I'm Having a Baby... Who and When did you Tell?

I'm Having a Baby... Who and When did you Tell?

When did you tell your friends you were having a baby? Did you tell your family first and how did you break the news?

It's an interesting one for me in particular, because in Nigeria, where I was born and grew up, culture (with a heavy dose of superstitious fears, in my opinion), means that you are expected to keep the fact that you're pregnant a secret, for as long as possible. Once that can no longer be concealed, literarily, you might move on to closely guarding your due date, baby's gender, birth details etc. I have also heard people talk about not letting anyone outside of their family unit, touch their bump, as a precautionary tale (read: superstitious fears).

Outside of the african experience, I have noticed that in general, many women do carefully consider when to tell, at least, certain groups of people that they are pregnant. It might be work colleagues, church 'family', friends that live abroad etc Many of us adhere to the 12 week rule, which involves waiting until your second trimester to share your news. But if you did choose that, what was your reason - was is tradition, culture, intuition, following your doctor/mother/husband's advice?

I did wait till the second trimester to share, but looking back, I think some of that may have had to do with my getting my head around what the 'two lines' meant for me. I seem to get this delayed full comprehension of my new or soon-to-be new situation.  I noticed this first with getting engaged and preparing for a wedding, I somehow went introspective and felt the urge to quietly enjoy the news before I shared it. I can't say there was any enjoyment to the first semester of pregnancy, as I was ill, so perhaps it was just me in full-on introspective mode. I wonder if this means for other babies we have (it feels weird to type that out), I may have a different perspective and act completely different, perhaps sharing as soon as I find out.

Like many things to do with pregnancy, this is one of those things a pregnant woman (and her partner) make a decision on and technically, there is no right and wrong, so the choice we make can be ours, personal and need not be justified.

I remember a friend asked me how it felt to tell my Dad, speaking from her own experience and I thought it was a great/original question because that did feel like a 'thing'. Wouldn't it be something special if we shared the hows and whys of telling the news? I think it would have really helped me when I was at that point, to face it head on armed with an array of choices, before we made a decision.

How did you share the news of your first pregnancy with friends and family? Was your mother the first person you told (besides your partner)? Did you behave differently with your second or other subsequent pregnancies - sharing the news, earlier or later than you did for your first? Lets talk this on out, share your experience below.

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I'm Having a Baby... Who and When did you Tell?