Parenting & New Baby Advice Blog

Archive for the ‘Birth Announcements’ Category

Whether you have wanted a baby for years or your pregnancy was unexpected, the birth of your baby is one of the most memorable and cherished moments of your life.  As a proud new parent, you want to show off your gorgeous bundle of joy, and baby announcements are the perfect way to send a little baby gift to your family and friends.

While you can order pre-made announcements or have a printer make them for you, it is also a great activity to do yourself or to share with some close friends.  Here are some ideas for announcements that are almost as cute as your baby.

• One of the easiest ways to make cute baby announcements is to find free templates online.  You can choose the template you like, import your picture, add your child’s name, date and time of birth, height, and weight. From there, you simply review and print.  You can use photo paper for a more polished look.  These are technically pre-made, but they will save you time and money, and you can add a personalized comment in the text box.  If you are sending out 100 announcements, this is the way to go.
• If you’re not especially crafty, you can still make great homemade announcements.  One idea is to purchase some baby scrapbooking paper.  Cutting this in half will yield two good sized cards.  The patterns are cute and certainly appropriate for the occasion.  On the outside, glue a favorite baby photo. Inside, simply write (or print from your computer) your baby’s information and a nice message.  That’s it.  It’s personal, unique, and easy to do for a moderate number of recipients.
• Purchase a stack of blank greeting cards and a box of “Hello, I Am…” stickers.  Simply affix the sticker to the front of the card and write your child’s name.  Inside are his birth stats and a photo of the beautiful baby.  It is a good time to note that everyone wants a photo with their announcement!
• If your baby is willing, and sleeping, you can buy an ink pad and stamp his footprint on blank cards, with photo and birth information inside or below.  These make excellent baby keepsakes and are great to cherish later on when they have grown. If it is unlikely that your kicking baby will lie still for this, you can just get a rubber baby foot stamp.  No one needs to know!
• Vellum offers a very easy way to make elegant announcements.  Purchase fun scrapbooking paper, vellum (a filmy paper often used in wedding invitations), and double-sided tape.  Use double-sided tape to affix a large photo of your baby to the paper (if the page is 5×7, for instance, you can use a 4×6 or even 5×7 photo).  Step one is done. Next, print your baby’s name and stats on the vellum.  Check to make sure the paper is compatible with your printer and select “transparency” for the paper type.  Step two is done.  All you need to do is put two small strips of double-sided tape on the top of the photo page and affix the vellum over it.  Attach the top only so the recipients can lift the vellum and see the picture more clearly.  In place of double-sided tape, or in addition to it, you can use a blue or pink ribbon.
• You can always announce your child’s birth online.  Many parents are doing this through a website devoted to their baby or sending emails.  This is perfectly acceptable today, especially if you have a large amount of people with whom to share the news.

You could send out a photocopied picture of your baby with hastily scrawled birth information, and people would be happy.  You are playing to a friendly crowd, so don’t be afraid to experiment. You can really do no wrong. In the end, they will care about your baby’s photo, his name, and whether he is healthy and happy.

Another basic decision is choosing where you will give birth. Most women choose the hospital. Some give birth in freestanding birthing centers, or at home. Your decision on where to have your baby is made in much the same way you choose your care giver. You find out what is available and ask questions that are important to you.
The Hospital

If you prefer a hospital birth, the next question is which hospital? Most care-givers have privileges in one hospital, but some use more than one. Tour each of the hospitals your care-giver uses. It also may be useful to tour other hospitals-for comparison purposes, if nothing else. You might discover that you prefer a hospital where your care-giver does not have privileges. If so, and if you do not feel a strong tie to your care-giver, you might decide to change care-givers in order to use the facilities that appeal to you. If your community has more than one hospital, you might be surprised at how different they are from one another in their facilities, policies, and philosophies of care. Most hospitals offer tours of the maternity ward. You should call the hospital itself to sign up for a tour.

What do you look for when touring a hospital? First of all, observe the atmosphere. Many hospitals have attractive private labor rooms and bathroom facilities. What provisions are there for the mother’s comfort? Some have very comfortable labor beds, while others have very narrow, hard labor beds. Some provide nice touches like rocking chairs, couches where the partner can rest, showers and tubs to use for pain relief, and beanbag chairs for getting into comfortable positions. Others make no provisions at all for the comfort of mother or father.

