Angie Sparks and her husband opted for a conference call. Jessica Wohlwend's husband created a video. Emily Miles Terry got the message via Skype. And Jann Lenzer and her husband had T-shirts made and e-mailed photos of their young sons wearing the announcement. Each relied on a distinctive, creative way of sharing the joyful news of their pregnancies with far-away family and friends.

With family and friends scattered across the nation – and beyond – many parents-to-be find themselves with amazing news that needs to be shared in a personal and special way. What are some creative ideas (and pitfalls to avoid) when trying to spread the word that your family is expanding?

Angie Sparks and her husband were thrilled to discover they were expecting, but the Thousand Oaks, Calif., couple needed a way to share the excitement with their families in Modesto, Sacramento and Portland. The easiest way to reach out to the entire family was through a conference call.

"My husband and I are low-key people," Sparks says. "The idea of putting together an elaborate plan to tell our families just wasn't our style. It was really important that we break the news to both sides of the family at once, and since we don't live close to either set of parents, calling everyone at the same time was the best option. iPhones have a user-friendly feature to merge calls, so we dialed both families, merged the calls and put ourselves on speaker phone to announce that we were expecting. It was easy and fun and none of the parents felt left out for not hearing first."

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