Baby announcements seem simple enough, but they can also bring about a minefield of issues. First, there’s the question of privacy: who has the right to know about pregnancies, births and personal family news? And how much information should be revealed?

Then there’s the lesser but no less pertinent concept of how to reveal said news. Traditional “bundle of joy”-style posts can seem a little saccharine these days, and run the risk of causing distress to anyone out there who may be struggling to get pregnant or suffering from related issues around babies and parenthood.

Kudos to Ryan Reynolds, then, who chose to sidestep these thorny issues by creating his own left-field spin on the genre.  

The Canadian-born actor decided to use his and Blake Lively’s baby news as a reason to push an important political cause. Taking to Twitter yesterday, Reynolds unveiled the first photo of his newborn daughter with Lively; the couple’s third child together. 

The image shows Reynolds and Lively walking in the woods of British Columbia, their baby – whose face is covered by an emoji – cosseted in a sling between them. 

Reynolds then hails the “natural playground” he grew up in, saying he wants the same for his daughters; and urging people to have a voice on climate policy by voting in the upcoming Canadian elections.

The couple’s third child was born early this month, according to a report in People. They have two other daughters together: James, who is four, and two-year-old Inez. 

The pair are notorious for pranking one another on social media, but it’s great to see a more serious agenda coming to the surface here, too. 

Lively previously described parenthood as “awesome and exhausting”. 

“It’s everything that everyone always says,” the Gossip Girl star said, in comments soon after her first daughter, James, was born, joking: “My boobs are pretty huge and awesome. That’s probably the most thing significant change about being a mom.” 

Images: Getty