Birth photography

With Littles
Between my husband, our doula, and me, and our little point and shoot camera, we managed to capture some lovely images, like this one (after getting out of the shower on the morning of Littles' birth -- the big purple glove was to keep my hep lock dry):

Or my infamous "birds nest hair" picture, taken shortly after she came out:

Or this shot of my husband's first moments alone with our new baby, which I had to capture as best as possible from my bed across the room (no way was I getting up to take pictures):

Of course, I treasure these pictures because they take me back to that amazing day. But still, there were a lot of moments that were missed, simply because my husband and doula were (understandably!) more focused on caring for me than on capturing those moments.

With Noob
I believe I first learned about the concept of birth photography early in my pregnancy with Noob. It sounded like a great idea, but I dragged my feet on actually booking a photographer. At my 37-week checkup, I saw a flyer from a local birth photographer. It reminded me that if I wanted to do it, I really needed to get on it :)

I talked to my husband about it first. He was dead-set against it. It was a lot of money, and I don't think he really liked the idea of having someone there snapping away with her camera during that very intimate time.

But I really, really wanted it, and eventually managed to convince him to not throw the photographer out when she showed up during labor :) My next hurdle was finding a photographer with availability. Really, any professional photographer can take great pictures, but there are a couple of photographers in my area who specialize in birth photography. Like I said, it is a very intimate and special time. I really wanted someone who understood and respected that.

I really lucked out when I contacted Elizabeth at Earth Mama Photography. She has tons of experience in birth photography and is usually booked up months in advance -- in fact, when I contacted her in January, she was already fully booked for July! But she had a couple of late January and early February moms who went early, so she happened to have a hole in her calendar for me.

On Noob's birth day, Elizabeth arrived and left with my midwife. In between, she captured some absolutely amazing pictures. She also blended right in with the rest of my support team. She has kids of her own and used to be a doula as well, so she's been at a lot of births, and she just knows what needs to be done. It is hard to put into words. I imagine it could be awkward, having someone shove a camera in your face during a contraction, or in your vagina when you're trying to push a baby out :) With Elizabeth, it wasn't awkward at all.

She certainly won my husband over. Not only did he not throw her out, but in the weeks following the birth, he kept asking when the final set of pictures would be ready :)

These are some of my favorites.

With Q
It wasn't even a question. Early in my pregnancy, I announced to my husband that I was hiring Elizabeth again. He poked me a bit about having "expensive tastes." I reminded him of how much money he's spent on his woodworking tools. That was that :)

Elizabeth ended up missing the birth itself (no fault of her own, totally mine for not giving her enough of a heads' up), but she showed up literally seconds afterwards and captured some incredible images. Well worth it.