This little gorgeous lady’s name is Aria. If I’m not wrong, she was born 2 months before her due date. She was the first premature baby I ever photographed. I had to read and learn a lot of information before settling a session for her. Because, first of all, the most important thing for me during the newborn sessions, is to make sure that the baby is safe, comfy and happy 🙂

Most moms believe that if their baby was born premature they shouldn’t do a newborn session. But I am assuring you that this is a wrong opinion. Any professional photographer, who works with newborns for years, will tell you that a preemie baby can be photographed just like babies who arrived on time (somewhere near their due date). But there are a few things that are different.

The best time to photograph a newborn baby is when the baby is 3-7 days old. During the first days of life babies are very sleepy and this makes the photo session process a little easier. All the posing requires babies to be in a very deep state of sleep, so I could easily mold them in all the beautiful poses. Most of the times it’s impossible to do that with a premature baby, because many of them spend their first weeks (or even months) in the hospital. That is why I advise to schedule a session as soon as they are out of the hospital. Most of the times that means that the session should be booked on the next day they come home from the hospital. Of course if the baby is allowed to travel (mom should ask their family doctor or pediatrician about that). In any other ways the preparation for your preemie session is the same as for a regular newborn session.

But the most important thing is to let your photographer know that baby arrived early and to keep communicating with him/her, so the photographer will be prepared for the session and would be able to find a time slot for your session when time comes.

Additionally I would like to mention that you might need to bring with you a few outfits. I offer outfits, headbands and so on, but due to the small size of the preemie some outfits might be very big.

Find a photographer that you will trust, try to relax as much as possible and most likely you will leave the studio after your session knowing that soon you will get a bunch of beautiful images of your newborn baby!