Maternity Milk Bath Photoshoot and Tutorial

Welcome to what is about to be one of the dreamiest posts ever. Okay, so maybe I am a little biased, but come on man…this photo session has me swooning!

For our fourth pregnancy we wanted to capture a maternity milk bath shoot in our home for a couple of reasons: 1) they are just beautiful no matter what setting you have 2) I have this gorgeous bathroom that I’ve been wanting to capture photos in somehow 3) I had actually discovered a ton of frozen breastmilk from my last baby that needed to be put to good use. So thank you Pinterest, you saved the day again!

Creating this milk bath was much easier than I had thought. We can call this a tutorial, but really it’s so basic that you’ll be soaking in some milk soon wondering why you haven’t thought of this before now. For our particular shoot, we did use frozen breastmilk because I had found many ounces that unfortunately were far too expired for consumption. While it may seem odd so make a milk bath with breastmilk, breastmilk is actually regularly used for skin ailments, rashes and more. Who here has seen the episode of Kim Kardashian putting her sister’s breastmilk on her psoriasis? I have! It is not out of the ordinary to use breastmilk for skin conditions and it is definitely not out of the ordinary to use a milk bath as a relaxing and nourishing bath for your skin. Mine was so soft after this session!

For our milk bath photo session, we used around 60 ounces of frozen breast milk but did add in 1/2 gallon of whole milk for the added brightness (whole milk is much whiter). As for how much water you want to use for this sort of session, you want to make sure you have enough to graze right below the hip line or curve of the belly. In my case, we filled our rather deep tub up about halfway and then added our milk. Once I got into the tub, we then topped if off with a bit more water. To be honest, the amount of water you use depends on the depth of your tub. As far as your milk goes, purchase one gallon of whole milk and slowly pour into the tub around 1/2 of the gallon and see from there if you need anymore. Since you are doing this as a photo shoot, you want a bright white appearance, however if you’re just doing this for soaking and skin benefits, you could get by with much less.

Easy tips to achieve beautiful milk bath photos:

If you have breastmilk, use it! It’s wonderful for the skin - just remember it’s not quite as white as whole milk so you may want some whole milk on hand for backup.
Use fresh flowers, not fake. Cut the flowers off near the bud for them to float beautifully on top of the water. For brighter appeal, go with colorful flowers.
Choose a dress you will be comfortable in! There are so many dresses out there, but I wanted one that would cover me but also allow for the beauty of my belly and skin to show. This dress from Amazon worked perfectly! You want to be comfortable in your photos and feel comfortable sharing or displaying them. Most of the angles of the photos are done from up top, if you’re not comfortable showing lots of chest or breast curves, then choose something that you can rock comfortably!
Don’t overthink it — you don’t have to be glamorous! Natural hair and makeup can work!
Play some fun music with your photographer present to make things a little more comfortable and fun for you!
You can easily add in your partner or other children by incorporating them into the setting in fun, natural ways.
This photoshoot doesn’t have to be for just maternity — use it as a boudoir shoot, a newborn baby shoot, a postpartum mother and baby photo session, baby’s first bath or baby sitting up in a beautiful sink with some fresh flowers or fresh fruit!
Have good lighting! Try to choose a bathroom with the most windows and the most natural light.

We were blessed to have an amazing Louisiana photographer, Gray Photography, capture these images for us. Our session was fun, comfortable and as you can see so peaceful in many ways. It’s such a treasure to have these to remember this beautiful stage of life.