Pregnancy is a special time in the life of a woman and her family. Regardless of whether it is the first and only one or a subsequent one, it is a unique experience. That is why many women want to commemorate it. Apart from a keepsake for me, I made a unique gift out of it: a pregnancy photo session for my child.
What can you photograph in a pregnancy session for a child?
Most women photograph their growing belly at regular intervals. Naturally, I also wanted to have such a pregnancy session. I was worried that it would focus solely on me, though. And after all, it was not all about my body undergoing startling changes. It was a little being hidden in my tummy that was the most important. I also wanted to include the Daddy because if it hadn’t been for him, there would have been no child and no reason for a pregnancy session.
First of all, I decided that the pregnancy session won’t be just for me, but above all for my child. Then, I pondered whether mummy’s growing tummy will be attractive enough for it. Of course, Mum is the most wonderful being on Earth, so her photos must be attractive for her child. A daughter might also be curious about how she will look like while being pregnant in the future. I know it because I was also curious to see my mother’s pregnancy photos. Sadly, we found only one because at that time roundness related to pregnancy was not something to be proud of.
Eventually, I decided to focus the pregnancy session on the child, and more precisely on our preparations for its arrival. We took the first picture right after we found out that it is already with us, i.e. at the end of the first month. In the following ones, we showed how our lives and surroundings changed. We took a picture with how-to books on infants, all the gifts it received, the cot assembled in the eighth month and even the bag packed for the labour.
The photos also included shots of my growing belly. One of them features a heart drawn with a stretch mark removal cream that I had just started using.
What else can you include in a pregnancy session apart from photos?
Nine photos taken during nine months of pregnancy was not the entire gift for our child. The second part was made up of short descriptions of our preparations written on the back of the photos. In all of them, I addressed the child directly, e.g. “This month, we bought your first rompers”.
What form can the pregnancy session take as a gift for your child?
In the first weeks after birth, when the child still slept a lot, I printed the pictures, prepared descriptions and made an exhibition on a wall next to our bedroom. Owing to that, we were able to show our pregnancy session to some of our guests.
When our child is old enough to enjoy them without destroying them and perhaps even to read the descriptions, I am planning to turn them into a mini-album and give it to her in the form of a booklet.
My advice:
– Don’t wait too long with writing your texts, or else you will forget what happened each month. If possible, note down the most important events or new activities when you are still pregnant.
– Decide on a specific deadline for photo shoots and stick to it. In our case, it was the end of each calendar month, so it was easy to remember and observe it.
– Remember to always take photos in the same orientation (portrait or landscape).
– If you want to save time while turning your exhibition into a booklet, don’t paste your pictures on pages with descriptions, but insert them in slits. This way you will be able to place a photo on one page and the related description on the opposite one.
– Include the existing children in the pregnancy sessions for subsequent ones!
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