Why I wish I had taken more maternity photos

There is a photo of my mum that I love. She is pregnant. That’s me growing inside her. She is standing in the garden in summer, wearing a pretty summer dress and is surrounded by flowers. Her face is lit up in a beautiful smile. I love how excited she looks to meet me soon, and how incredible she was to make me. She looks so radiant, so happy. 

Without realising it, I shied away from the camera when I was pregnant. I remember with my first pregnancy, my daughter, we took a photo on my phone of my growing tummy every week against a white wall, but then kind of forgot one week, and then there was a gap until the last few weeks! The photos also look like some kind of medical line-up! And with my second pregnancy … well, you know how it is … I think we took ONE photograph in a bit of a panic the week before my son was born. I didn’t feel especially radiant or glowing, I felt knackered and heavy and pudgy. 

And now I feel a pang of regret that we didn’t take more photos of my two pregnancies.

You see we did, accidentally, get just a handful of professional photos taken of me when I was pregnant with my daughter when we met up with our wedding photographer, Debs Alexander, one weekend. I didn’t think it was as important as our wedding photos at the time, and it was just a bit of fun for her to practice, but now I LOVE them. Surprisingly, I do look radiant. It makes me remember what an amazing job my body was doing - my heart was literally beating for two. I mean, I’m growing an actual human being - this is a photo of me as a superhero.  And the best bit is my daughter loves the picture so much, imagining herself curled up in my bump. The pictures are framed on our wall. They were so much more important than I ever thought they would be at the time. 

So, as a Jersey photographer, when expecting mums contact me to book a newborn photoshoot, but say they probably won’t have a maternity photoshoot, I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a little bit sad. Pregnancy is one of the most special and meaningful times in our lives, and it goes by in a flash - your bump only shows for about 6 months. I wish I’d had the confidence back then to embrace my pregnant body, ignoring that little voice in the back of my head warning me about my pudgy face and swollen legs. I wish I had more photos to show my children just how much love I felt for them, even before I had laid eyes on them. 

I’m very grateful to the Ogborn family for letting me share some photos from their maternity photoshoot in this blog, as they excitedly wait to welcome their fourth child into the world. It was a dull, rainy day in winter, but the love they already feel for their new baby literally jumps out of the photos. And mum-to-be looks so beautiful.

So don't hesitate to have those maternity photos taken. You won't regret it.