Not only did I get nice shiny presents from my husband after my kids were born, I got nice shiny presents from my in-laws, too. It’s been a tradition in my husband’s family since his grandfather’s first wife died from an infection after a miscarriage.
I’m with you. I never expected one (and never received one, I might add), but I wouldn’t have turned it down. I think it’s a sweet gesture.
I think the name is ridiculous.
However, my fella brought me flowers and chocolate in the hospital after both births, and they were much appreciated. I think a small present/gesture like that is absolutely appropriate - but the expectation of a major present is completely foreign to me.
I agree. I had never heard of a push present either but it sounds like a tacky gesture and oddly patronizing. The exception would be if your child is being delivered by a surrogate mother. A push present is a nice tip for services delivered in a timely and competent manner. You shouldn’t get tips for simply getting knocked up with your own child and letting nature run through its natural destiny however. I have kids and picking out a luxury item really should be the last thing on any new parent’s mind for either the mother or father. That would show misplaced priorities at that stage.
I have never heard the term “push present”, but when my first son was born, my husband gave me a bracelet with amethysts (my son’s birthstone). It was not expensive, and to me it was similar to the “mother’s ring” that contains birthstones of each child. It was more of a token to commemorate the event, not a prize.
I first heard of this concept (not by the name of ‘Push Present’ in a Nora Roberts romance, where the husband was rich, the wife came from a good family, and all was okay until the wife figured out that the husband was an abusive idiot who didn’t keep his pants zipped.
Then she stuffed her pearls in the diaper bag, grabbed the babies, and left. Reappering later as the heroine of a romance novel.
I’ve seen it in other romances, too, often of the historical type, where a woman didn’t neccessarily get to own property, but jewels were ok–sometimes the jewels were just as elaborate for the birth of a girl baby as for the birth of a boy (the heir) so you could tell he was a nice, enlightened gentleman.
The name is ridiculous - what are you going to do? Not push? Not eject the kid in some manner (pushing, c-section, etc…)? I’m due in August and though I wouldn’t call it a push present I’m looking forward to my husband picking me up a case of my favorite Trader Joe wine!
I agree, it implies the mother is just performing a service for the father.
It also sounds like an extension of Bridezilla self-absorbtion.
I think it’s sort of stupid, too. Aren’t you, the mother, doing it so you can both have a child? I’m female, but if I were a guy married to someone who hinted or asked for a push present, I’d just laugh.
Never heard of this either and since I didn’t push, not even once, I guess I wouldn’t have qualified. 
A co-worker, who said she figured I probably didn’t need any more baby stuff, gave me a book of poems. Does that count?
We adopted our son, so the only pushing I did was of pens as I filled out the mountains of necessary forms.
We were in the hospital with him until he got to come home, though, and the day after he was born, my husband had flowers and chocolate delivered to the hospital for me. It’s one of the nicest surprises like that I’ve ever gotten. I don’t know that I’ll be able to explain it well, but it made me feel like a real mommy. There’s so much of the experience that you miss - I’ll never get to be pregnant and feel the baby move inside me, and all those things that you hear about. Getting flowers and chocolate doesn’t compare, but it felt sort of legitimizing. That sounds really stupid when I write it out. But I loved it, and I was happy he thought of it.
Expensive jewelry, though, would have made me think he had lost his mind. Or that he had been hiding most of his assets from me.
In that case, I think for you it was a very thoughtful, perfectly lovely gesture—Congrats on your new little one!!! 
Only on the SDMB would dozens of people trip all over themselves to see who can be the first person to declare that gift giving is stupid and tacky.
What a joke.
I don’t think it’s the gift. I think it’s the reason behind. If women gave men gifts in thanks for impregnating them with wonderful man sperm, would that be a normal reason for a gift? I’d find it kind of skeevy.
That’s idiotic. It’s like saying birthday presents are only given to say thanks for surviving one more year.
It’s a celebration. Have fun with it.
Never heard of it, and it’s a silly idea.
Now, sure, having a maid service come in and clean the house before Mom gets home is a nice gesture.
I have never until five minutes ago heard the term.
My husband brought me roses after our son was born and I was deeply appreciative that he thought of me and wanted to do something for me! I felt loved and acknowledged. I still have one of the roses, dried, and the card with simply ‘I love you’ and his name. They are two of my treasures.
Expecting to be given a gift for nothing is what’s tacky.
It’s also has a connotation of paying a woman off for being a birthing service.
Like Freudian Slit said, it’s equivalent to the mom paying the dad a stud fee.
Nobody is criticizing present giving in general but this one is a little odd. My normal stud fee was too much for my wife to afford by herself at the time so I waived it each time. Was that a gift to her or just a simple courtesy? You decide. I didn’t buy a push present because I was a little busy during that period with simple things like coordinating family visits and being in the operating room when she had emergency c-sections. There was something about doctors, nurses, sleep, and new child in there too but the details are a little hazy at this point. I figured that any money spent on a large push present would do better invested at 8% interest to secure the money for each of my daughters dowry in 25 years or so when I can work out a contract with a decent man to take them off my hands in mutually beneficial financial terms.
Oh, this isn’t what I expected. I know of someone who expected - and received - a fur coat from her husband before agreeing to have a second child, but it wasn’t a “push present.” If any of my friends got any, I don’t know about it.