When I was pregnant with my first baby, I watched some birth photography slideshows from photographers in Texas (where birth photography as a niche first really took off) that brought me to tears. These birth stories of complete strangers changed me, gave me a window into my own strength and made me look forward to giving birth. I knew then how important it would be to me to have my own birth documented.
Unfortunately, back in 2011 there weren’t any birth photographers in the DC area. Thankfully a good friend who was a wedding photographer offered to photograph my birth. That first birth of mine turned out to be so different than I expected it to be – and it was those photos that helped me in the weeks and months following to be able to emotionally process my experience, recognize my strength, and feel proud. Those photographs changed the narrative of my birth story from “traumatic” to “empowering.”
This is the power of being seen and witnessed in our hardest moments.
It was because of that experience that I took my photography “hobby” and turned it into “The DC Birth Photographer” in 2012. The medium was photography, but the goal was and is for the person giving birth to be able to integrate, understand, and emotionally process the experience….to stay whole. I truly believe that if documenting births was a more common practice, that postpartum mood disorder rates would go down. Birth is such a massive, transformative event – and there is almost nothing in our current approach to birth that allows for that experience to be fully understood, appreciated, celebrated, or even (when appropriate) mourned. Immediately after going through this life changing experience, we have to move on to caring for a newborn while exhausted, bleeding, and physically recovering ourselves. And as all parents know – it never lets up.
At the second birth I ever photographed, the midwife invited me to share my own labor experience with the laboring mom as she went through transition. I was a newbie photographer and not at all a trained doula, but I learned in that moment that the most powerful and relatable support we can offer is our own story and personal experience.
As the years went on and I documented more and more births – and gave birth two more times myself – this driving force behind my photography began to spill out in more ways. In the many births where my clients did not have a doula, I found myself offering informal doula support – suggesting positions, doing hip squeezes, explaining to bewildered clients what all the medical jargon meant that the nurse or OB had just thrown at them.
Occasionally, though, a dad or partner would look at me sort of sideways in these moments like, “Why are you talking? Aren’t you just the photographer?”
And it was in those moments that I realized – no, I am not “just” the photographer.
I am not there to “just” take photos or video, blending into the background like a piece of furniture. I am a part of your team – whether you also hire me as your doula or not, I am a fierce protector of your space. I see you and send encouragement your way at all times. I believe in your ability to birth your baby. If you hire me as your doula, I will come alongside you in creating your birth story, in guiding your partner to know how best to support you, in being both a witness and a support. I will be there in the days and weeks following your birth to debrief, to look at those photos and video together to understand and make sense of your experience.
My goal is not just for you to have beautiful images to remember the moment you met your baby. My goal is for you to stay whole through this entire journey.
