"Time to share our exciting news ... I am 21 weeks & we are both very excited," tweeted Honor Carter, as she and her All Black husband notified the world that they are expecting a baby. Announcing a pregnancy when you're over halfway through is just so refreshing in these times of instant gratification and unrestrained social media postings.
Some pregnancies are announced at four weeks which strikes me as far too soon. Twelve weeks is often the point at which people feel comfortable sharing the news. It's said that between 10 and 20 per cent of known pregnancies end in miscarriage, and the most serious danger point is past by then. Yet other people feel that they would want all their friends and family members to know if they had a lost a baby and so they don't feel the need for discretion.
My own approach was similar to that of the Carters. I was studying journalism in Christchurch when I fell pregnant with my daughter. When I returned to Auckland five months later everyone simply noticed I was pregnant; I didn't have to announce it to many people.
Prior to that I'd had two miscarriages and I remember how hard it was keeping those short pregnancies secret. "You're pregnant, aren't you?" my friends would screech as soon as I turned down a glass of wine. "No, just hung-over," I'd lie. I think we superstitiously felt that announcing our news might have been tempting fate and that the longer we could keep it to ourselves the better the chances of a successful outcome.
At babycenter.com, expectant mothers are classified into five groups based on when they choose to reveal their pregnancy:
