Enter a client’s due date and get every date that matters to a newborn studio: when to reach them, when to have the session booked, the maternity and newborn windows, the ordering appointment and the first-year sessions. Print it for the family, or add it to your calendar.
When should a newborn session be booked? In the second trimester. Most newborn studios aim to hear from expecting parents between 16 and 24 weeks pregnant and to have a deposit holding a date around the due date by about 30 weeks. The session itself usually happens 5 to 14 days after the birth, so the exact day moves with the baby.
How the planner works.
Everything before the birth counts back from the due date, which is 40 weeks of pregnancy. Everything after the birth counts forward from the birth date. Until the baby arrives, the planner uses the due date for both. When the parents send the news, enter the birth date and the newborn session, the ordering appointment and the first-year sessions move to the real dates.
The stage you are in today is marked, and stages already behind you fade out, so a client who enquires late still sees what is left to plan. The family and studio names only go on the printout. They stay on this page and are never sent anywhere.
Why newborn bookings happen months before the birth.
The newborn window is about ten days long and nobody knows when it starts. A studio that waits for the birth announcement is competing for a date that is already close. A studio that reached the family mid-pregnancy has a deposit, an on-call plan and a session that is ready to confirm the morning the baby arrives.
That is why the ads, the follow-up and the reminders all run on the due date. Our newborn photography marketing page covers the full system, and Facebook ads for newborn photographers shows how to reach expecting parents in the second trimester. To check what each enquiry should cost, try the photography ad calculator.
Newborn booking planner FAQs.
When should parents book a newborn photographer?
In the second trimester. Reaching parents between 16 and 24 weeks pregnant leaves time for a consult, a deposit against the due date by about 30 weeks, and an optional maternity session before the on-call weeks begin.
What if the baby arrives early or late?
Plan for it. The on-call window runs from 37 to 42 weeks, and the newborn session counts from the birth, not the due date. Enter the birth date when it is known and the session, ordering and first-year dates move with it.
How do I use this timeline with my clients?
Run it at the consult with the family’s due date, print it with their name and your studio name, and hand it over with the booking. Add the calendar file to your own calendar so the check-ins and the sitter invitation are never missed.
Every due date, followed up for you.
Studio Digital runs the ads that reach expecting parents and the follow-up that carries them from the first enquiry to the first birthday, built for established portrait studios.