Baby Announcement eCard

Congratulate the parents first and the baby second. Mention the baby by name if you know it, say something warm about the parents specifically, and offer help in a concrete form rather than the vague "let me know if you need anything".

Offering to bring a meal on a named day is far more useful. Keep it short; new parents are reading one-handed.

Include the name, the date of birth, and one line about how you are all doing. Those are the three things everyone wants, and they are often the ones that get buried.

Add a photo in the builder, choose a reveal so the news arrives with a beat of anticipation, and send the same link to your whole list at once.

Yes, and the reveal makes it a genuinely lovely way to break the news. The recipient has to open the card with a gesture before your announcement appears, which gives the moment an anticipation a group message cannot.

Send one card to everyone, or personalise individual cards for the people who should hear it first.

Acknowledge that it is hard, without dressing it up. Saying you remember how relentless the early weeks are, and that they are doing better than they think, comforts more than another note about how precious this time is.

Follow it with one specific offer of help. Parents in the fog of a newborn remember who told them the truth.

Within the first few weeks, or later on purpose. The first fortnight brings a flood of messages the parents can barely read.

A card that arrives at six or eight weeks, when the attention has moved on and the help has stopped, is often more welcome than one more note on day two.

Check before you send rather than guessing. Names are the one thing new parents are sensitive about, and a misspelling in an otherwise lovely card is what they will notice.

A quick message to a mutual friend usually settles it, and since an eCard lives in your browser until you check out, it is easy to correct at the last minute.