When to open the baby registry: before or after the anatomy scan?

«Don't buy anything before the baby is born» — really?

It's one of the first things you hear when you announce the pregnancy, especially if you have older relatives in the family: don't buy anything ahead of time, it's bad luck. Some families are very strict about it, others more relaxed, and almost all of them have a story about a cousin or a neighbour who «tempted fate» and then things went wrong.

It's worth pausing on this for a second, because it really does shape decisions — including whether and when to open a baby registry.

The superstition comes from an era when infant mortality was extremely high and parents looked for any emotional handhold to protect themselves from grief. In 2026 the statistics are incomparable, but the emotional core still holds true: having the nursery already set up, the shelves stocked, boxes piled by the wall — if the pregnancy then runs into a serious problem, coming home becomes much harder. That's the part the superstition, in a confused way, is trying to protect.

The good news is that a digital registry is not the nursery. It's a web page. You can open it, close it, edit it, hide it. The emotional risk of «too early» is much lower, and that's one of the reasons online registries have almost completely replaced the ritual of going to a store in person in the early months.

The anatomy scan as a turning point

The anatomy scan, around the 20th week, is the moment most families relax. The organs are checked, development is reviewed, and usually — if the parents want to know — you find out the baby's sex.

For many moms, that's when something clicks. You stop talking in the conditional, you start picturing the room, you actually want to start choosing things. That's not a coincidence: it's also statistically the point where the risk of serious complications drops significantly compared to the first trimester.

For the registry, the anatomy scan is the natural window for three very practical reasons:

First, if you want to know the sex and pick colours and clothes accordingly, before the scan you don't have that information. Opening the registry at 12 weeks and then redoing the whole thing at 20 is wasted effort.

Second, you have the right amount of runway. From week 20 to week 36 that's about four months: enough to think things through calmly, make changes, let friends and family plan their gifts, organize a baby shower if you're having one. But not so much time that the registry is open for half a year and your anxiety is climbing.

Third, it's also usually when the «official» broader announcement happens, beyond the inner circle. Having the registry ready to share when people start asking what do you need? is exactly the timing that saves you twenty separate conversations on the same topic.

Opening before the scan: when it makes sense

That said, there are situations where opening the registry earlier has its place.

If you have very active relatives who want to give gifts right away — think grandparents living abroad or an aunt overseas who «needs to know what you need» in time to ship — having the registry open before the scan saves you from a house full of wrong-size onesies and stuffed animals you'll never use.

Same thing if you're expecting twins, if it's a pregnancy after a long IVF journey where you've been mentally living with the idea for months, or if you're simply someone who needs to organize early to feel calm. In all these cases it's fine to start sooner, even at week 14–16.

What I'd advise against is opening the registry in the first trimester, before week 12. Not for superstition, but for your own emotional protection: that period statistically concentrates most of the spontaneous miscarriages, and if it happens, finding yourself with a registry already open and possibly already shared is an extra wound that can be avoided. Waiting until the end of the first trimester is a wise call even for people with no superstitions at all.

Opening the registry and sharing it are two separate moments

This is the thing that changes everything and that many moms don't realize: opening the registry doesn't mean it's already shared with the world. On BabyWish, like on almost every serious platform, the registry exists with a unique link that only goes live when you send it out. Until then it's yours, private, editable.

So the practical advice is: open the registry right after the anatomy scan, start populating it slowly, let it mature for a few weeks. Then when you're ready — and when the contents feel right — you share it. There's no rule that says both have to happen the same day.

Another thing that works well is sharing in concentric circles. First you send it to immediate family — parents, in-laws, siblings — maybe around week 22, when they want to start picking things up at their own pace. Then to close friends, a few weeks later. And finally, if you're having a baby shower or a wider announcement, you open it to the broader group around that event, usually between weeks 28 and 32.

The baby shower: a question of timing

The baby shower has slightly different timing depending on the country, but the underlying question is the same: when is it close enough to feel safe, but far enough that the baby isn't there yet?

The classic American timing is around weeks 32–34 — late enough to be safe, early enough not to risk having it after the birth. If the mom is working and wants to do it before leave starts, somewhere between weeks 28 and 30 also works well.

The golden rule is: the registry should already be shared by the time the baby shower invites go out, not after. People want to show up with a gift, and if you haven't shared a registry they'll either buy something random or call your mom for suggestions (which, trust me, you don't want). Putting the registry link directly in the invite solves 90% of the problem.

After the birth: close it right away or leave it open?

Something few moms think about in advance: what do you do with the registry after the baby arrives?

Most people give gifts in the first few weeks, but there's always that distant relative, the friend who was travelling, the colleague who «forgot» and now wants to make up for it. Keeping the registry open for the first two or three months after birth, maybe with a few new additions (things you discovered you actually wanted only afterwards), is a setup that works well.

What does make sense to do right after the birth is a cleanup: remove items that are no longer needed (the changing table's already taken care of, you bought the carrier yourself in the meantime), update quantities, and maybe change the registry's welcome message to thank people and announce the arrival. Then, after three or four months, you close it calmly.

Summing up

If I have to give you a single date: open the registry a few days after the anatomy scan, share it three or four weeks later, leave it live for a couple of months after the birth.

That's the window that works for the vast majority of families: it respects the superstitions that have a real emotional core, gives guests time to organize, saves you from redoing everything twice if you want to know the sex, and leaves a reasonable margin even after the birth for late gifts.

And above all: don't feel guilty if you open it earlier, or later, or if you change your mind halfway through. No one is judging you, and the registry is a tool for you, not for satisfying tradition. Superstitions used to protect parents in difficult times. You have other tools. Use them with your head, and that's plenty.