diff --git a/app/__init__.py b/app/__init__.py
index 12e7eda98..661e7c8e1 100644
--- a/app/__init__.py
+++ b/app/__init__.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ from pygments import highlight
 from pygments.lexers import JavascriptLexer
 from pygments.formatters import HtmlFormatter
 from werkzeug.exceptions import abort
-from babel.dates import format_timedelta
+import humanize
 
 from app.notify_client.api_client import ServiceAPIClient
 from app.notify_client.api_key_api_client import ApiKeyApiClient
@@ -191,11 +191,9 @@ def format_date(date):
 def format_delta(date):
     date = dateutil.parser.parse(date)
     native = date.replace(tzinfo=None)
-    difference = native - datetime.datetime.now()
-    return format_timedelta(
-        datetime.timedelta(seconds=difference.total_seconds()),
-        add_direction=True,
-        format='short'
+    difference = datetime.datetime.now() - native
+    return humanize.naturaltime(
+        datetime.timedelta(seconds=difference.total_seconds())
     )
 
 
diff --git a/app/templates/views/notifications.html b/app/templates/views/notifications.html
index a252d8e5a..ba7abc7ad 100644
--- a/app/templates/views/notifications.html
+++ b/app/templates/views/notifications.html
@@ -93,10 +93,10 @@
       </p>
     {% endcall %}
 
-    {{ text_field(item.status|title) }}
+    {{ text_field(item.status|capitalize) }}
 
     {% call field(align='right') %}
-      {{ item.created_at|format_delta }}
+      {{ item.created_at|format_delta|capitalize }}
     {% endcall %}
   {% endcall %}
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 91e1d35f6..fadc9d967 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ Flask-Bcrypt==0.6.2
 credstash==1.8.0
 boto3==1.2.3
 Pygments==2.0.2
-Babel==2.3.3
+humanize==0.5.1
 
 git+https://github.com/alphagov/notifications-python-client.git@0.3.1#egg=notifications-python-client==0.3.1