Today is this electronic age we want to send and receive information quickly. This includes birth announcements and pictures of our babies. We want to share our wonderful children with family and friends who live near and who are far from us. The internet provides a way to accomplish all of this very easily. Some sites are free and others have a low yearly cost to continue from the free announcements to family web pages. These sites offer a little bit of everything and are worth your time to investigate while you are waiting for your baby to arrive.
Baby’s Here (www.babyshere.com) has a wonderful selection of birth announcements, invitations and thank you notes. I was so impressed by the selection and the design of the cards available on this site. All cards are available for purchase but they also have free Ecards and Web Sharing (http://babyshere.com/ecards-and-web-sharing.html) that made this site truly wonderful. You can use this on your MySpace, Facebook or personal web page or send them by email which makes this a nice alternative or addition to traditional paper announcements.
ParentShack (www.parentshack.com) has free online birth announcements with video! The birth announcements are free and you can upgrade to a starter or full site for a low annual cost per year. These family sites allow you to share photos, stories and events with relatives and friends online throughout the year. This is a great way to announce the birth of your child and then use the family pages to keep everyone updated with your growing family for years to come.
Birth Village (www.birthvillage.com) allows you to create birth announcements and upload pictures for your family and friends to share (there is no cost but donations are welcome). You can blog about your pregnancy and the arrival of your child to share with your family so that they will feel a part of this wonderful time no matter how far away they may live. This was a wonderful site to explore and I was amazed by the information that I could share online about my baby. I loved this website and will be using it to keep our family updated on our precious daughter. (Make sure to read the story about the site’s creators!!)
EBabyPages (www.ebabypages.com) has free online birth announcements and baby pages that you can design and share online with family and friends. You can upload photos and share details online. There are different themes for both boys and girls as well as holiday themes which makes sharing future photos fun and entertaining for you and your family.
Babyzone (www.babyzone.com) is a fun and interactive site that covers everything from preconception through toddlers. They have a wonderful selection of free electronic cards that not only include announcements but also cards for other occasions so that you can keep your friends and loved ones updated after you send them the initial announcement. There are several information sections to this site which makes it a nice site to read during pregnancy.
In addition to the above sites, I found this wonderful and unique way to share your new arrival with your friends and loved ones. GiftDisc Productions (http://www.babydisc.com/photo_birth_announcement_cd.htm) has a mini CD that holds up to 12 photos with music. You email them your photos and they design the disc and you receive them in about 48 hours. This was a great find while doing my research for this article and I will make sure and use this in the future for not only birth announcements but other special occasions!
