Mark Zuckerberg revealed on Friday — on Facebook, naturally — that he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, were expecting their first child, a girl.

Mr. Zuckerberg, chief executive of the social networking giant, wrote in an uncharacteristically personal post that he and Ms. Chan had had three miscarriages before this pregnancy — at once demonstrating a personal desire to break the stigma associated with women who miscarry and his business-related belief in Facebook as an ideal place for users to record life events.

“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,” he wrote. “So you struggle on your own.”

“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,” he wrote. “So you struggle on your own.”

Mr. Zuckerberg usually uses his personal Facebook page to announce new products or initiatives from either Facebook or his nonprofit project, Internet.org, which aims to bring Internet access to people in developing countries. Mr. Zuckerberg, who is generally private, has been gradually sharing more information about himself during “town hall” discussions with Facebook users around the world. In one such discussion in December, he said he would not allow any child of his to use Facebook before age 13.

But the decision to discuss the miscarriages is a new level of openness from the Facebook co-founder, who is 31.

He may have been inspired by Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook, who this year has publicly shared details of her grief over the death of her husband, dave Goldberg, and how she is coping with it.

Mr. Zuckerberg’s announcement created a wave of reactions on social media, and garnered more than 335,000 likes within an hour of posting. Many on Facebook offered their congratulations.

(The New York Times)