Birth announcement wording
Fifteen ways to say it, from a one-line message to a formal card. Swap the bracketed parts for your own. The list underneath is the handful of details people expect an announcement to carry — and the two it is perfectly fine to leave off.
One line
For the message you send the same day, to people who are waiting on their phones.
[Name] is here. Born [date], [time]. [weight].
Everybody is well and everybody is tired.
He arrived. [Full name], [date], [weight].
We are completely in love and completely asleep.
She is here and she is perfect.
[Full name], born [date] at [time], [weight].
Warm
The register most announcements want: glad, not gushing.
With more happiness than we know what to do with,
we would like you to meet
[full name]
born [day date] at [time], weighing [weight].
[Parent name] and [parent name]
After a long wait and a longer night,
[full name] arrived on [date].
[Weight], a great deal of hair, and already the loudest of us.
With love from [name] and [name]
Our daughter is here.
[Full name], born [day date] at [time].
Thank you for all the kindness on the way to this.
[Name] and [name]
Formal
For a card that goes in the post and stays on somebody's shelf.
[Full name] and [full name]
are delighted to announce the birth of their son
[full name]
on [day], the [date] of [month], [year]
at [time], weighing [weight]
With joy, we announce the arrival of
[full name]
[date] · [time] · [weight]
Daughter of [full name] and [full name]
[Full name]
born [day date of month year]
[weight]
Welcomed with love by [name] and [name]
and their brother, [name]
From the older sibling
The warmest version there is, and the easiest to get right — write it in their voice and keep it short.
I have a sister.
Her name is [name]. She came on [date] and she is [weight].
I am going to teach her everything.
[Sibling name], aged [age]
[Sibling name] would like to announce
the arrival of his brother, [full name],
on [date], weighing [weight].
He is already very pleased with him.
Big news from [sibling name]:
[full name] arrived on [date].
[Weight], very small, mostly asleep.
Love from all four of us.
Twins, or a quiet announcement
Two cases that want their own wording rather than a general one squeezed to fit.
Two of them.
[Full name] and [full name], born [date] at [time] and [time],
[weight] and [weight].
We are going to need a bigger everything.
[Full name] and [full name] arrived on [date].
Both well, both here, both loud.
With love from [name] and [name]
[Full name] arrived on [date], [weight].
We are keeping things quiet for a while —
no visitors just yet, and we will let you know when we are ready.
Thank you for understanding, and for the love.
What it has to say, whichever you pick
- The name, spelled outIncluding how it is spelled, because everybody who writes back will use it. If the spelling is unusual, this is the one moment where getting it in front of people is free.
- The date of birthThe day, and the time if you want it. Both go on the card people keep.
- Weight, if you want it thereOptional, and more expected in some families than others. Nothing is missing from an announcement without it.
- Who the parents areYour names, and the siblings' if there are any — an announcement that reads as being from the whole family is warmer than one from two adults.
- What you want to happen nextThe most useful line on the card and the one most often left off. "We are not up to visitors yet, we will say when" saves everybody a difficult week.
Questions
How long do I have to send a birth announcement?
There is no deadline anybody enforces. The convention is within a few weeks, but plenty of families send one at three months with a better photograph, and nobody minds. Sending nothing for a year and then something is also fine.
Do I have to put the weight on it?
No. It is a convention rather than a requirement, and it is more expected in some families than others. An announcement with a name and a date is complete.
How do I ask people not to visit yet?
Say it in the announcement itself, warmly and without apologising — "we are not up to visitors for a few weeks, we will say when". Left unsaid, it becomes a conversation you have eleven separate times.
Should I put the photograph in the message or on a page?
A page, if you have a choice. A photograph in a group chat is compressed, then forwarded, then lost; a page keeps it at full size at an address you can send again in six months.
What if we announced the pregnancy on the same link?
Then it becomes the announcement. The address, the design, the photographs and the messages people left all stay, and the page changes from asking a question to answering it.
Somewhere to put it
Once you have your wording it needs an address. You can build the whole page free — one of fourteen designs, your photographs, your words — and the same link carries you from the gender reveal to the birth announcement and on to the first birthday, keeping the messages and the guest list.
Make the page to put it onSee the designs