A Celebration of Life: 17 Birth Photos that Showcase the Strength of Mothers

These will tug at your heart strings.

OK I know this might sound completely weird and possibly slightly creepy, but I am fascinated by 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 photography. Hear me out. We live in a world of manufactured emotion. We take dozens of selfies until we get our smile just right. We angle our bodies to look thinner. We drive out to the middle of nowhere to take pictures walking through fields that no normal person would otherwise walk through. We work so hard to portray emotions we want others to see and associate with us online.

But you rarely see that in 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 photography. It’s not posed. It truly achieves one of the purposes of photography – to capture reality in a freezeframe. These photos just happen to capture that reality during one of life’s most sacred events: 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡.

Each photo is meaningful and displays so many different emotions. Anticipation, relief, pain, love, wonder, excitement, joy, determination – it’s all there. Check these out, and you’ll see what I mean:

1. We’ll start with labor pains

You should see people’s faces when I tell them I’m a 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 photographer and they have never heard of such a thing. So let me break down exactly what I do and what I capture.

I tell stories. I come into one of the most sacred places a woman ever enters and capture her journey. This looks like her most vulnerable moments when she questions her strength and endurance. This looks like her waiting in serene silence waiting on the next contraction with her eyes closed. This looks like her husband by her side encouraging and supporting her in every way he can. This looks like the first time she lays her eyes on the 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦 that has been growing in her womb for months. It looks like the relief, the joy, and triumphant waves of emotions that come afterward.

Birth photography is so much more than just capturing the actual moment of 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡, which is also remarkable. It is documenting the transformative experience a woman and family go through to bring forth new life.

Birth is raw and intrinsically beautiful at the same time. I get to document these experiences. I am a 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 photographer, and I LOVE my job.

2. You can cut the tension with a knife

3. In between contractions: The calm before the storm

4. Her face says it all

5. Her face says even more

Today when I gently placed a fresh 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦, still attatched to its pulsating cord onto mama’s chest, the dad looked at his beautiful wife and said “Never in my life did I imagine someone to be so powerful as you were today”.

6. Pure joy (and relief)

7. One happy mama

8. And one happy daddy to even things out

9. New parents

10. The one time she’ll be glad to hear a screaming 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦

11. You can tell it has been a rough journey for this mom

12. What a beautiful moment

Birth photography say what!? Many people wonder why I choose to shoot 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡s and I think it is because they have the misconception that 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 photography is all vaginas and goo.But 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 is so much more than that!.

I love 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 photography because of the connections, genuine emotions, the growth of families and I love to show women how amazing and strong they are! No matter how you 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 (I am a 2 time cesarean Mom myself) you are giving so much of yourself for another life and it is incredible to capture!.

There aren’t many professions that allow you to witness the miracle of life and it truly is amazing!.

Did you have your 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 photographed?.

13. Future mamas watching