Memories and keepsake items are very important to any mother. They are especially important to birthmothers because for some of us they could be the only tangible things we have relating to our child and the short time we may have spent together.

In a recent post, I talked about your right to have any and all of the keepsake items for your baby from the hospital. But, if you are a first time mom, you might not be aware of what all you can have or what all you should hang on to.

Basic hospital items that are considered keepsakes are the crib card that identifies your child’s gender and sometimes name, the hospital bracelet, the little hat they put on newborns as soon as they enter the world, the “souvenir” birth certificate that has the baby’s footprints on them, hospital pictures, etc. You may also wish to keep one of the hospital blankets your child was wrapped up in and/or a baby bottle from his/her hospital feedings or perhaps a special outfit you put on your baby during the hospital. I also kept the tape measure that was used to determine Charlie’s length.

Other things you may have collected over the course of your pregnancy that you may want to hold on to are ultrasound photos and a strip of the heartbeat monitor print out.

I also kept cards friends sent or brought to the hospital and dried a flower off a bouquet of flowers my co-workers sent.

So, now that you have all these keepsake items, what should you do with them? Well, putting some of them in a special scrapbook is always an option. Personally speaking, mine are in what I call a “memory box.” A lot of other birthmothers I know have these same sort of boxes with their mementos inside. I have one for Noah as well as one for Charlie.

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Related posts:
Hospital Memorabilia
Lifebooks for Adopted Children: Passing on Your Legacy
Your Rights