Do you want some pictures to document your baby journey but you can’t make it work in the budget to get maternity pictures and newborn pictures? Let me give you some things to consider to help you decide which might be the best choice for you , so that you can move forward confidently knowing you've spent your money well!


Maternity Pictures


Pregnancy is such a crazy time of experiencing so many changes to your body and preparing your mind for a new phase of life. If this is your first baby, you might enjoy looking back on the pictures of life before it all changed. For me, carrying my baby was such a special experience and I love looking back in awe of how I looked at that time and re remembering those details ( mostly I just can’t believe how big my belly was!) and think about how special it will be to share those pictures with your baby one day! Have you ever seen a picture of when your mom was pregnant? I haven’t, because it wasn’t as well documented then! You have the opportunity to document that stage of life and share it for generations. 


Also consider this, you probably only have mirror selfies of your baby bump ( my mirror selfies always had my messy bedroom in the background, so not exactly something I’d want to frame or share with generations) maybe it would be nice for you to have some maternity pictures where you can get all dolled up and feel like the queen you are! Many women report feeling better about their pregnant bodies after having maternity pictures taken.


All these things might be just fine and dandy for me, but what if you have hated being pregnant, hate the way you look, and would rather not revisit it? That’s totally ok! Maybe that’s your sign that maternity pictures just aren’t for you. Don’t let anyone pressure you into them, just make sure you won’t regret it later. 


Newborn Pictures


They say babies don’t keep, and when you have one of your own you realize just how true that is. They grow so fast right before our eyes! Sometimes we don;t even realize how tiny they were until we look back on those pictures and reminisce. 


If you’re already crying thinking about how one day your unborn or newborn child is going to leave you and go to college one day… you probably want to go ahead and schedule those newborn pictures so you can cry over them when they get older! Haha. If you’re a sentimental mama ( like me) newborn photos are a MUST.


However, I guarantee you that you will have soooo many pictures on your phone and other people’s phones of your baby. So their tinyness will definitely be documented somewhere somehow. Whereas people don’t tend to take as many pictures of YOU while you’re pregnant, so that might be something you’d want to get professionally done knowing that there will be a shortage of those kinds of pictures.




It really all comes down to personal preference! Don't let someone tell you you HAVE to go one way or another when you know you wouldn’t enjoy pictures of pregnant you, or dragging your newborn out the house while you’re freshly postpartum. IF you want both and money is the issue, ask your photographer if they have a bundle! This usually would get you a discount off of both of them. You can also ask your friends to contribute as a baby shower gift! It’s really all up to you, I just hope however you do it, you’ll give this special season of life the documentation it deserves. P.S. If you're still looking for someone to help you document it, I'd love to be the girl for the job :) You can click here to look at my work!