Parents said my maternity photos were “erotic”

[Ttcgirl89]

I had maternity photos taken on the beach when I was pregnant. I live in Australia and am from NZ and recently my parents came to visit us and meet our baby. I was looking through photos and my dad said that the maternity photos were “erotic” and my stepmum agreed. My brother asked what we were talking about and my Dad was like “you don’t wanna look at them, they’ll make you blush”.

I sent the photos to them after I had them done months ago and I thought they were so lovely and special. They were taken at “our beach” where my husband and I swim in summer I am wearing a dress in all of the photos and my bra is covered, with the buttons down the front undone to show the belly. My husband and I don’t see anything erotic about these photos at all and I was shocked that they thought that. I feel really awkward and embarrassed now that I sent them to them if that’s what they thought about them!

Is this a weird reaction to seeing your daughter’s maternity pictures?

I mean, thank goodness you’re not prone to exaggeration!

Someone can spend 20 minutes getting some photos taken and still have a real life too. What a weird idea to imagine you can’t.

I suppose its probably a bit weird for you dad looking at them. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with it at all, but pregnancy is inherently tied to sex - that's how the baby got in there! I've always felt faintly self conscious when people congratulated me for being pregnant 😆

I've got a couple of photos that I definitely wouldn't share in public but they are very special to me. DH asked to get some photos of me nude when 8 months pregnant with eldest. He said its not sexy as such, but he found my body beautiful and wanted to commemorate it. I'm in an orchard (not in Public view!) And they are quite arty and DH used one as the basis for a sketch. He took some when I was expecting our twins too, but never had time to work up the sketch😝. He also took some photos of me feeding eldest, which as she was a water birth I was wearing just a bikini top for the birth which I removed to feed so I just have a towel draped round me and not covering much.

Have whatever photos you like. It's your body and if you want to remember this amazing thing your body has done feel free. But maybe don't expect others to feel totally comfortable looking at a somewhat intimate pic.

It's the fact people need to have these photos taken that is distasteful. Why the need? Why do people think the world needs to see photos of them all the time? Self obsessed is the explanation that comes to my mind.

And you are being disingenuous by implying it's just a casual thing that some people do and people's opinions of the photos aren't important to them.If it was no big deal then OP wouldnt have been starting a thread about people's reactions to the photos.

The poor baby hasn't even been born yet and it's being used in yet another photo stunt.

That's the person who said I was abnormal, warped and using my children as fashion accessories because I had some professional photos taken during my pregnancies which my husband and I sometimes look at.

More issues than DC Comics, obviously, but not anything for us to worry about.

Oh get a bloody grip.

These are so cringe lol

So what is your point? Please explain.

God, people are being really judgemental! It’s lovely to have a maternity shoot to remind you of how you looked when pregnant. I wish I’d had one!

Ehhhhh I don't know how to phrase this in a way that doesn't sound rude but it's because I'm pregnant. My body is not going to be that shape again. My DC likes looking at it and frankly so so I. I look absolutely gorgeous in it, I'm glowing with health and fitness and my skin and hair is stunning.

I have just remembered however I only framed and displayed when I started cancer treatment the following year. I was terrified and the photo cheered me up.

I know this isn't what you asked but I don't understand the attitude on here that it's the biggest crime imaginable to be attention seeking or celebrate a certain period of time or experience; what else are photos for? Surely brides aren't the only women to ever get married or graduates the only person to get a a degree.

That a woman could get a maternity photoshoot done of herself in black leather, post it on every social media platform, put it on a full page ad in the Sunday Times and project it on to the Houses of Parliament and it still wouldn't be even half as ridiculous as your belief that women who get photos taken to commemorate a happy and major life event are warped and abnormal and morally suspect. Who on earth told you all that?

If you want a shoot done, and it's so obvious that you do, then just get it done. I promise you'll still go to heaven.

And get a grip.

She is pregnant . As countless women from time immemorial have been. If her and her H are happy about it then I'm really pleased for her.
Why the need to photograph everything that happens?
The event is only real to some people if they plaster it all over social media. It isn't enough in itself.
It's so obsessive and so focused on what people look like, not what their actual feelings are.
My goodness I was totally shocked by the other thread where the OP and other contributers to the thread , were actually disappointed because their children weren't beautiful.
And here we have the obsession with the blooming baby bump!
Total madness.

Oh really? I was gonna argue back but I won’t bother then 😂😂😂

Photo with buttons on dress undone for yourself and DH.
Photo with buttons on dress done up for family and friends.
It’s called decorum sadly lacking in today’s modern world.
What is a bogan?

Your bump is beautiful to you, end hopefully to your partner. Your child, your hopes, your dreams, and your amazement at what your body can do, make it wonderful.

But it's not beautiful to other people. Often not even to those who love you most. And the whole undoing your clothes to show it off can make people feel quite awkward.

So yep, have your photo for you and your husband, but for the majority of people, at best it's not that special, and at worst it makes them cringe. That cringe can be from it feeling too intimate, or simply, like several posters here, they actually find the heavily pregnant belly unnerving.
I loved my own pregnant belly, but I'm another that gets a minor 'ew' feeling at other people's.

I have one photo of me in a bikini and pregnant and I do look really lovely (if I can say that). It didn't go on SM (it’s in a box) but I’m very happy with the photo (just on a camera before smartphones). I wouldn’t have shown any family members though as I’m very reserved 🫣 but I occasionally look at it and marvel how good I looked back then.

I think a bogan is a derogatory term similar to chav.

You reverse that ferret! You reverse it good!

No seriously, it's good that you've reversed it. It means you do actually realise how nutty it was to say a woman was abnormal and warped for having pregnancy photos taken, and to imply that there was something exploitative in a professional photographer being paid to, well, take photos. You know, their job.

There are plenty of alternative moral crusades you could go on that address actions that actually have a moral value. Leave pregnant women alone and ffs go get that photoshoot that you're so clearly longing for. We won't tell anyone and your immortal soul will survive.

I don't know anyone who had shots taken whilst pregnant as you usually try and avoid photos being taken whilst pregnant so sounds about strange especially if you not wearing much and you are on a beach. If your parents unhappy with them they might be. don't share them and just keep them for your and your dh.

I'd think 'cringe' not 'erotic' 😬
Sorry.

Is everyone mad? Hiring a photographer and going on a beach to take photos of a bump is odd to me. The fact that people are doing it every evening is baffling. Take a photo at home. That said, I’ve never liked it when people put those giant framed photos of themselves lying on beds (the slightly fuzzy lensed ones with feather boas as props) in their living rooms, so I’m really not one for any sort of ‘look at me!’ photo shoots tbh.

Bogan is a kind of Australian chav.

Don’t be, I’d much rather people think I’m taking cringe photos than erotic photos 🤣

No one outside of you and dh need to see those. If they are special to you two, fair enough. As a parent I do not want to see (or think) of my offspring like that. Nice (but still self absorbed) wistful pics on the beach, lovely (but cringe) wistful but showing flesh, please no.

Why would you avoid photos when pregnant?

I don’t think you’re allowed to say that on MN 🤣