Baby Announcements

There are a number of different responses to a baby birth announcement and the new parent should be prepared for every eventuality. Many responses require no action on the part of the parent and with a new baby in tow these are perhaps the most preferred responses. Here are some of the most common responses to baby birth announcements.

Gifts are perhaps one of the most popular responses to receiving a birth announcement. Even if someone has given you a baby shower gift they may follow this up with a birth gift after receiving an announcement. It’s important to send a birth announcement to everyone that came to your baby shower as a sort of follow up. If you have been a little late with the thank you cards, you can mail them both at the same time. If they send a separate gift after the birth announcement a second thank you card is of course required.

Receiving a card or letter back from someone that received one of your birth announcements is another common response. They come from everyone close and distant and are a way of letting you know the announcement was received. If there is no gift with the card a response is not expected or required. It is of course nice to follow up with an e-mail or a phone call if you have the time (which you probably don’t and people understand that).

The phone call is a common response to the birth announcement by close friends and family. This may be followed up by a card, gift or personal visit. Be sure to clearly state your baby’s schedule and your availability. Unscheduled visits can put a new mom into a bit of a tizzy so always say when you want people to stop by.

E-mail responses to birth announcements are common from distant friends and relatives. The new parent may receive a ton of messages on their social networking site or receive responses by formal e-mail. Parents just need to say thank you and acknowledge the e-mail but detailed letters are not required.

No response at all to receiving a baby birth announcement is more frequent that you may expect. Some people either choose not to respond in any way (not common) or don’t realize they should respond (common). Like greeting cards or thank you cards, a response is not necessarily expected or understood by everybody. For people that didn’t send birth announcements at the birth of their own child or are receiving a birth announcement for the first time they may not know how to respond. Don’t worry you won’t notice under the shower of gifts, cards and good wishes.

Filed under: baby shower, birth announcements, new parent life, thank you cards on May 15th, 2010