Does the hospital have birthing rooms [attractively decorated rooms where the mother can labor, give birth, and spend time with her newborn afterward? In some hospitals, the birthing room is the only room the mother will be in throughout her entire hospital stay. In others, she labors and gives birth in the birthing room, and then goes to a postpartum room for one, two, or three days before going home. In still other facilities, she labors in one room, is moved when she is about to deliver, may go to another room to recover and then goes to still another room for the rest of her hospital stay. Currently, many hospitals are beginning to convert their maternity facilities so that a woman can labor, deliver and recover in the same room. [A so-called L.D.R. room].
Check the nursery. What does it look like? Are the mothers encouraged to keep their babies with them in their rooms, or do the babies spend most of their time in the nursery? Do the nurses seem friendly and warm? What about the person leading the tour? Is she friendly and does she answer your questions, or is she simply herding you through brusquely? [Some hospitals are so busy that they don't take potential clients on a tour of the actual facilities. In place of a tour there will sometimes be a slideshow and discussion of policies and procedures with a member of the staff.].

Ask some specific questions about admitting procedures. Ask to see the general consent forms that require your signature when you arrive at the hospital. Be sure to read these in advance and clarify any questions you may have. It is certainly not easy to read consent forms carefully if you are already in labor.

Questions about hospital procedures need to be carefully worded. For example, if you ask,” What usually happens to the baby after he or she is born?” you will learn more than if you ask, “What is the hospital’s procedure for routine newborn care?” There are few hospital policies on these kinds of things, but there certainly are customs, and those are what you want to know about. You may ask for a step-by-step description of what usually happens after a woman in labor arrives. Do most women have a nurse assigned to them, or do the nurses take care of more than one laboring woman at a time? Are they understaffed sometimes, and what do they do if this happens? Do women usually receive pain medications, or do many women use little or no pain medications? If a women desire to have an unmedicated childbirth, is she actively encouraged and supported in this by the nurse? Do most women receive intravenous fluids, continuous electronic fetal monitoring, and rupture of the membranes, oxytocin and episiotomies? Does the hospital have a high rate of cesarean births? Ask how cesareans usually done [for example, what type if anesthetic is usually used, and is the father encouraged to be present?] Can a woman have a vaginal birth after a previous cesarean? How long is the usual hospital stay? Is there a short-stay or early-discharge program that allows mothers and babies to go home within a few hours after birth? Does the hospital provide any kind of follow up?

Clarify the costs of labor and delivery rooms, nursery charges, postpartum care, and so forth. You also, of course, will want to check your insurance policy, if you have one, to see how much you have to pay.
Out of Hospital Births

If you are considering giving birth outside the hospital, find out what services are available in your community. Are there competent people offering home-birth care? Is there a licensed birthing center in your area?

Out-of-hospital birth is a choice only for women who are in good health and who have had normal pregnancies. Interventions are often not necessary for healthy women having normal labors, but if the need arises, the woman is transferred to the hospital. Those planning out-of-hospital births, therefore expect to labor without pain medication and without medical intervention. It must be remembered that the care-givers in out-of-hospital settings have fewer facilities [and possibly less skill] should emergency situations arise. Minutes count. How long will it take to receive adequate care?

Many women, of course, are not comfortable giving birth away from emergency medical facilities available in hospitals. This disadvantage of out-of-hospital births should be carefully considered by all women contemplating birth outside the hospital.

Own a computer and digital camera?  If so, you can make your own baby birth announcements that are beautiful, affordable and professional looking.  First, we recommend that you visit some of the websites on the internet that offer personalized, custom-imprinted birth announcements to get ideas of what styles you like, wording, and just to get ideas in general.  Second, determine how many friends and family will receive the announcements.  This will help you figure out what type of announcement might work for you. The more complicated the design, the longer it will take to create.  Therefore, if you have a large list of birth announcement recipients, you may want to choose one of the easier designs.  Finally, you’ll need to decide what information you’d like to include on your announcements.  Some people like to include every last detail about the baby including the name, birth date, length, weight, exact birth time, sibling names, parent names and even names of their family pets.  Others simply include the baby’s name and photo.  

If you plan to make your own announcements, we do recommend that you gather the supplies, address and finish as many of the announcements as possible before the baby’s due date.  After baby arrives, you likely won’t have as much time to spend on the announcements so if time is at a premium, you could try to do just 5 or 10 announcements a day until all of them are sent to your list.  Several ideas to consider are outlined below.  Making the announcements can be very fun and a great way to let your creativity shine!  

1)     Create a postcard birth announcement with your baby’s footprint.  You can buy plain white postcards and either a pink for a girl or light blue stamp pad for a girl at just about any office supply store (if you don’t know the sex of the baby, either buy one of each or buy the stamp pad after the baby is born).  You can pre-address and stamp all the postcards prior to the due date.  After the baby is born, use his/her foot on the stamp pad and then stamp the front of each postcard.  Your friends and family will all be thrilled to have their very own copy of the baby’s foot.  We recommend doing this one day when the baby is taking a nap.  Then just write the baby’s name and any statistics you want to include on the back of the postcard.  Or add one of these clever sayings: ‘Ten Little Toes, Each One As Precious As The Other’, ‘We’ve Increased The Size Of Our Home By Two Feet’ (you should use both of your baby’s feet on the card),  or ‘We Have Ten New Toes To Tickle’.

2)     Create a photo baby announcement.  After the baby is born, buy a baby t-shirt with his/her birth information and then take photo of them in the t-shirt.  If the baby has older siblings, you could include them by purchasing “I’m The Big Brother/Sister” t-shirts as well and then take the photo of all the children.  These shirts can be purchased at many online at stores including Baby Gifts & Gift Baskets. Buy postcard paper – three hole punch the photo and then tie together with ribbon.

3)     Using greeting card software, type the baby’s name and birth statistics right onto a picture post card featuring your new baby. Print addresses on the reverse, stamp and mail for a no-hassle, no envelope birth announcement.

Instead of sending out the same old card-style birth announcement like all of your other friends and family members who have had babies, spread word of the new arrival with one of these unique birth announcement ideas. These announcements will have them oohing and aahing over your ingenuity. Of course, if you want to stick with the ever popular card-style birth announcements that feature the baby’s name, birth date and weight along with a photo, just do a quick search on the web to find one of the many internet stores that sell this type of announcement. However if you are up for something fun and different, here you go:

1) Cookie Birth Announcements from Cookie Gift Baskets.com. It’s like getting two gifts and one – a unique outline of all the baby details along with an edible photo cookie that the recipient can savor. We can’t think of a sweeter way to announce the new little baby boy or girl. You just send in a digital image of baby and they’ll print it on edible paper that is adhered to an extra large fresh-baked cookie. You can choose frosting colors and ribbon colors to match the photo or gender of the baby.

2) Candy Wrapper Announcements from Welcome Baby or another candy wrapper vendor. These candy wrappers are available in numerous colors and themes ranging from Noah’s Ark to Yellow Duckies. You can even get a photo of your little one added to some of these customized wrappers that also include the baby’s information like name, weight and birthdate. What a sweet way to announce the arrival of your little sweetie pie! Usually the vendor prints the labels on glossy paper which is then wrapped around the chocolate bar of your choice – milk, dark, Ghirardelli mint, milk chocolate and almond, etc. Mailers are often available so that you can either drop these birth announcements in the mail or hand them out to friends and family.

3) Coffee & Tea Birth Announcements from Baby Gifts & Gift Baskets. Whether you’ve had a sweet little baby girl, bouncing baby boy or set of twins, this company has a coffee or tea packet that is appropriately themed. Pink stripes, blue stripes, baby carriages and teddy bears are just a few of the motifs available to let your friends and family know the big news. Each coffee or tea packet includes the baby’s name and birthdate. They even have an adorable ‘New Additions To Our Line’ theme that is perfect for multiples. Again, these fun and unique announcements can either be dropped in the mail or given out by hand.

4) Baby Announcement Photo Magnets from The Magnet Queen. These unique birth announcements will be displayed on the refrigerators of friends and family for years. They won’t soon forget your child’s birthday! Each magnet is customized with the child’s photo along with their birth information and name (that you supply). Magnets are available in numerous sizes and come with matching envelopes making it easy to send them via the US Postal Service.

5) Personalized Honey Jars from Baby Gifts & Gift Baskets. These little jars are literally the sweetest birth announcement available! Small glass jars are filled with pure clover honey and then a custom label featuring the baby’s name and birthdate is applied to make these announcements extra special. Numerous colors and themes are available including a clever ‘Bee Loved’ jar with a bee carrying a bundle of joy on the label.

Add your favorite Birth Announcement Idea or join the discussion on our DIY Baby Announcements message board.