"The pram doesnt go in the house before the baby does"

[PyongyangKipperbang]

Just watching some call the midwife on catch up. A father who has had a few says "I can see the pram from here [in the hall of their home], that makes me happy!"

But it wouldnt have been in the house would it? My grandma and my mother were both absolutely horrified when I bought my pram and took it home. It was horribly bad luck. I was led to believe that this was standard, it really upset my grandma in particular.

Of course what it really was was that back then there was a much bigger risk of the baby not coming home, so you made sure the baby was alive before buying the pram.

This wasnt just my family was it? I just dont remember anyone else who had kids after me, I was pretty much the first in my group, getting this from their mothers so it has made me wonder....

It’s a superstition. I don’t go in for that sort of thing, and nor does my mother. My grandmother had died before I had my DC, but she’s was the most practical, no-nonsense person you could meet, so things like this were not in her line either.

My MIL, who is a WC Londoner, though not from the East End, bought me my pram, and certainly never suggested keeping it elsewhere until DD was born.

With my first I had the pram built and nursery decorated at 36 weeks and didn’t think anything of it . But with dc2 I remember being horrified I had to pick all my baby stuff up early in the first lockdown because everything was so uncertain. I cried we were creating a bad omen . The boxes were literally stacked to the ceiling but Dh still didn’t build it till I was in the hospital .

My MIL tried to make me promise over 20 years ago that we wouldn’t put the pram up i.e. clip the carrycot to the chassis before baby was born and put the sheets on but DH and I told her it was a load of superstition and got it ready.
I am a determinedly unsuperstitious person and I wanted everything ready. I’m not talking months before, just a couple of weeks before due date. That’s when I got my hospital bag ready.
I didn’t like it being mentioned to be honest - it’s an awful superstition.

@Joystir59, did you honestly just correct someone's spelling? Please don't do that. It's really not the done thing, especially on a thread that has the potential to be sensitive.

Mine were born in 2018, and I didn’t have the pram in the house until the babies were born - I stored it at my parents house despite having bought it when I was 16 weeks.

I knew it was stupid and superstitious, but I didn’t start having anything babywise in the house until I was far enough along that if they’d been born early they had a good chance of survival.

My mum was a midwife in the 50s and 60s…..she was very much of the view that nothing was bought for the baby till the birth.

We didn’t ever have a pram, so avoided that issue. We didn’t really get any “baby” stuff at all. What’s there to get? We only had a sling and a Moses basket. We got both before the baby was born - otherwise how would you carry the baby home?

Ours was upstairs in the attic ready to be set up, same with the cot. We live in much safer times where childbirth is concerned. Not so long ago it was much higher risk for both mother and baby.

Never heard of this.
I'd have had no where else to put it

My Dad and his wife were weird about this and insisted on storing the pushchair we bought for DS1 in their garage until he was born (2005).

I my dad put DD's in the garage until she was born, because I was only in the hospital a few hours it was still in there when I got home (I was staying there as I was in the middle of moving)

Put outside to gas off?

I assume the poster means “off-gas”. Off gasing is what new plastics do. They release toxins that are harmful to breathe. That new plastic smell you get from a new car or new kitchen is actually harmful to breath. www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.architecturaldigest.com/story/what-is-off-gassing/amp

My mum also says the same.

I brought my pram but it was kept at my mums until DS was home.

When I had mine we ordered the cot and the pram from John Lewis and you could pick them up when the baby was born. In those days you were in hospital for 5 days (where you were taught how to bf and bathe your baby etc) so your OH got them home before you did. I think it was from a time when there was more chance of a baby being a still birth or something so you didn't have the upset of seeing the cot and pram when you got gone.

Can remember this when 1st child born 1974, mums were in hospital 7 to 10 days then so pram wasn’t needed immediately. Pram we bought from also gave a gift of a small fluffy hanging toy for the pram.

@Hellolittlestar @PyongyangKipperbang

I barely bought anything because it felt like tempting fate. I hit asda with dd aged 23 hours old and has staff cooing over her (was late night) and the manager gave me a bunch of free slightly damaged packet things like nappies, wipes etc bit I was so high on adrenaline I couldn't sleep anyway. There was still mothercare and babies r us then too so easy to buy stuff

I’ve only ever come across this on Mumsnet, not with anyone I know IRL. Though we bought a pram after we brought DD home but only because I was having a tough C-section recovery and couldn’t use the sling, and she hated the Moses basket, so we thought it might be a good place to put her. (It wasn’t.)

My DM was the complete opposite. I was born at home in the 60s, with a midwife and a random neighbour who wanted to see a baby being born! DM said it never occurred to her that anything would go wrong. Everything was bought and ready and waiting for my arrival. Having said that, one grandmother lived overseas and the other died within weeks of me being born, so maybe they weren't able to foist their superstitions in her? Whatever... I've never heard of any of the superstitions mentioned in here (but I've never had grandparents in my life).

never heard of this, and it would have been impractical for us.

Looks like just another source of worry for a women facing her first full-term pregnancy.

I lost a baby the first time round. Didn’t buy a thread then myself until my son was here. My mum forced me to go to a shop the week before his planned C.S

Boy that was a busy few days post birth.

We barely had anything in the house when dd1 was born, MIL had the pushchair and DH ordered furniture sat next to me on the post natal ward I think it's getting less common though, my sister was baffled that I wanted her pushchair here, she had no idea it was a thing.

It all goes out the window for subsequent children though!

I had multiple miscarriages before DS was born. Had a difficult pregnancy culminating in six weeks in hospital from 32 weeks. I had one pack of baby grows when he was born at 36weeks. The pram was on order and DH collected it a week before he arrived. I didn’t see it until we were discharged when DS was 10days old.
Fortunately we had loads of stuff bought for us so didn’t need to go out immediately. Also DSis had given me a stash of newborn clothes.
Baby showers weren’t a thing back then thank goodness.
Having seen a couple of friends go through stillbirth and one whose baby died at 4days ( this was only 20 yrs ago, I am not so much superstitious as realistic.

But did you have other stuff? Cot? Clothes? Bibs? If so, this is surely the same thing?

I was told this superstition too but we had a pandemic baby so everything was in our place and we had no where else to store it.

Where I live,, prams were not in house before, nor were names discussed. Please don't call it a silly supersition. There were and are good reasons for this.

My mum and mil insisted that my pram stayed away from home until baby was born.