Family, Newborn, and Birth Photography by Natasja Jansen

Natasja Jansen photographs maternity, newborns, birth, and families from Assen in the Netherlands under the name PuurMama Fotografie. She is a mother of two daughters and a son, and that experience sits close to the work: she talks about how quickly childhood moves and how a camera can hold the moments that otherwise blur. After years working as a speech therapist in schools and hospitals, she turned to photography full time after the birth of her youngest daughter in 2014. The shift was practical and personal at once—she already photographed her own family constantly, and clients asked for the same soft, unforced feeling.

Her published style description is unusually clear for a lifestyle photographer: pure and soft, with a raw edge. She looks for spontaneous frames—a glance, a kiss, a hand on a shoulder, a tear—rather than stiff poses against a paper backdrop. Natural light is central, especially the gentle hours around sunrise and late afternoon. The goal is not to invent a perfect family for the album; it is to keep the connection that was already in the room.

Assen, home sessions, and regional reach

Working from Assen, Natasja Jansen covers Drenthe and neighboring areas such as Groningen and Overijssel for pregnancy, birth, baby, and family sessions. Home and outdoor locations matter because they let children stay in familiar rooms and parents skip the stress of a studio clock. Soft window light in a living room, a quiet nursery corner, or a park path at golden hour all fit the same visual language: muted tones, skin that looks like skin, and space around the subjects so the frame can breathe.

Maternity work often happens in the final trimester, when the body has changed and the wait feels concrete. Newborn sessions follow soon after birth, when sleep and feeding set the pace more than any shot list. Family sessions stretch further—siblings arguing and laughing in the same five minutes, parents half in frame, toddlers who will not “smile for the camera.” Jansen’s approach treats those interruptions as content. The photograph of a hand on a shoulder can outlast a forced grin.

Softness with a raw edge

Softness in family photography can tip into blur and over-editing. Jansen’s stated preference for a raw edge is useful here. It suggests texture in blankets, honest shadows under eyes after a sleepless night, and the imperfect geometry of a living room rather than a seamless set. Purity, in her vocabulary, means people as they are—connection first, styling second. Clothes still matter, but as calm neutrals that keep attention on faces and hands.

Emotion is the other half of the brief. She names small cues on purpose: eyes meeting, a kiss, a tear. Those are hard to schedule. They appear when the photographer slows down, talks less about lenses, and more about what the family already knows how to do—hold a baby, lean into a partner, watch a sibling. Workshops help sharpen that instinct. After studying birth photography with Marry Fermont, Jansen has spoken about birth as one of the most unique moments a camera can witness: private, intense, and worth documenting with care rather than spectacle.

Birth photography as trust work

Birth photography sits apart from lifestyle portraits. Timing is unpredictable, light is clinical or dim, and the photographer’s job is to stay useful without becoming another stressor in the room. Parents who invite a camera into labor are asking for a record of transition—not a performance. Jansen’s background in care work (speech therapy in schools and hospitals) is not a photography credential, but it does speak to comfort around medical settings and families under pressure. The soft visual style still applies: focus on hands, breath, and the first meeting, not on dramatizing pain for effect.

For viewers browsing her work, birth images sit beside quieter maternity and newborn frames. The through-line is attention to in-between details. Atmosphere and emotion make the pictures feel lived-in. That is also why her own children appear in some of the personal work shared online: the same photographer who asks clients to be present is practicing that presence at home.

What clients are really booking

A session with Natasja Jansen is less about collecting poses and more about freezing a season. Pregnancy will end. A newborn will grow out of the curled sleep of the first weeks. A family of three will become four. Parents who feel time speeding up are the natural audience for this kind of work. The deliverable is a set of images that still feel true years later—siblings’ expressions, the shape of a parent’s hand, light through a particular window in Assen.

Preparation helps without turning the day into a production. Choose two or three simple outfits in similar tones. Clear a corner of clutter if you want a calmer background, but do not rebuild the house. Nap and feed babies on their schedule. Tell the photographer what you hope to remember: the bump at thirty-four weeks, the first week home, or a yearly family walk. Jansen’s Instagram presence under puurmama_fotografie shows the range—pregnancy, babies, siblings, motherhood—without treating the work as fashion editorial.

Reading the photographs

Look for how often the strongest frames are almost quiet. A sleeping newborn and a watching sibling. Parents leaning forehead to forehead. A maternity silhouette that includes a partner’s hand rather than isolating the bump as a product shot. The “raw edge” shows up as real rooms, real fabric, and expressions that were not counted down from three. Softness shows up as gentle contrast and natural light rather than harsh flash.

Family photography of this kind also resists the idea that every album needs a white seamless and identical poses. Regional Dutch lifestyle work has long favored honesty over glamour, and Jansen’s PuurMama brand name points at that preference—pure mother, pure moment. Whether the session is maternity, newborn, birth, or a full family afternoon, her work stays consistent: soft, spontaneous images from Assen that treat emotion as the subject.

If you are planning a session, ask how she works with young children, what happens if weather changes for an outdoor plan, and how birth coverage is scheduled when labor starts overnight. The best family photographs rarely come from a rigid timeline. They come from a photographer who knows when to wait for the glance, the kiss, or the tear—and when to put the camera down so the moment can happen first.