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The “Growing” Popularity of Babymoon Vacations
By MudslideMama | February 29, 2008
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.
Topics: Family Travel, Luxury Travel, Romantic Getaways |
February 29th, 2008 at
Yup. It’s nice to be able to enjoy that perfect vacation before the up-coming of a newborn. I went to Sanibel in FL and it was one of the most relaxing vacation during my first pregnancy. Unfortunately, during the second pregnancy I didn’t get a chance to do so.
February 29th, 2008 at
This post made me laugh out loud.
February 29th, 2008 at
That’s awesome. I hope that when I have babies I keep up my lifestyle during pregnancy and even after they’re born. Julia just started a series about traveling with kids that I think is very inspiring too (Here’s one of them)
but pregnant travel and travel with young kids is still so looked down upon by so many people, it’s not fair. I’m glad the movement is changing from beet-picking to tropical spa sessions. I know which I hope I’ll do preggers.
February 29th, 2008 at
Honestly, I don’t think traveling with young children is looked down upon at all. Each of my kids was on a plane by 3 months old. I see under-ones on planes all the time!
Pregnancy travel…. I think most doctors dissuade getting on the plane in the 8th month, and I respect that. But otherwise, I say, anything goes! Glad to see the term “babymoon” has caught on.