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Home › Articles › Birthday Time › Your Child's Birth

Your Child's Birth

Commemorating a Most Special Day

By Mark Stackpole

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For example, a family may choose to specifically honor the way a child's name was chosen, or create an opportunity for all friends and loved ones to get together and greet the newborn. "These ceremonies can tell the story of the child's name and how it was chosen," Matchett says. "They can incorporate heirlooms or a special quilt in which to wrap the baby. Guests can be invited to share a wish for the child while each adding a bead to a necklace or placing written wishes into a keepsake box."

Parents and other adults can tell stories while siblings can provide small gifts or artwork. Whatever is important to parents and family can be expressed during a ceremony like this. Adoptive families may choose to celebrate the birth parents while parents who faced infertility might specifically celebrate their triumph.

The birth of a child may be the single greatest moment in a parent's life, and there is no greater reason to celebrate. It is natural to want these experiences to last a lifetime, and since they don't, our memories will have to suffice.

Altamirano now sees very clearly why his commemorations were so important to him. "I wanted to save everything so that I could demonstrate just how much I have loved them from the very beginning," he says. "Now I recognize that it doesn't matter what I collect. What matters most is just that I love them, unconditionally, consistently and without expectations."

Unique Ways to Honor Baby

"One of my favorite ceremonies was for a young couple and their new baby girl," says Cindy Matchett of Boston, Mass., who helps plan baby welcoming ceremonies. "The child's grandparents and great-grandparents were at the ceremony, which was held in the couple's backyard. I invited each generation to name themselves and their parents: 'I am (name), son or daughter of (names).' We said the new baby's name at the end. In this way, the new child became part of the family history."

Matchett, a new mother, is now planning her own ceremony in which all of the children in the audience will come forward with a flower and present it to the baby. The resultant bouquet will be used as decoration for the rest of the ceremony.


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