Lily’s Birth, January 3, 2011

It seems fitting to me that this first post of 2011 is about a birth as it is also the first post of my newly created Facebook Fan page, another birthing of sorts. If you enjoy my photography, please become a fan of my page. Thank you.

I love to photograph births. I’m not sure why. I mean of course, capturing the exact moment that life enters this world is fascinating, spectacular and amazing. Jaw dropping, really. Capturing all the raw emotions before, during and after- I’m energized by these types of unrehearsed moments. But after pondering it, I think one of the things that I enjoy most is living vicariously through these births.

You see, both of my births had resulted in emergency surgeries where I was being rushed down the hall because the baby had a sudden decline in vital signs after 15-24 hours of laboring. The doctors at my births (my doctor) Dr. Nelson on the first and as it turned out, Dr. Carter on the 2nd one, were willing to let me try to do it my way, well, up until they said, “alright game over…” and rushed me down the hall for the safety of us all.

I felt very well cared for in both instances, however, after the c-sections (as I believe is standard procedure), I was shown my baby, and then my husband was wheeled away down the hallway to enjoy those lovely first moments of bonding. For me, pregnancy was 18 months of uninterrupted “morning(afternoon and evening) sickness”, holding on to the thought of this magical moment, only to find myself in a recovery room, dazed from the anesthesia, waiting to finally meet my babies. I was however fortunate enough to have a doula on each birth who photographed my babies with a polaroid camera and brought me the image to enjoy as I recovered in a room down the hall.

Hmmmm…the irony of a photographer mom enjoying an “image” of her newly born children.

Anyway, that’s my story. It’s ok, my kids are super healthy and my husband was overly capable of being “that guy”. What a cool experience for him! The lesson learned is that even with all the planning in the world, many things are completely out of your control. Type A personality, take a seat.

When a “mom to be” asks me to photograph her birth, I am honored.  It gives me great pride to be trusted completely in that environment and to handle the range of emotions that births bring in whatever way seems appropriate.  Perhaps because my clients understand how much I care about and respect them, they can find the trust that I will know when to step forward and when to step back.  They all tell me that they weren’t even aware of my presence during the birthing process.

Below are the photographs of a fabulous photographer friend of mine, Kristi, and the birth of their little, Lily Bean. Most of my birth clients, naturally are folks whom I have photographed their wedding. It seems like a natural progression, plus the trust already has a strong foundation.

In fact, if I am available to do this for my wedding clients when they go into labor, and the timing is right, (scheduling a birth doesn’t work that well:) and the birth is local, I am happy to photograph this event complimentary.

With Lily’s birth (Kristi and Noel’s third child), I was able to capture her older brothers Nick and Travis(6 and 2) who also attended the birth. I think Travis may have hid in the bathroom for the actual birth:) Capturing the love and curiosity of her brothers was an added bonus and just goes to show you what a patient mom Kristi is. Truth, I couldn’t have done it. My concentration(and patience) is not that good, but Nick and Travis were awesome in there and Kristi, well, a birthing rock star! My hero.

When asking Kristi about the images and whether she was comfortable with me creating a blog post about them- this is what she said,

“I’m thrilled that we got to have you there as a strong, inspirational & beautiful woman and as a friend beyond the amazing photography you brought along. Use away on pics wherever you’d like to use them, I know you’ll be kind to me & I completely trust your judgment, too much passion and talent and beauty in your work not to share:)”

Life ,  and the sharing of it  , is a beautiful thing!    Love you Kristi- thank you and congratulations on your new little girl to complete your family.