Facebook’s billionaire CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan are expecting a baby girl.
In his post, Zuckerberg revealed that they had suffered three miscarriages previously, but added that the risk of miscarrying at this stage of the pregnancy was low.
“Priscilla and I have some exciting news: we’re expecting a baby girl! This will be a new chapter in our lives,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page.
“We’ve already been so fortunate for the opportunity to touch people’s lives around the world - Cilla as a doctor and educator, and me through this community and philanthropy. Now we’ll focus on making the world a better place for our child and the next generation,” he said.
The post had been liked by over a million people, with about 70,000 people commenting on it and over 28000 people sharing the post in the nine hours that it was first posted.
The 31-year-old technocrat said that he and his wife had been trying to have a child for a couple of years and had three miscarriages along the way.
“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,” he said.
Describing the experience of going through miscarriages as a lonely one, Zuckerberg said most people don’t discuss miscarriages but the connected world of today provides an opportunity to people to share their concerns and apprehensions and get the much-required support.
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.” Zuckerberg shared with his over 33 million Facebook followers that he had his wife started talking to their friends about their experiences and “realised how frequently this happened -- that many people we knew had similar issues and that nearly all had healthy children after all.” “We hope that sharing our experience will give more people the same hope we felt and will help more people feel comfortable sharing their stories as well.
— Mark Zuckerberg
Zuckerberg voiced happiness that the pregnancy is now far enough along that the risk of loss is very low.
“Cilla and our child are both healthy, I’m extremely excited to meet her, our dog Beast has no idea what’s coming. In our ultrasound, she even gave me a thumbs up ‘like’ with her hand, so I’m already convinced she takes after me.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)