I’ve never seen a picture of my mother when she was pregnant with me and I know why I’ve never seen one. She didn’t want anyone to take her picture. She felt huge, she felt like she took up a lot of space. Frankly, it wasn’t something anyone in her generation did. And that makes me sad. I don’t need an entire album of maternity photos of her (although I would love that), but I would love so much to see even one picture.

Notice how I’ve used “I” throughout this post. That’s a picture of me that I’ve never seen and that I never will see. I have no idea what my mom and I looked like together then. To me, that feels like I’ve missed a piece of myself, a piece of us. And that’s why I think every mom should take maternity pictures because it’s not just about you. It’s about the little life that’s inside you who will want to see these pictures of “themselves” one day too.