The “Growing” Popularity of Babymoon Vacations

Used to be, when a woman got pregnant, she didn’t let her pregnancy slow her down. She couldn’t afford to, there were simply too many other things to attend to.

I’m descended from a long line of peasants and farm hands. In generations past, my ancestors would be working the fields in Hungary, growing…I don’t know, paprika. Maybe beets. Anyway, my foremothers were out there tending the crops, same as my forefathers, and a little pregnancy was no excuse to quit working, come inside, recline on a daybed, and ask pitifully for pudding. No, not that pudding! The kind with chocolate and vanilla swirled together! You’ll have to go back to the store.

Sound familiar? Apparently I wasn’t the only modern woman to view my pregnancy as the last great reason to relax and pamper myself. Witness the exponential growth in the travel industry’s packaging of baby moon vacations. Babymoons, or luxury pre-birth vacations for parents-to-be, have really caught on in the United States. The idea is to relax in a romantic setting, preferably with a luxury day spa nearby to tend to all the mother-to-be’s prenatal massage needs. Travel during the first- and second-trimester of pregnancy, after all, is no problem (check with your ob-gyn if you want to be extra sure).

Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, even the United Arab Emirates: Babymoon vacation packages are found in 5-star hotels and luxury resorts across the world. The list is expanding like a gravid belly (sorry). It’s too bad a website like this one didn’t exist when I was pregnant – this portal to the best luxury hotels offering babymoon packages would have been useful. As it was, I made do with guilting the poor father-to-be into late-night pudding runs. Women traveling during their second trimester are wonderful sights; romantic getaways and one-on-one time with the father-to-be are real examples of how far we’ve come.

Romantic weekend getaways are a far cry from tending the fields until the onset of labor. I have to think, however, that my Hungarian peasant ancestors would be proud of the progress that the women in my family have made. After all, what would you prefer to do during your second trimester of pregnancy – dig up beets, or enjoy a professional prenatal massage in Jamaica? Yeah, I thought so. Me too.