Moms-To-Be Get Professional Help
Posted to FindingDulcinea by Cara McDonough
When brides-to-be get bogged down with the details of planning a wedding, they often turn to wedding planners for guidance. Now, pregnant women can do the same, and are looking to a growing number of baby planners to help them assess toy and furniture safety, develop a baby registry, even help choose the baby’s name.
“Being someone who hasn’t really been around babies or kid products, I just didn’t know what to choose,” said Emily Carines, 32, to The Boston Globe. “I was overwhelmed by the little things—which toys to buy, which are developmentally helpful.”
That’s why she hired Kristen DiCicco, the cofounder of The Baby Coordinators, a baby planning business in Natick, Mass. According to The Boston Globe, baby planning first became popular in England but is catching on in the United States.
The service usually appeals most to older mothers with disposable income. Another baby planning business in the Boston area, Perfecting Expecting, charges $500 for putting together a complete baby registry, $100 for help with maternity shopping and $500 for baby shower preparation.
Although some believe baby planning could become as widespread as wedding planning, the business certainly has its harsh critics, including Swarthmore University sociology professor Barry Schwartz.
“It is bad enough if parents feel like they can’t make a decision without consulting a book. Nobody is willing to trust intuition, judgment, doing it the way their parents did it,” he said to the Chicago Tribune.
But for some mothers, the service is invaluable. Denver resident Linsley Adams, pregnant with twins and on bedrest, hired Sweet Pea Baby Planners to help her design her nursery and shop for baby supplies, the Tribune reports. Adams said when she had questions about which car seats or strollers to get, she called her baby planner every day. “It made the whole situation less stressful,” she said.
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