Greater Expectation

Of course, if you ask pregnant women to explain their need to be nurtured, many will say it's not about them. It's about the baby.

Event planner Jami Pennings stayed on a personal chef service while breast-feeding her daughter, delivered in December. "I knew the baby had to get good nutrition, and whether I did was pretty secondary. I was consuming it, but it was really for her."

This knowledge also assuaged the guilt she felt over watching her husband scrounge for cold cereal or takeout every night while she ate gourmet home-delivered meals. She had to. For the baby.

Pregnancy is the nine-month window in which doing good for the kids necessarily means doing good for the mom as well. It's right there in "The Hot Mom to Be Handbook": "The best way to ensure their happiness is to cultivate your own spirit and enjoyment of life. It is never too early to start."

Back at Becoming Mom, Swallinger's pedicure is finished, but she doesn't want to get out of her comfy chair. A reporter mentions that the spa apparently sells sleep as well -- according to one pamphlet, 30-minute naps can be purchased for $25.

"I would pay for that," Swallinger sighs. "I would totally pay for that."

But instead she's got to head home, away from the serenity and soft curves of the maternity spa, away from the receptionists and aestheticians who know not to bat an eye if you start sobbing, hormonally, over a broken nail. Now that she's delivered her baby, in fact, it might soon be time to return to a regular day spa, one without a chocolate-cravings pedicure.