When to Book Maternity Photos: The Best Week

Short answer: Book maternity photos for weeks 30 to 34 of a single pregnancy. The bump is clearly round by then and most women still move comfortably. Twins and other multiples usually shoot earlier, around 26 to 30 weeks. Reserve the date itself much earlier, because studio calendars fill months ahead.

The question we get by email is almost always phrased the same way: “when should I come in?” The honest answer has two halves, and people usually only ask about one of them. There is the week you should be photographed, and there is the month you should pick up the phone. They are not the same thing, and confusing them is how women end up messaging us at 37 weeks asking if there is anything left.

Why weeks 30 to 34 works best

A bump photographs as a shape. Before about 28 weeks that shape is still soft at the edges, and in a photograph it can read as a bit of a tummy rather than a pregnancy. Somewhere around 30 weeks the curve becomes unmistakable. It sits high, it is round front-on as well as in profile, and the light wraps around it cleanly.

After 34 weeks the shape is still lovely, but the rest of the experience changes. Swelling arrives. Standing in one spot gets tiring faster. Baby drops. None of that ruins a photograph, but it narrows what we can ask you to do, and it puts you closer to the day baby might decide to arrive early.

Weeks 30 to 34 sit in the overlap: the bump looks its best and you still feel like moving.

What actually changes week by week

That table is about photographs, not about your body or your health. Every pregnancy carries itself differently and we have photographed women at 36 weeks who looked and felt better than others did at 29.

Twins and multiples come earlier

With twins, everything on that table shifts back by roughly four to six weeks. A twin bump at 28 weeks is often the size of a single bump at 34. More importantly, twin pregnancies frequently deliver earlier, and the last stretch tends to be physically harder.

So for twins we suggest 26 to 30 weeks, and we would rather have you in at 26 than at 30. For triplets, earlier again. If you are carrying multiples and you are already past 30 weeks when you find us, tell us in your first email and we will look for the soonest slot we have rather than the prettiest one.

When the pregnancy is not straightforward

This is the part most timing guides skip, and it matters more than any week number.

If you are on reduced activity, if there is a reason you are being monitored closely, or if your obstetrician or midwife has given you any instruction about how much you should be on your feet, that instruction outranks everything on this page. We are photographers. We are not qualified to tell you what is safe in your pregnancy and we will never try.

What we can do is work around it. A session can be almost entirely seated. It can run 25 minutes instead of an hour. It can be built around two or three setups instead of five. Women have come in from hospital appointments and shot sitting on a padded bench the whole time, and the photographs are lovely, because a photograph of a woman looking at her bump does not require her to be standing.

Tell us what you need. We would rather redesign the session than have you push through one.

Book the date long before you shoot it

Here is the half nobody asks about. Our maternity dates are usually taken six to ten weeks out, and more than that in spring when everyone in Epping and Eastwood seems to be due at once.

The practical move is to book in your second trimester — around 20 weeks — for a date in your early thirties. You are choosing a week in the future, not a week you are in now. Women who wait until the bump “looks ready” are shopping at 31 weeks for a date that no longer exists.

If you are also planning newborn photographs, book both at the same time. Newborn sessions work on the due date rather than the birth date, which we explain in our guide to booking a newborn session, and holding the two together means one conversation instead of two.

What if you are already past 35 weeks

Come anyway, if you want the photographs. Late maternity portraits are not a consolation prize. The bump is enormous, which some women love, and there is a particular stillness to the last fortnight that shows in someone’s face.

We just change how we run it. Shorter. More sitting. Fewer outfit changes. We keep the gown choices to two so you are not spending your energy getting changed, and we shoot the shot you care most about first in case you want to stop. And we say plainly: if labour starts, the session is rescheduled or refunded, and nobody feels bad about it.

Working backwards from your due date

The simplest way to avoid a rushed booking is to put dates on a calendar once, in order. Here is how we would do it for a single baby.

1. Write down your due date. Use the date from your dating scan if you have one.
2. Count back to week 32. This is the middle of the best photographic window, so it is the target.
3. Count back a further six to ten weeks. That is when to be making contact with a studio.
4. Mark the weekend either side of week 32. These are your two or three preferred dates.
5. Add a note two weeks before the session. It prompts you to sort the outfit and book hair and make-up if you want it.

A due date in early January, for example, puts the middle of the window in late November. Late November is also when the calendar fills with end-of-year events and school finishes. That is why the enquiry goes in before the summer is even on your mind.

Who else needs to be in the diary

A maternity session is easy to plan around you alone. It becomes harder when other people are involved, so decide early who is coming.

Your partner

Partners are often more nervous than expected. Tell them the plan, how long they will be needed, and that they do not have to perform. A few quiet frames of the two of you usually look better than anything staged.

Older children

A toddler can be a delight or a handful. Morning is best, and a spare adult to look after them while you are being photographed helps. If the session is mostly for you, it is perfectly fine to have the children come for the last ten minutes only.

Parents and in-laws

If you would like your own mother in a frame with you, tell her the date well ahead. Family often travel from a distance, and a mother-and-daughter photograph taken before the baby arrives is something many women are glad of later.

A stylist or friend

If someone is doing your hair or make-up, allow time in the morning for it and arrive with the work done. Tell them the look you are after, and keep it simple. Heavy styling can look different on camera than in the mirror.

A few things to settle before you enquire

Take your time over the first one. Many women are sure of their due date until a scan changes it, and the newer date is the one a studio should plan around.

A note on the day itself

Eat breakfast, and have a drink of water. Wear loose clothing on the way in so there are no marks from elastic on your skin. Leave extra time for the drive, because arriving flustered shows. Bring your usual comfortable shoes, and if your feet swell, bring a pair a size larger to wear until we start.

If you are tired on the day, tell us. A short session at a good moment beats a long one at a bad one. Many of the photographs families keep from this part of pregnancy are the quiet ones: a hand on the bump, a partner’s hand over yours, and the look of someone about to meet their child.

One more planning point: if you are unsure between two weekends, choose the earlier one. A bump that is slightly smaller than you hoped photographs well. A session cancelled because labour started early does not photograph at all, and you cannot recover the date afterwards.

Common questions

Can I book maternity photos before 24 weeks?

You can, and occasionally there is a good reason to — a planned trip overseas, a partner deploying, a medical situation. Just know the bump will read as early pregnancy in the photographs. If the shape of the bump is the point of the pictures, wait. If the point is the two of you at this moment, the week matters less.

How long is a maternity session?

Ours runs about an hour, which covers arrival, hair and makeup touch-ups if you have brought a stylist, two or three looks, and partner or sibling frames at the end. We walk through the whole thing in what a session is actually like.

What time of day should I book?

Morning, if you have a choice. Most women are less swollen and less tired before lunch, and if you have older children they are also at their best earlier. We shoot in a studio with controlled light, so unlike an outdoor session there is no golden-hour argument pulling you to 5pm.

Should I book maternity and newborn together?

If you want both, yes. It locks in two dates that are hard to get separately, and it means whoever photographs your bump also photographs the baby, so the pictures look like they belong on the same wall.

Does the due date go in the diary, or the session date?

Both. We note your due date against the booking so that if you deliver early we already know, and so we are not calling you about a session you are no longer having.

Pick the week, then pick the date

Work backwards. Take your due date, count back six to ten weeks, and that is your session window. Then look at a calendar and choose a morning inside it that is not the day after a scan, not the day before a long drive, and not a Saturday you already owe to someone else.

Then book it, at 20 weeks, while the choice is still yours. If you tell us your due date and whether you are carrying one baby or two, we will tell you the exact weekend we would pick — email info@tzportraits.com and put the due date in the first line.