What I Know About Maternity Portraits — Including the Ones I Took of Myself
There's an old expression about the shoemaker whose own children go barefoot — so busy making shoes for everyone else that there's never time to make a pair for home. When I was pregnant, that was me. I'd photographed other women through their pregnancies for years, and yet when it came to documenting my own, I ended up doing it myself: a self-portrait, figured out alone, camera on a timer, no one behind the lens but me.
It taught me something I think about every time I photograph another expectant mother now: how strange and vulnerable it is to be looked at right then, even when you're the one in control of the camera.
What working with pregnant women has taught me
Pregnant bodies are wonderfully unpredictable, and that unpredictability is the first thing I plan around. Physically, some women feel strong and capable right up to their due date; others are exhausted and sore by the second trimester, and that can shift week to week, sometimes day to day.
Hormones add another layer entirely. Mood can swing in the middle of a session — joy one moment, tears the next, not because anything is wrong, just because that's what pregnancy does to the nervous system. I've learned to read those shifts quickly and adjust the pace, rather than push through a shot list regardless of how someone is actually feeling in that moment.
Temperature matters more than people expect, too. Most pregnant women run hot, even in a cool room, so I keep that in mind with lighting, location, and how long I ask anyone to hold a pose.
And then there's the emotional range on any given day: some women feel shy or self-conscious in front of the camera, suddenly aware of a body that feels unfamiliar to them. Others arrive so deep in the experience of being pregnant that they forget the session is even happening and simply exist in front of the lens, completely themselves. Both are valid, and both need a slightly different kind of attention from me.
Why bodies lead, not poses
I have a set of poses I know work well, built from years of sessions — but I never treat them as fixed. If a position isn't comfortable, or a body simply won't move that way that day, we adjust. The body leads. I follow.
Beyond that, every woman wants something different from her maternity portraits. Some want flowing fabric and movement. Some want minimalism — clean lines, soft light, nothing extra. Others are drawn to something more boudoir in feeling, more intimate. I keep a collection of fabrics and dresses on hand for exactly this reason, and often something beautiful comes together spontaneously, mid-session, that wasn't part of the original plan at all.
So what does a good maternity session actually require?
Patience, mostly. A willingness to let go of a rigid plan the moment the day calls for something else. And an understanding that the woman in front of the camera is not a fixed subject — she's in the middle of one of the most physically and emotionally unpredictable chapters of her life, and the photographs should hold space for that, not flatten it into something tidier than it really is.
If you're expecting and thinking about maternity portraits, I'd love to talk through what feels right for you — fabric, minimalism, something more intimate, or simply whatever your body wants to do on the day.
