My first experience with birth
I still have yet to fully comprehend the impact of this experience for me. You know how when you experience something big and new, all you can do for the next few months is continue to recollect the events of that day? What happened and how everything turned out okay but the emotions and specific details have yet to fully emerge. I know as I’m writing this I may even be able to touch some of those things.
Originally I was planning on capturing this experience on 35mm film and digital but right when I entered the room I could tell that film would just not work with how much noise it could make, and how quickly things were moving with the birth. I also want to insert here that I was doing this shoot for a friend of mine as a benefit to us both. So I got in and quickly got into shooting mode. My friend was in the water and I had felt a sense of worry on my way there because of my emotional attachment to my friend but had a sense that she was in good hands so was able to focus on my reason for being there. The progression of events that followed are still choppy - in the water and pushing - at this point you can see the baby’s head crowning. Then out of the water and pushing/the midwife helping her get the baby out at this point. And then finally the baby is out and silence… Those first moments felt like everything slowed. All eyes on the midwife doing her thing and finally gasps of crying and air. I was so relieved. The tension of my eyes shifting from baby, to mom, to her husband - and wanting everyone to be safe and healthy and okay in that moment. And once it seemed like everyone was - this intense feeling of new possibilities. A new life and a whole new family, all the memories that would come that would change the rest of their lives forever.
As a photographer I often underestimate how much I care and how much I get to know someone when I take photos of them/their experience. It makes me feel like life is rich and being able to capture that in a photo… I hope I can do it - is the goal.
