Facebook has set up an official category allowing users to announce they are expecting a child.
Expectant parents are now able to add "Expected: child" to the Friends and Family portion of their profile.
The option seems a natural development for Facebook, which has been an announcement vehicle for many expectant parents anyway. But critics say adding an unborn child to your Facebook family tree can backfire if a pregnancy doesn't go as planned, according to Time Healthland.
"People need to take a deep breath and live life with a certain amount of privacy and dignity," Gwenn O'Keeffe, a pediatrician and author who wrote "Cybesafe" about protecting kids in the digital world, told Healthland. "What if things don't go right? You don't want to answer questions from all your Facebook friends."
Even with the new category option, pregnant Facebook users still enjoy announcing they're expecting in creative ways -- like changing their profile pictures to an ultrasound image or the telltale pregnancy test, or posting riddles in their status updates. Healthland quotes suggestions from Baby Bump Diaries like:
... is craving pickles
... is nurturing her inner child... literally
... is tickled pink!
... is going to be a baby mama!
Healthland notes these kinds of announcements "feel a bit excessive and overly intimate -- but isn't that kind of like Facebook itself?"
What was the most creative pregnancy announcement you saw -- or posted -- on Facebook? Do you think it's too personal?
