A Milk bath maternity shoot is very popular – and it’s not hard to see why. The images look great, aren’t difficult to do, even shy ‘mums’ can relax in milky warm water for the entire shoot and not worry about exposing more than they want.

The logistics of the shoot – the size of the bathroom, size of bath, fresh or fake flowers, how much milk, what to wear – may take a bit longer to work out or deal with, but at the end of the day – none are unsurmountable.. including tiny bathrooms.

Costume and Head Gear

The subject of our milk bath maternity shoot shoot ‘Jess’ was around 33 weeks in the shots. She provided her own costume and headgear and came along with a bag of roses from her garden.

Tips for the shoot

We part filled the tub with warm water and added 6 litres of full cream milk the scattered the rose petals and a couple of flowers before our Mumma climbed in. It helps to have a second shooter there to stir the petals back to where you want them while shooting.

The recommendations are for around four litres of milk, but we wanted a nice, creamy milky bath. For us, six litres of milk was perfect. When choosing real vs fake flowers – bear in mind fake ones tend to sink while real ones float. If using fake, try spraying them on the bottom with Scotchguard first and they will stay afloat a bit longer.

The bathroom was reasonably bright with daylight coming in the long window and no extra lighting was required

It was definitely a fun shoot – and not hard to do. If you have ever considered doing one – go for it!