There are countless beautiful benefits to creating your maternity portraits at home. I cannot think of a better way to explore some of these than by sharing this wonderful at home pregnancy photoshoot in Cardiff with Mum to be, Nyssa.
It’s safe to say that when I pulled up to the expectant couples victorian town house I had high hopes. I was excited to see if the interior of this building would match the lovely exterior. Happily, I can report that it did, this home had been a labour of love for the couple. Renovating it back to it’s former glory and preparing it for a new role of being a family home full of love and warmth. The perfect setting for a at home pregnancy photoshoot in Cardiff.
Which brings me neatly to the first thing I love about at home pregnancy photoshoots. These images are a chance to celebrate the home you have created together. This is the sanctuary that will welcome you back with babe in arms, it’s the place you will learn who you are as a Mother, it will hold you as you guide your baby through years of important milestones. It’s more than just four walls and that’s why I love to create photos in homes, to capture all the emotions and memories that will unfold here. And for Nyssa’s story in particular, having an at home pregnancy photoshoot in Cardiff meant that she could share an authentic glimpse of her adopted country with those she loves back home across the Atlantic.
And of course there’s one room in particular that shines in an at home pregnancy photoshoot, one room that parents are incredibly excited to share with loved ones. The nursery! It’s my experience that for first time mothers in particular, creating a nursery is so much more than having a room full of stuff you ordered online when pregnancy insomnia hit! It’s a promise of the future, a space buzzing with excitement for what’s to come. A physical, tangible expression of the overwhelming love you feel for a person you are yet to meet. We stand in this room, taking it all in, trying to imagine what it will be like when it is full of life and activity. Standing over the cot and envisioning that precious, longed for baby blissfully sleeping. Finally this place is an unspoken word of reassurance for that baby, “we’re ready for you, you are loved and you are safe.’
I make it no secret that I adore photographing nude pregnant people, much to the annoyance of social media algorithms who seem to exist purely to censor the female form. But I truly feel there are fewer things in this world that are more beautiful than the pregnant body so photographing it in it’s most honest state is a passion. In a society that tells women our value lays in our weight and superficial appearances it’s always a joy to give them images that show them where their beauty truly is, in their power. Most of us can feel a little nervous, or a lot nervous, at the thought of exposing our bodies to someone in this way. So I find that by having an at home pregnancy photoshoot it means you get to explore this option in a place that feels safe. You feel in control, which either means you do feel comfortable to bare your bump in it’s glory or you feel confident to try it out but then say “no, it’s not for me.”
Maybe you are thinking about having your own maternity photos created. I know there’s a prescribed way of doing this that most of us consider the done thing but before you step out into a photo studio, I hope this has given you some food for thought. Maybe you can consider your own home as the perfect setting for your maternity photoshoot.
Please reach out to me to have a conversation about your own at home pregnancy photoshoot in Cardiff or throughout South Wales, you can do that here, www.sarahhailephoto.com/contact
Or maybe you are one of the brave ones who’s ready to bare it all somewhere a little more public? Then you should absolutely take a look at this maternity photoshoot that we created in a river!
It is my calling in life to celebrate and support Mothers through this incredible transition so please come to my little part of the internet and see what it looks like when women raise each other up! www.instagram.com/sarahhailephoto
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