The Birth of Baby J

I told my birth center to let me know if they had any expectant families who wanted photos of their birth. I had been dying to shoot one and wanted to volunteer my time to get the experience. It just so happened that one of the families expecting who wanted a birth photographer was also friend of mine!

As her “guess date” approached, I found myself pretty attached to my phone. I’d double and triple check the ringer at night, just in case the baby was on his way. Fortunately, his timing could not have been better as he chose to come the morning after Superbowl Sunday. My mother-in-law just happened to be visiting which was great because I wasn’t worried about trying to find someone to stay with my daughter while I was at the birth.

I arrived at the birth center a little before 9:00am. Mama B was in the tub laboring pretty hard at that point (I smiled to myself as I remembered laboring in that exact same tub once upon a time). The room was dim and unfortunately, we could not open any blinds or curtains since Baby J was making his way into the world during business hours. This proved to be very tricky for me since I had such minimal light to work with and no off-camera lighting to help. But, I made do with what I had.

Baby J made his mom work very hard to get him Earth-side. She was a warrior. After laboring in the tub for a while, she transferred to the birth ball, then the bed, then did some very hard work on a chair with her husband and doula helping her. At one point, it was very obvious that this baby was! coming! My heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my ears, and my hands were shaking just enough that I had to consciously remind myself not to drop the camera. Baby J started coming out with his hand near his face, so Rachel (the midwife) helped him slowly re-position to be comfortably born. Mom moved to her hands and knees and before I knew it, there was a baby in the room! The midwives gave him a little suction to help him get going before passing him to his parents. Watching them hold him and listening to them speak to him for the very first time was amazing. I had tears in my eyes as I captured those moments.

I was able to get so many wonderful images of Baby J’s birth, but wanted to share just a handful of my favorites here.

Thank you to this lovely family and to the midwives at New Beginnings Birth Center for allowing me to be a part of such a sacred occasion. You know I love you all.