Make a Birth Announcement

When a baby is on the way, there's a lot to plan for and get excited about: a nursery room, baby furniture, clothes, toys and stuffed animals. And one of the joys of becoming a parent is announcing the baby's arrival in the newspaper and with birth announcement cards. It helps to plan ahead to minimize the work you have to do when your hands are full with a new bundle of joy. With these helpful hints, making a birth announcement should be a breeze.

Steps

 * 1) Be Prepared.  Announcing a birth usually involves (1) calling family and friends immediately after the birth, (2) placing a listing in the local newspaper in the next few weeks, and (3) sending out cards or photos in the weeks after that.  For all three of these things, it helps to be prepared as much as possible before the birth.
 * 2) Set Up a Calling List.  The days of running to the hospital's pay phone just after the umbilical cord is cut are long gone.  You can call family and friends from your cell phone, repeating the same message over and over, but using a calling service like GooGooGram (http://googoogram.com) will make this process much easier.  Before the birth, set up an account, select a list of e-mail addresses and telephone numbers to be contacted (including the acceptable times of the day to call each of them) and select a website template.  When the baby is born, simply call GooGooGram and record the announcement once.  They will then contact everyone on your list and set up a website announcing the birth.  Your family and friends can then leave you replies by phone and online.  A month after the birth, GooGooGram will send a copy of every phone and guestbook message on CD-ROM.
 * 3)  Alert the Press! Announcing a birth in your local newspaper is probably the easiest part of the process.  If the baby was born in a hospital, they will have a form for you to fill out containing your name, the baby's name, birth date, weight and so forth and will contact the paper for you.  Most newspapers offer a basic listing for free.  For a small fee, many newspapers also offer to run longer listings, including a photo, perhaps the grandparents' names and the names of siblings.  Contact your local paper or visit their website to find out their rates and to get a copy of their announcement form.
 * 4) Send Out Announcement Cards. The basic options for announcement cards include electronic cards, photo cards, and traditional custom-printed or handmade cards.  If you use a service like GooGooGram, they will set up a small website for you where you can upload a digital photo.  Additionally, services like Shutterfly (http://www.shutterfly.com) will print announcements from a template on photo paper, or you can simply print an announcement of your own design at your local superstore or drugstore.  Traditional, custom-printed announcement cards are available in a variety of classic and modern styles from sites like OMGbabycards (http://www.OMGbabycards.com).  You can pre-order envelopes so that you can fill in the recipients' names and addresses well before the birth, then place the order for your cards, and thank-you cards, just after the birth.  It is proper etiquette to send out announcement cards within one year of the birth.

Tips

 * Your birth announcement options do not need to be mutually exclusive. You can send traditional announcement cards to close family and friends, photo cards to more distant relatives and on-line announcements to co-workers and more distance acquaintances.