How Did You Tell Everyone About Your Baby?

During the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, the world found
out pop star Beyonce and her husband, hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, are having their first child.

After the high-octane performance of her new song "Love on Top," the singer turned to the audience and said, "I want you to feel the love that's growing inside me," unbuttoning her sequined jacket and holding her belly.

The coming of Jayonce, as the super-star couple's unborn child has already been dubbed, was announced to 12.4 million viewers (MTV's highest-rated award show to date) in what some noted was an unconventional way for a celebrity to let the media in on personal news.

Many performers decide to conceal pregnancies, but the “Single Ladies” singer used the spotlight to end rumors and speculation once and for all.

A pregnancy is a special moment in most people's lives. For some , announcing the future birth of a child is a rather private celebration.  For others, this momentous occasion is so overwhelming that some couples decide to break the news to family and friends in some extraordinary fashion.

Taking their cue from the VMA's, our Moms Council shares with readers how they made their relatives and friends aware of their baby news.

Tonia Accetta: I was watching the VMA's when Beyonce made
her announcement or gestured to her baby bump under her jacket, she looked radiant and very happy. I hope I looked the same way when I was expecting, but all I can remember is feeling sick and tired.

I have tried to recall how I announced the news to my
family, friends and husband, but not being one for journals or documenting my thoughts, I just cannot remember. Celebrities have pressure placed on them by fans to live out their lives in the public eye, which leads to some of these extravagant public displays of life's normally private moments.  Beyonce's decision to announce the next stage in her life so publicly is not a surprise, just another part of being famous.

Tam Dorow: I had an opposite experience with my own family. Eighteen years ago, when I was in graduate school in Chicago,  my roommate told me that my husband, John, called from his home in Indianapolis to tell me my sister had a baby boy.  I thought it was odd because I did not know she was pregnant.  There must have been a communication problem somewhere, perhaps in the translation.  I assumed John got the news from my parents, whose English wasn't always good. 

Over the next several days I confirmed that, indeed, my sister gave birth to a healthy baby boy carried to full term.  I was not alone, no one else in my large family knew of the pregnancy!  Apparently, my sister is not a communicative person and people in my
family tend to NOT ask personal questions.

Kurt Sauter: My wife, Pam, and I went on an anniversary trip to Tahiti. We had a great time and ate lots of fish. That's why I didn’t
suspect anything when Pam demanded we stop on the late night drive home from LAX for an In-N-Out burger. She had to get some beef immediately!

The next day I flew to Washington DC on a business trip. We
lived in DC for a few years and it was great to reunite with some close
friends. Our friends Jon and Deb had been together for a few years but had not gotten married. While in DC, Jon and Deb told me that they had become engaged. That week back in San Diego, Pam visited her doctor on a routine visit and based on her symptoms the doctor did a pregnancy test and confirmed she was pregnant.

The night before I flew back from DC, I spoke with Pam on the
phone. I teased her that I had big news. She said she had bigger news. Since Jon and Deb had been together so long, I said that there was no way her news was bigger than mine ( I thought it was some sort of work gossip). I asked her what the news was and she said she would tell me when I got home. Needless to say I had to concede the contest to her when we talked the next night!

Suzette Valle: I'm pretty sure I called my mother first to tell her the news about her future grandchild. Beyond that, both my pregnancies are such a blur; for the most part my memory of them is concealed behind a cloud of nausea, fatigue and too many yards of awful maternity-wear. However, what I do recall 19 years later is how elated both my husband and I were (along with sharing some pure, unadulterated fear) about the new road we were about to take – and we haven't looked back since.

Personally, as far as pop-culture personalities go, I like Beyonce and think she's always conducted herself with class and risen above the rest. Some are criticizing her decision to show off her baby bump in this way, but I think it was a brilliant move – it leaves no room for doubt or rumors (though those have been circulating for a while). She lives in the spotlight and used it to let everyone know what stage of her life she is in, and looked very proud and healthy on that stage.

All I can say is I wish I had Beyonce's level of energy, radiant
beauty, and fabulous clothes when I was pregnant!