Hi Mama! Always behind the camera?it’s your time to get in front of the lens so you can be a visible part of memories you’re making with your loved ones.
Why Have a Maternity Photoshoot?
5 Reasons to Capture Your Pregnancy
A maternity photoshoot is not only about taking a few nice photographs of your bump.
It can capture your family just before it changes, the relationship between you and your partner, older children waiting for their sibling, and a version of you that can be surprisingly difficult to remember once your baby arrives.
Pregnancy feels very present while you are in it. Especially towards the end, when getting comfortable in bed becomes a project of its own and everyone keeps asking if the baby is here yet.
And then somehow, it is over.
Your baby arrives, your days become filled with feeding, nappies, cuddles and very little sleep, and suddenly that pregnancy that felt like such a huge part of your life starts becoming a little blurry.
Here are five reasons why I think it is worth photographing it.
If you’d like to see more examples of my maternity photography in Glasgow, have a look at my maternity photography page.
1. Your family is about to change
A maternity session is not only about documenting your bump.
It is about photographing your family exactly as it is right now, just before someone new joins it.
If this is your first baby, these might be some of the last photographs of just the two of you before you become parents.
If you already have children, something is changing for them too.
Your youngest might soon become a big brother or sister. The child who still feels so little now can suddenly look enormous when you see them standing beside a newborn.
That transition is something I love photographing.
The cuddles. Little hands touching your bump. Children talking to the baby. Your partner holding you from behind. Those small moments when everyone is waiting for someone they have not even met yet.
Years later, these are no longer just maternity photos.
They show what your family looked like right before everything changed again.
2. You may remember much less of pregnancy than you think
While you are pregnant, it feels impossible that you could forget any of it.
You know exactly what your bump looks like. You know where the baby usually kicks. You probably have a favourite pair of leggings that you have basically lived in for weeks. You notice yourself resting your hand on your belly without even thinking about it.
But once the baby arrives, life moves very quickly.
I know this from my own experience too.
I am a mum of three, so I have been through pregnancy three times, and I can honestly say that I remember much less from my second and especially my third pregnancy than I expected to.
Not because they mattered less.
Life was simply already full.
There were children to look after, school runs, work and all the normal everyday things that still had to happen. I was not thinking about being pregnant in the same way I did the first time because I did not really have the space to.
And now there are little details I wish I remembered more clearly.
That is one of the reasons photographs matter.
They bring back the shape of your belly, the way your partner looked at you, how your older child curled around you, what you wore, where you were and what your family looked like during that very particular chapter.
Every pregnancy is different.
And even if you do not realise it at the time, you might be very grateful later that somebody documented it properly.
3. You do not have to feel completely confident in your pregnant body
This is probably one of the biggest reasons women hesitate to book a maternity session.
You might not feel like yourself.
Maybe nothing fits properly anymore. Your face feels different. Your feet are swollen. You have been living in leggings for weeks and the idea of standing in front of a camera does not sound particularly exciting.
You do not need to suddenly feel glamorous before you book a session.
And you definitely do not need to know how to pose.
After photographing hundreds of families, one thing I have noticed again and again is that mums often worry much more about how they are going to look before the session than they do once they actually see the photographs.
My maternity sessions are relaxed and gently directed.
I will help with where to stand, what to do with your hands and how to position your body, but I do not want you thinking about posing for the whole session.
You can walk, cuddle your partner, sit together, play with your children or simply have a quiet moment with your bump.
You do not have to love every part of being pregnant.
You can still want to remember that you were.
4. It gives you photographs with your partner and children too
When people hear “maternity photoshoot”, they sometimes imagine a woman standing alone holding her bump.
It does not have to look like that at all.
For many of the families I photograph in Glasgow and across Scotland, a maternity session is really a family session during pregnancy.
Your partner can be part of it from beginning to end.
Your children can join too.
They can run around, cuddle you, sit with you, climb onto Dad’s back or occasionally completely ignore everything we had planned.
That is absolutely fine.
Some of my favourite maternity photographs are not really about the bump at all.
They are about the connection between two people waiting for their baby.
Or a family spending time together just before life becomes a little busier.
Of course, we will still take photographs of you on your own.
But you do not need to choose between having maternity photographs and having family photographs.
The session can be both.
5. One day, these photographs will belong to your child too
Right now, these photographs are about your pregnancy.
Later, they become part of your child’s story.
There is something really special about being able to show your child photographs from before they were born.
This was you in my tummy.
This was your brother waiting for you.
This was Dad talking to you through my belly.
This was us when we had absolutely no idea what you were going to be like.
Children grow up surrounded by photographs of everything that happened after they arrived.
Maternity photographs give them a little piece of the story from before.
And I think that becomes more valuable with time.
Your maternity photoshoot can look like your family
There is no one correct way to have a maternity session.
You can have your photographs taken at home, where this part of your life is actually happening.
You can head outside to a park, woodland, the beach or somewhere in the Scottish countryside.
You can come with your partner, bring your children or have part of the session focused entirely on you.
It can be quiet and intimate.
Or it can involve muddy shoes, toddlers running in the wrong direction, somebody asking for snacks and plenty of laughing.
It does not need to look like somebody else’s maternity photoshoot.
It just needs to feel like your family.
Thinking about having maternity photographs?
If you are expecting a baby and wondering whether a maternity session is for you, you can have a look at my maternity photography in Glasgow to see how both my in-home and outdoor sessions work.
If you are not sure when to book, what to wear or whether home or outdoor would suit your family better, just get in touch.
I am always happy to help you work it out.