Congratulations! You had a baby and you received all your beautiful birth images from your birth photographer, but now what? Are you wondering what to actually do with your birth photos?
Don’t let your birth photos just live on your hard drive! Do something with them!
“But what should I do with my birth photos?” you may ask.
As a Seattle birth photographer, and someone who has received birth photos from a professional birth photographer for my own two births (thanks Annie Groves Photography), I’m here to tell you 5 easy things you can do with your birth photos!
1. Make birth announcements
The first thing you can do with your birth photos is to make a birth announcement card to send to friends and family. I mean, who doesn’t love getting mail! Especially a beautiful photo of a growing family, a happy mother or new fresh baby! Am I right?!?
Choose the close up photo of your brand new baby being measured or weighed. Or maybe the photo of you and your partner holding your baby and smiling at each other with disbelief! Or perhaps go with a collage of a few of your favorite images. I’m a sucker for the image of a sibling meeting and holding their new sibling for the first time.
These birth announcements are so precious and friends and family LOVE receiving them in the mail. Most likely, these birth announcements will be displayed on your friends and families refrigerators for the whole year! At least that’s what I do when I get one in the mail! (Think holiday photo cards, but a different time of year-whenever baby is born.) Announcements can also be a nice keepsake to have for your child’s baby book.
By the way, if making birth announcements sounds too stressful, just ask your birth photographer to do it for you! I offer this as an add-on to your birth photography package. I’m here to make things easy!
2. Put your birth photos in a photo album
The second thing to do with your birth photos is to put them in a physical and tangible book.
My kids love looking through their own birth albums. Did you know that birth stories (the story of how they were born) make great bedtime stories?! Honestly, children love to hear the story of how they were born and how happy you were to finally meet them.
Birth albums are also great to give to your children when they become adults. Your adult children will really appreciate it, and the birth album will even become a family heirloom!
While you’re at it, you might want to make extra albums for the grandparents. Or small photo books that grandparents can put in their purses/bags to show their friends. I mean, what grandmother doesn’t love to show others pictures of her brand new grand baby?!?!
If you book me as your birth photographer, I include a beautiful custom linen or leather bound 8×8 lay-flat album in one of my packages, so you don’t even have to think about it. If you want to add a second album, just ask. I got you!
3. Wall art
I can’t not put wall art on the list! Now hear me out. You don’t have to put an 18×24 canvas of you pushing a baby out on your fireplace mantle. But what I’m saying is that you should frame and display some of the emotional, beautiful and meaningful photos of you holding your new baby for the first time!
In fact, your new baby’s nursery is a lovely place to display few wall art pieces. Confession time, my 6 year old daughter still has a print from her birth up in her room. It’s the photo of us all swooning over her–me, my husband and her big brother.
There are lots of places your could display your birth photos in wall art form: in your home office, in your family room, in your own bedroom, and of course as I mentioned before, your baby’s nursery.
4. Holiday gifts
- Christmas tree ornaments for your new aunts, uncles, grandparents, or godparents. These can come in all different shapes and you can personalize them with baby stats such as weight, length, and birth date. These will soon become family heirloom ornaments and will last a long time depending on the type you get. (My favorite are the metal ones!)
- Small, purse-sized gift albums for grandparents to be able to carry around and show their friends.
- Gift prints for family members.
Your birth photos make great gifts. No need for further explanation here!
5. Finally, use your birth photos to help process and remember your birth!
The last thing you can (and should) do with your birth photos is to look at them and use then to help you process your birth. Maybe that means helping you to remember what actually happened! Maybe you had a tough birth, and those once-in-a-lifetime images can help you think about your feelings and what happened during your birth. The good, and the hard. The beautiful and the ugly. As times goes by, these photos also will help you to remember. They will help you to tell your story to generations to come, and they will be a gift to your future generation.
Am I missing anything? Let me know in the comments below!
*This month, I’m part of a blog circle with other fantastic photographers. Christy gives some great tips on what to wear for maternity photos Atlanta, GA.
Love all of these ways to use birth photos! Especially an album for bedtime story.
I’ve only ever photographed one birth, and I loved it so much. This is such an amazing post detailing how to use those amazing photos. I loved the Christmas tree ornament! Great blog!
I love birth announcements and ornaments! People really need to print their birth photos.
I especially love the idea of birth announcements. Not many people do them these days since everything is on social media, but there’s something special about having a printed announcement to put in a baby book or share with family!
I absolutely love albums! It’s such a perfect way to tell the story of your birth and have it all safely kept in one place so that you can easily look at your beautiful memories anytime you want!
Love this! It’s so important to get our photos off of our hard drives!