Push Presents

What better way to commemorate your new addition than a piece of jewelry? But not every mama wants an over-the-top diamond-encrusted push present (OK, not every mama can afford those diamonds) or a supertraditional photo-filled locket. The meaningful necklaces shown above let you display your love for your new babe every day in a subtle, stylish way.

From top, left:
1. Dogeared Create Necklace ($68 and up; shown horizontally): Add birthstone charms along with letters, numbers, zodiac signs, and more to create a totally custom, personal piece of jewelry.
2. Erin Gallagher's Gem Bar Mary-Catherine Necklace ($30 and up): Chicago-based designer Erin Gallagher lets you totally customize this necklace, adding birthstones, initials, or zodiac signs to represent the ones you love.
3. POSH Mommy Birthstone Necklace ($240): Favored by celebs like Brooke Burke and Milla Jovovich, POSH Mommy's creations come in various metals and designs. This gold vermeil necklace comes with two horizontal names, each with a birthstone.
4. Anna Bee Two-Square Initial Tag Necklace ($105): Two gold-filled square tags with two hand-stamped initials hang on a gold or silver chain, available in three lengths.
5. Luna & Stella Moon & Stars Birthstone Charm Necklace ($230 as shown): Create your own necklace in matte or polished silver or gold by adding charms with your lil one's birthstone.

Forget push presents; what wealthy pregnant women from around the world really want postchildbirth is US citizenship for their lil one. Hence the rise and booming popularity of birth tourism — where foreign women with substantial financial means come to the US to have their babies. The US is the only developed country, other than Canada, that grants jus soli, or birthright citizenship to any individual born here. Like parents everywhere, these women want the best for their children: for them, that means access to American schools, universities, and jobs.

Expectant mothers generally enter the country on a tourist or business visa — it's illegal to refuse entry to a woman on the sole grounds that she's pregnant — a few months before her due date. Once here, she needs somewhere to stay and help navigating the system. This is where the industry comes in: from the southern coast of California to the suburbs of New York City and everywhere in between, Americans are catering to this specific group of women, setting up birth tourism centers where women can rent rooms and receive help obtaining their babies' passports and social security numbers.

Birth tourism isn't a new idea — it's been going on for decades — but a recent move by Congress, which if passed will put up significant roadblocks for women hoping to deliver on US soil, has brought the topic to the forefront of the immigration debate.

What do you think about birth tourism? Should it be illegal?

This post comes from our group The Pregnancy Posse from member lauren.

I don't have any kids but a good friend of mine recently had her second cutie. I have a hard time resisting buying a cute outfit for the newborn but I know usually the new mom will already have enough clothes and babies grow out of everything so quickly. So rather than buying clothes, I made a delicious re-heatable dinner of chili verde with tortillas, avocados, sour cream, limes and cilantro. Of course, I couldn't resist the onesie that said "full of cuteness."

My thoughts, families need more time with their new addition, so at least one night, dinner is already ready! Did your friends bring you dinner when you had a new baby?

Want to talk pregnancy with other expectant mamas? Join The Pregnancy Posse over in our LilSugar Community and share your stories, recipes and photos! If you have a post you want to see featured on LilSugar private message me here to pitch your ideas. I can't wait to hear them.