Baby shower or nesting party? The support mums really want before their baby's birth

Baby shower or nesting party? We ask four mums about the kind of support they would have liked in the run-up to their baby's birth and during the exhausting early weeks after the arrival

Sun, 11 May, 2025 - 10:22

Helen O’Callaghan

Baby showers have been in the news recently, between the surprise one arranged for Manchester actress Michelle Keegan by her closest friends, and the one organised by Irish rugby player Andrew Porter and his wife, Elaine, in anticipation of their son’s birth.

The concept of a party to celebrate the upcoming birth of a baby, where the mum-to-be is showered with gifts and favours, originated in the US. And so did a much more recent incarnation — the nesting party. It has yet to take off in any big way here, but last December, Pinterest’s annual trend report predicted that in 2025, baby showers would “be out… and nesting parties will be in”.

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