I’m sitting here feeling blessed by my job as a newborn photographer. A lot of people I know wouldn’t choose “blessed” as the adjective they’d use to describe their job but what I do fills me up in so many ways. Because my cup overflows, I thought it was time to sit down and enumerate the ways in which this business of mine has given me returns.
Feeling Blessed To Be Able To Share Clinical Knowledge
I start out most of my consult calls by telling people that I’m a registered nurse and that, for my first 9 years in clinical practice, I worked in postpartum and newborn care at Howard County General Hospital. I tell them this not just to toot my own horn but to hopefully help them feel more comfortable when handing their tiny newborn baby over to a stranger.
My past work as a nurse enables me to give more than just the photographic skills that I bring to the table. I am able to educate new parents in much the same way that I did in the clinical setting, which was one of my absolute favorite parts of nursing. I advise on swaddling (and have a video about this on my Instagram highlights that people can refer back to), I help with breastfeeding, I give tips on milk supply and milk storage, I talk about the safety of newborn wearing and share information about the physiological health of the baby while in the carrier…all of these things are courtesy of my years in the healthcare field coupled with my own mothering experience wrapped up in one uber-photographer bundle. I’m feeling so blessed that my years in the clinical setting can be beneficial to my clients today.
Feeling Blessed To Be Able To Build Relationships
Another way in which this business blesses me is in the relationships that I get to make with people. This motherhood journey can be so hard, man. Glennon Doyle, an author and activist who created an online community, Momastery, and is founder and president of an all-women-led nonprofit organization supporting women, families, and children in crisis, coined the term brutiful and I use it often in my talks with new moms. Motherhood really is beautiful and brutal and we need to join together in support of one another in order to get through it. I truly believe that it was my tribe of mom friends that got me through those early years of raising three babies under the age of three.
When we’re in those in-between moments in a photo session (usually while baby is being fed), I get to sit and talk to moms and dads and check in on them, really get an idea of how they’re doing. I don’t think we follow up with moms and new families enough…there are monthly and then biweekly and then weekly prenatal check-ups…and then ONE 6 week week postpartum check-up. One. What??? After the baby is here is when we should be checking in with moms the most but we don’t…so I’m feeling blessed that I get the opportunity to be a touch point for young moms, right in the midst of the worst of the postpartum hormones and sleep deprivation. Every new mom needs someone who cares for them instead of just oohing and ahhing over the baby, for real.
Feeling Blessed To Be Able To Share Tips
One final way in which my photography business blesses me is in the way I get to share tips to new moms who are feeling overwhelmed – and rightfully so! – by all the information and options out there for the captive audience that they are.
One thing I talk to most new moms about is the Haakaa manual breast pump. It is crazy to me how this simple device (which wasn’t around when I was nursing ðŸ˜) is not only a time saver but also a really functional way to capture breastmilk that othewise would be wasted. It attaches to the opposite breast during a nursing session and collects, by passive suction, the milk letdown that naturally occurs. This is such a great way to build a freezer stash without any additional time committment. When I tell new moms about it, they typically get on Amazon and search it out immediately. That is definitely a time of feeling blessed to be able to share such an easy way to get more out of a feeding session.
Feeling Blessed That Amazing Clients Find Me
And, as a wrap up to this post all about how newborn photography is one of the best things I could’ve chosen to do with my time, I’m most of all feeling blessed that people like Jess and Spencer found me and hired me to document this most fleeting and precious time in their lives. From their beautiful maternity session to these photos from their darling boy’s newborn session, it’s clients like these that reinforce my decision to become a newborn photographer.
Liz Viernes Photography is based near Fulton, Maryland, and specializes in maternity, fresh 48, posed and lifestyle newborns and first year milestone portraits.
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