Many parents cannot begin to conjure up birth announcement ideas without experiencing a wave of panic. For new parents, especially, the process can be just another item in a long, stressful to-do list that includes the literal life-or-death priority of keeping a new human being alive. And once the brain does begin to process all these birth announcement ideas, the questions (or excuses) only mount: Where is the camera? Does it have batteries? If we take a photo, do we have to crochet some kind of baby hat?

As one new mother from the office put it: “On my list of priorities, which also included trying to shower more than once a week, birth announcements didn't even register.”

Clearly, there are plenty of reasons not to make birth announcements. But there are also plenty of tips that can help you announce one of life’s most genuinely magical moments without getting overwhelmed.

1. Have a Professional Take the Photo

Many hospitals offer the services of a professional photographer. But even if yours doesn’t, you can plan ahead and book a photographer for an at-home or studio shoot. Getting the photo is half the battle in the birth-announcement process, especially since the drag-and-drop design templates offered by most photo book and card publishers makes the rest go easy.

2. Take the Photo Yourself and Get Creative

You don’t have to be an amazing cartoonist (though it helps) to inject a little personality into your announcement. Use simple props or annotations to add style and a touch of humor to your birth announcements.

3. Include the Whole Family

Candid photos with the whole fam can take some of the pressure off since you won’t be focused on getting that one “perfect shot”. Bonus: change up the font, overlay some snowflakes, and you got your holiday cards taken care of too.

4. Use Several Photos

Collage design templates allow parents to show the entire range of their newborns’ emotions, from sleepy to hungry, and from not-sleepy-at-3-am to super-hungry-at-3-am.

5. Get Addresses and Stamps Ahead of Time

This is maybe the worst part of the process, but you can save time with a stamper and by addressing your birth announcement envelopes as you write out thank-you notes for your baby shower.

6. Take Your Time (or Three Years)

Because eventually their preschool will take their picture.

Annotated photo courtesy of Instagram user superbabyclub, card samples courtesy of zazzle.com, top and bottom photos courtesy of John Flaherty