Why births make my heart beat a little faster….

Many of you know that I am a childbirth educator and that I teach a class focused on natural childbirth using The Bradley Method. Through my own pregnancy and birth I have fallen in love with the topic of birth and I love photographing births, here is why.

Sometimes I find myself reading and rereading books on the subject of birth. Whether they are birth stories, birth topics, such as immediate breastfeeding, VBACs etc, or information on making healthy choices they all intrigue me. The first thing that gets my motor going is the design of the female body and how she is made to carry and give birth to babies of all shapes and sizes. I have several friends and relatives who are some of the most petite women I know who have birth the biggest, most beautiful babies in upwards of 10 and 11 pounds. The next thing I find wondering around in my mind is the thought that women accomplish something inside themselves when they give birth to a child and even when horror strikes, and discouragements come their way, inside the women find it within themselves to love their child more than the pain they feel. I also bask in the sight of a teary couple who I can often find gazing within each other in the days following their birth. Yes, they  gaze at the child as well, but the look they give each other says a million words I cannot even think to write here. Why? Well it is it actually quite simple. The father has held the mother’s hand and been her strength when she was weak through the most difficult time in her life. A time when she and even others may have doubted her. The mother stared into the face of her biggest doubts and fears and looked beside her to her best friend and he told her she could go on, and she did. This is why birth makes my heart beat a little faster.

These pictures are from a birth I shot about a week and a half ago. The mother had so many obstacles in her way and yet she and her husband kept pressing on and doing the best thing for their baby. I am so proud of them!