When to let everyone know you’re pregnant?

Many people might disagree but I think I’m pretty good at keeping information to myself, but  the last week and a bit since we found out that we are pregnant I’ve found it really hard to not say anything.

It’s like everyone already knows and is waiting for us to announce it. Every time someone asks me what I’ve been up to all I can think about is the fact we are pregnant. As we are in contact with my wife’s family almost every second day,  its always on our minds to watch what we say.

After the first trimester is finished at 13 weeks it is generally considered a safe time to let people know as you have got over a lot of the initial dangers. The trouble is that its hard not to talk about this exciting time of our lives, and you dare not tell even one person in case they let the cat out of the bag and find that your big news has become yesterdays big news.

So this got me thinking about the Pros and Cons…

Advantages to Telling Early

• Lots of support early in pregnancy
• Able to share your good news and excitement
• Earlier offers of physical help
• More advice from others about practitioners
• Help with early decisions
• If you miscarry, you will have support from everyone

Disadvantages to Telling Early

• Too much advice
• Good news travels fast, you may not be the first to tell someone
• If you miscarry everyone knew you were pregnant

Advantages to Waiting to Tell

• Time to digest the news
• Make decisions without input of others
• If you miscarry you don't have to retract the pregnancy announcement

Disadvantages to Waiting to Tell

• No help/support from others
• If you miscarry everyone wonders why you are sad, and you have to backtrack your explanation

There seems to be a lot of advantages but there is some big disadvantages, especially if we are unlucky enough to have a miscarriage, although I think that if we are unlucky and have a complication that I think my wife will need the support of her family anyways.

I think if we can keep it quiet for another 7 weeks my wife and I will hold out until after the first round of scans and tests and then let the world know…