I am so excited to share the images from this birth I had to privilege to photograph for Evie and James. But first, Let me share a little bit about my passion for birth photography.
My first daughter was born at 4:30am. I had been contracting nearly every 10 minutes for about 5 days prior to going into actual “labor”. By the time she got here, I was exhausted. We have some pictures from the day she was born, but not many and they are not great. My memories of her birthday have faded a bit. And honestly, I didn’t even witness her first bath because I could barely leave my eyes open after she was born so I just let them take her to the nursery. If only I had a professional there to document my little girl’s birthday. The day I became a mother. One of the best days of my life. Those images are ones that I can never get back, though I wish I could. It was a once in a lifetime event.
Since then, birth photography has become a passion of mine. You document your wedding day. Is your baby’s birthday less important? For me, the answer is no. I think there is a perception that if you are photographing a birth, you must be photographing the baby crowning. Wrong. That is completely up to the mother. Most mothers want the expressions of the day documented. The challenge and the reward and the wonder of the day. Our bodies are miraculously capable of bringing tiny humans into this world. How incredible is that? I still look at my two girls in awe. My husband and I created them. And I carried them and brought them into this world. And they are perfect…down to the creases on their ears. The birth of a baby is an occasion worth documenting. So when Evie asked me to be apart of such a special day, I could not have been more excited and more honored.
Baby Bentley came into this world fast! Evie’s water broke at 1:30am and she called me at 3:30am. I groggily answered the phone and asked her to update me once she got to the hospital. I hopped out of bed to get ready and gather my things. Still having not heard anything after getting ready to go, I texted her “Should I come down? What’s your gut feeling?” I wanted to get there when she was around 6cm dilated. I waited a couple more minutes and heard nothing, so I trusted my gut and left. The hospital is about 25 minutes from my house and this was Evie’s second baby so I expected that she would be here faster than a first labor.
I walked in the hospital room at around 4:30am and it was apparent that things were moving quickly. James didn’t even have time to move their car out of the loading zone, so I ran downstairs to move it for him. I got back up to the room and Evie delivered Bentley into this world about 5 minutes later in the tub. I had considered stopping by McDonald’s for some Sweet Tea before going to the hospital and I am so glad that I didn’t. I could have missed her birth! The midwife missed it as she was in a delivery next door and who knew that Evie would only have a 3 hour and 15 minute labor! Short but intense. But the reward was great. Their little girl is precious. And her birthday was appropriately documented to be remembered forever.
