From the Maternity Hospital in Brussels

Flowers to a maternity hospital: check the policy first

A maternity unit is the strictest delivery address there is. The urge is to send flowers within the hour; in many hospitals the mother cannot receive them at all, and that has nothing to do with the courier.

Hospital policy

A large share of maternity units do not accept fresh flowers. Pollen and scent are unwelcome on a postnatal ward, and units with newborns run regimes that keep outside items out. Some hospitals take flowers only as far as the desk, some hold them until discharge, some decline them entirely.

One call to the hospital switchboard, or one message to the father, settles it. Five minutes on the phone is more reliable than a courier standing at a locked door.

If they are accepted

Small, unscented and self-watering. A boxed arrangement with floral foam stands on a bedside table and needs neither a vase nor care — and in the first days nobody has the time or the free hands for either.

Avoid lilies, hyacinths, freesia and tuberose, and anything with a heavy perfume. Lisianthus, spray roses, alstroemeria, carnation, chrysanthemum, gypsophila and chamomile all work.

Keep the palette light and warm: white and green, peach, soft pink, cream. Bright red reads loudly in a room where someone is trying to sleep in twenty-minute stretches.

Size works in reverse

A vast bouquet has nowhere to go on a ward, and it eventually has to travel home along with a newborn, a bag and everything else. A small arrangement and a balloon beat an armful of a hundred roses on both counts.

The second order

The father is almost always overlooked, and in these days he is the one handling every practical task. A second bouquet often goes to the new grandmother. Both can be placed as one order with two addresses and two windows.

If flowers are not allowed

The whole gesture moves to the discharge, which has its own section and its own rules — that bouquet is held outdoors, photographed and carried in a car.

The card

Write briefly and address the mother, not the baby. Use the child's name only if it has already been announced; many parents wait, and guessing is not a good look. Book the delivery to Brussels for the morning — afternoons on maternity wards are often quiet hours.