Mark Zuckerberg Just Did Something Incredible

Mark Zuckerberg Just Did Something Incredible With His Baby Announcement

In true Facebook founder fashion, the social sharing company’s founder and CEO announced he and his wife’s pregnancy. He’s having a daughter and says she already takes after him when he noticed she gave him the “like” thumbs up sign in the womb.

But that wasn’t the only thing he addressed in his status update this Friday. He revealed the very hard and personal struggle he and his wife faced to have their baby, including that they’ve had three miscarriages before this pregnancy.

He gave personal but important insight within the same post:

You feel so hopeful when you learn you’re going to have a child. You start imagining who they’ll become and dreaming of hopes for their future. You start making plans, and then they’re gone. It’s a lonely experience. Most people don’t discuss miscarriages because you worry your problems will distance you or reflect upon you — as if you’re defective or did something to cause this. So you  on your own.

He wrote that he felt the need to share because so many men and women experience this hardship when trying to become pregnant. He wants to give hope to those going through similar fertility problems and loss.

“In today’s open and connected world, discussing these issues doesn’t distance us; it brings us together. It creates understanding and tolerance, and it gives us hope,” he wrote.

Among the “likes” his post got were from Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who received Zuckerberg’s support following the tragic loss of her husband this May.

Per the Mayo Clinic, about 10 to 20 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage a year. While Zuckerberg has a point (and uses tech to bring people together so they don’t feel alone), sharing experiences like miscarriage in the digital age can pose problems as well.

That was U.S News & World Report writer Tierney Sneeringer’s experience, who felt so alone during her miscarriage, which was only exasperated by the tech surrounding it.

“Like many women on the cusp of motherhood, I had downloaded the popular pregnancy apps the day we found out I was pregnant. Bad move. Even before the miscarriage, my inbox was brimming with junk emails about cord blood and diapers. Afterward, it only got worse,” she wrote.

Perhaps Zuck can add that to his list of technical pursuits: blocking ads to people going through rough times. But in the meantime, a very successful man like Zuck just wants to make that digital pressure a tad bit easier and uses his own story to do it. It can happen to anyone. And when it does, it’ll be OK.