When is the Best Time to Take Maternity Photos?

Scheduling your maternity session can be stressful!

While you everything else on your mind, things far more important, now you’re tasked with scheduling a few hours to document your first Maternity Photography session. What should you do first? Find a photographer? Book hair and makeup? What do you wear to your maternity portrait session and will it even fit in a few months? How big is too big? Questions, questions, questions.

MY ADVICE. PLAN EARLY.

Over the last 17 years I’ve seen moms, due to a lack of planning and misinformation, face two issues: scheduling their shoot too early, when their baby bump is not as visible or worst- they wait too late and face swelling or are placed on bed rest.

The best time to do your maternity photo session?30 -32 wEEKS!

Over the past month, I asked over 100 moms for feedback on their maternity photo session experience. In full transparency only about 25% of the moms were my clients. The feedback I received was amazing. While the turnout was beyond my dreams, the consistency in answers honestly shocked me.

EVERY MOM stated if they could do their maternity shoot over, they would do it at 30-32 weeks. Check out some of the feedback below.

SURVEY QUESTIONS

1) Have you ever done a Maternity Shoot? 85% said Yes

2) How many weeks were you at your maternity session? Average 33. Surprisingly quite a few moms did their shoot at 9 months. One mom even went into labor during her shoot!

3) How many weeks do you WISH you were at your maternity session: 28-32 weeks.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Maternity photos are suppose to be more than just documenting one of the most important times of your life. One way to ensure you images are just as amazing as you envision, is planning your session at the right time. During your second trimester reach out to your photographer and start the planning phase. I promise you won’t regret it.