Please clue me in about birth announcments.

September 6, 2007 4:43 PM

Talk to me about birth announcements in newspapers.

What's the point?

How does one keep them tasteful but not wholly cookie-cutter?

Am I right to question some of the conventions? Does anybody really want to know the height, for one?

Do most people bother, or...?

And, anything else that comes to mind on the topic is welcome.

posted by kmennie to Society & Culture (11 answers total)

I ran a birth announcement for my child. However, I ran it in the small city where I grew up, not in the major city in which I've lived for the past 15 years. I noted the name of the child, the weight (which was big), the date, the parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. Since all but one grandparent and all living grandparents were all in the same town, it was really a community announcement that brought joy to them. It was also there to update the people who'd been part of my community.

I still read the birth announcements (and obits) from the town where I grew up. My mom and dad also pass along info. I know some people who log on to the newspaper site from half-way around the world. It's just a way of staying in touch with your community. Of course, now we have Facebook.
posted by acoutu at 4:49 PM on September 6, 2007

As a genealogist, and especially now that older newspapers are getting scanned and OCR'ed into genealogy databases online, I love those things. You can get a lot of info out of them.
posted by Asparagirl at 5:01 PM on September 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

i think you can do it any way you want. there's no reason to include the length or weight or any other detail you don't feel compelled to share.

here's an idea:

"xx and xy are thrilled to announce the birth of their son/daughter, zz, on thisday, thisdate, 2007."
posted by thinkingwoman at 5:29 PM on September 6, 2007

Huh. I was going to wonder, aloud, why those things would be useful in any way except for yuppie breeders to gloat over their reproductive success. (charming, aren't I?)

Then Asparagirl came along. I learn something new on here every day.
posted by M.C. Lo-Carb! at 6:11 PM on September 6, 2007

I think our hospital automatically has them printed, which bothers me... I don't want my privacy violated that way.
posted by IndigoRain at 6:15 PM on September 6, 2007

Hospitals do NOT automatically print them, that's a HIPAA act violation. They get signed consent from the parents.
posted by beagle at 6:20 PM on September 6, 2007

Newspapers have a variety of policies on these, too. They used to all be free, and they still are at many newspapers. Increasingly, however, anything but the most basic information will only run in a paid ad.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 7:23 PM on September 6, 2007

The one that came to my email today (at work) included Name, birth day, date, time, that it was "ahead of schedule" and a short labour, weight, length, amount of hair, and sleeping habits. So, given that range, I'd figure it's pretty much up to you.
posted by kch at 8:38 PM on September 6, 2007 [1 favorite]

What's the point?

Community newspapers used to be THE way to communicate among people in a small town, where births and deaths were somewhat rare events and notable to the people within those small towns. In a town of 1,000 people, when someone is born, it's news.

Many community newspapers continue this tradition, where bigger newspapers have either turned them into avenues of low-level monetization, forgo them altogether, or farm them out to weekly community newspapers operating under the same umbrella company.

The real question is ... why continue with the tradition at all? Answer No.1: Newspaper readership demographics skew much, much older than you'd think. Answer No. 2: Newspapers tend to over-focus on vocal complaints. Answer No. 3: It's cheap, nearly-free content.

I mean ... some very large newspapers still run ancient comic strips and columns that are decades old. Why? Because people still read them.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:44 PM on September 6, 2007

I live in a small town and read the birth announcements (but I was too overwhelmed to post my own - a trend I am determined to change with the next one). I wouldn't do it in a big city but I think it is nice to be able to greet the neighbourhood babies by name and congratulate the older siblings when I see them. The ones that are a bit different and give a flavour of the personality of the family are awesome. Personally, I wouldn't include height/weight unless either are exceptional. If you are new to the community it is also a way for them to "claim" you as a member of the community. People are generally not rude enough to approach you and ask for your name when you are new to the neighbourhood but if they read it in your announcement they will often feel it is now okay to make connections based on the information in the birth announcement (eg, if you mention where the grandparents live and they have family there too). I say, go for it!
posted by saucysault at 1:03 AM on September 7, 2007

My Grandmother announced my birth in the Daily Telegraph. I was born in a remote part of rural India (my parents were aid workers) and the details that made it back to the UK were rather scanty, so the announcement reads: "WILES, William, born Khariar, India, on or around 8th March ..." etc.

I love that clipping. It's just a nice thing to have. The vagueness adds to it.

I enjoy looking over the birth announcements in the Guardian for their occasional middle-class pseudishness: "To Nigel and Cordelia Fletcher-Strideforth, a son, Lucretius Mandala, brother to Suki and Moonbeam."
posted by WPW at 6:15 AM on September 7, 2007 [3 favorites]