Newborn safety is a high priority for me when photographing newborn babies.
When choosing your photographer to capture those very early moments of your baby's life be careful who you trust to handle your precious wee bubs. Not all photographers are experienced with handling newborn babies. Newborns are so very flexible, and you need to take care when positioning them as they often wont move if a hand or foot starts going to sleep. As sturdy as they are, some positions you need to take extra care getting legs/ feet into position without placing strain on their joints.
I am well experienced with handling newborn babies - I am a qualified Midwife with several years experience working in Neonatal Intensive Care, plus I have three of my own - although they aren't particularly small these days :-)
A number of my poses are created with composites - that is when you have a parent holding/ supporting the baby and you take two or more shots, then merge them together to remove the parent's hands. Often I do this when the baby cannot possibly support themselves, or it is not safe to leave a baby on the prop (even though I am always just an arms reach from the baby).