life, we were lucky enough to draw the right numbers and here we are.

What we also know is that most women in the world aren’t so lucky, and for me, this has never been closer to my heart. I’m having my baby in a private hospital so I can’t imagine what it would be like to give birth in the dirt without access to boiling water or a clean blade, or what it would be like to carry a baby not knowing whether you were both going to make it through the delivery or not but this the reality for millions of women around the world who are currently pregnant.

So, lately I’ve been cutting down on my spending, saying no to the boutiques and yes, to second-hand books and clothes and with the money I’m saving, I’m donating to charities. A particular favourite is the Safe Mother and Baby Program Appeal where a single donation of $106 provides 40 pregnant women with Safe Delivery Kits (containing a clean blade, plastic sheet, swaddling cloth and piece of string). I know I’m hardly saving the world, but supporting these charities gives me the comfort of knowing that while I’m delivering in my sanitised delivery room under the watchful eye of my obstetrician, I might have made a small difference to someone else out there delivering a special bundle of her own.

If you’d like to donate, visit www.unrefugees.org.au/appeal/safe-mother---baby-appeal.html