Mark Zuckerberg, wife expecting baby girl

It was only fitting that Mark Zuckerberg announced that he's going to be a father on Facebook.

In a Facebook post Friday, Zuckerberg wrote that he and his wife Priscilla Chan are expecting a baby girl.

"This will be a new chapter in our lives," he wrote. "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."

In addition to sharing the happy news, Zuckerberg also wrote his note to break the silence around miscarriages, a tragedy that many couples deal with in silence compared to the pregnancy and birth announcements so common to Facebook.

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. 

Zuckerberg was inspired to share his and Priscilla's story after talking to friends and realizing how frequently miscarriages occured — and, more hopefully, how often healthy pregnancies followed them.

"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," he wrote. "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."

He also joked that his unborn daughter may have Facebook in her DNA. "In our ultrasound, she even gave me a thumbs up "like" with her hand, so I'm already convinced she takes after me."

Mark and Priscilla have been married since 2012.