From Pregnancy To Motherhood: These Amazing Pictures Showcase The Journey Perfectly

“This is the most extraordinary thing about motherhood – finding a piece of yourself separate and apart that all the same you could not live without.” 
― Jodi Picoult, Perfect Match

Motherhood isn’t something that you can be trained for. It’s something that happens from the moment your little one starts moving within you. It’s a bond that evolves over 9 months, and continues for a lifetime.

This week, before Mothers’ Day, we spoke to Geraldine Shandilya, a baby & maternity photographer and an Urban Company Partner, who’s clicked some truly stunning visuals that depict the beautiful relationship between the mother and her child. Geraldine used to be a travel photographer earlier, but she recently switched to baby and maternity photography around the time she found out she was expecting her own child.

“I just became a mother myself. Maybe that’s why I got into it. Baby and Maternity photography is quite popular in the US, and in Europe. But, in India, it is still something which people are discovering, and I want to capture that journey for them.”

From soft black and white images that showcase the beauty of pregnancy, to lovely pictures of just born babies that’ll make you sigh, these images showcase the entire journey- from pregnancy to motherhood- in Geraldine’s words. See the whole photo story:

I, myself, have only seen one picture of my mom when she was pregnant with me. And I’ve always wished my parents had more pictures of me when I was a baby, just so that I could have a nice memory from back then. So that’s what I try to do with my work- capture these happy memories for people.

Many women still feel shy when I take pictures that show their belly, but I think it’s beautiful. It’s the most amazing thing which nature gives to women, and to couples.

In Europe, 50 years ago, showing the belly was a complete taboo. Women would wear loose clothing to conceal the pregnancy. Now it’s the complete opposite- women are proud to show that they are expecting a baby.

When you’re going to be a mother and when you reach the last month of pregnancy, you just count the days. You just cannot wait to meet your baby, because you’ve been carrying your baby for so long and, when you arrive at this stage, you’re just counting…

And then, when you see your baby for the first time she’s the only thing in the world that exists for you at that moment. And everything changes from that moment onwards- you don’t live for anything else anymore. I used to live for my job, I used to live for my husband, but now my child comes first. You live only for your children.

The relationship between a mom and a baby is sacred. Most of the time I don’t need to do or prepare anything special. You just see it in the face, in the expression of the mom. I love taking those candid shots when the mother is just looking at the baby. Sometimes we take a break and they just feed the baby and I just click pictures of the mom feeding the baby.

When I’m taking pictures of newborn babies, I try to focus on their innocence. They’ve just come into the world and it’s important that the image captures that aspect. It needs to look pure.

The best thing about it is that, in my work I meet a lot of happy people because they are expecting, or because they’ve just had a baby, and it’s a pleasure to be able to work like that.  I enjoy every meeting, because, at the end of the day, these are just happy people. It’s not a commercial job. Ultimately, they simply want to have beautiful pictures and memories of their pregnancy.

We hope you enjoyed Geraldine’s work as much as we did! Let us know in the comments section or simply share it with your friends 🙂

Inspired enough to get your own maternity and baby shoot, just book at Urban Company?