'Extremely Excited:' Zuckerburg, Chan Expecting Baby Girl

Facebook founder—and former Dobbs Ferry resident—Mark Zuckerburg and his wife Priscilla Chan are expecting a baby girl.

Zuckerburg made the announcement on his Facebook page for a special reason:

We want to share one experience to start. We’ve been trying to have a child for a couple of years and have 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. 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 struggle on your own.

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.

When we started talking to our friends, we realized 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.

Our good news is that our pregnancy is now far enough along that the risk of loss is very low and we are very hopeful.

Zuckerburg said he and his wife are looking forward to the next chapter of their lives.

“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,” he wrote. “Now we’ll focus on making the world a better place for our child and the next generation.”