birth :: jameson charles

when karissa came and sat in my living room with me and began talking about the miracle of pregnancy she found herself in, and how she was so bowled over by it and feeling all the feelings so deeply, and then began sharing bits of her personal history and describing herself with such self-awareness and depth... well, i just "got" her. this woman is a woman of great soul, and she doesn't hide. 

at the time we met she was just about to "break up" with her OB, since she'd been feeling, as she puts it, as though she was "getting an oil change, not having my first baby." instead, she decided to follow her gut and search out a midwife. she chose a great CNM who delivered at the hospital. but as she read more birth stories (including my own), and looked inward further, she realized there was no reason she shouldn't/couldn't have her baby at home. so she interviewed home birth midwives, and ultimately settled on Leslie and Kim at Midwifery Matters, which is a practice of CNMs who do home birth deliveries. she also chose a wonderful doula, Brenda, of Over The Moon.

she gathered a birth team made up only of women who believed that she could do it, and with whom she felt safe, because she knew she would need that circle of love and power to do the work of bringing her little son earth-side. from there, i watched karissa go on to have the most proactive, empowering, prepared, and lovingly present pregnancy and birth preparation you can imagine. 

her birth space was sacred and serene, even with all the growling and vocalizing ;). and after it was all over, as she lay nursing her son in bed with her rock of a husband and her big sister beside her, she said with grateful disbelief, "i never thought i would do this." ah, doesn't life have a way of turning out to be totally other than and also better than we hoped or imagined? i love that.

birth :: amelia mae

rebecca and eric: hilarious, playful, uber-talented, classy people who also love one another deeply and evidently. also, this is how they announced their pregnancy:

We have a very special announcement... along with some celebratory dancing. A Slow Motion Pregnancy Announcement. I do not claim to own rights to this song, all rights belong to the original artist. Long live Salt N Pepa.

though she had booked me well before they went public with their pregnancy announcement, after i saw this, my excitement increased about ten-fold. because only awesome people do things like this, am i right?!

arriving to their hospital room in the middle of an august night, i found a fantastic iron and wine playlist going, their doula standing by with quiet support, and rebecca looking gorgeous in her floral birth gown, headband (which eric kept tenderly re-arranging on her head when it got askew), and glitter-gold polish and finger and toenails. i settled in to listen to them read through some beautiful well-wishes friends and family had written for their baby girl, and enjoyed the fast-passing hours chatting and growing in excitement to see the little face of their daughter, who would soon emerge. 

just before dawn, she was fully dilated. the pushing stage went so well because becca was SUCH a rock star with it. her epidural was kept just low enough that she was still very much feeling the contractions, sensing what her body was doing, and working with it very effectively. their amazing nurse stayed past the end of her shift to see amelia's entrance, and we all got a bit teary when she came out, squalling healthfully as the sun was rising. this amazing little one weighed in at 9lbs 7oz! 

enjoy these photos. they've captivated my heart as i was working on them. 

birth photography :: mekhi elias

stacy has had babies in all the ways. her firstborn a hospital birth with epidural, the second a natural -- and very fast -- hospital birth (and he was born in the caul!). and this time she wanted to do it at home. she knew based on her previous birth that it would be quick and probably straight forward, making her a great candidate for it. she and her husband Nate chose Leslie of Midwifery Matters to attend her, and invited her bestie and co-doula, Kathy, at Serenity Holistic Health and Wellness and her sister to be present as well.

she was more than a week "overdue" before labor kicked in. when it finally DID, she knew there were three factors that influenced the timing. It's truly amazing how the MIND can impact what that body does when it comes to having babies.  first of all, stacy and nate had poured so much love and energy into their home in the past year, redoing almost all of it from floor to ceiling. but there was ONE project that still needed doing before stacy could go into labor: the cabinet doors -- which had been removed and refinished -- needed to be re-hung.  secondly, Serenity was hosting a huge breastfeeding awareness event that Saturday and stacy was in charge of lots of the organization for it. thirdly, a full moon. so on August 1st -- just a few hours after the cabinet project was finished, and in the early morning hours of the big breastfeeding event day, and the night after the full moon -- she began labor. she tried to deny it, but by dawn it was undeniable. 

when i arrived at their home in the dim morning hours, stacy was pacing around the house preparing her birth space and also multi-tasking the coordination of event details. she stood at the bar in the kitchen, sending texts and talking on the phone, making sure everything was covered because she wouldn't be making it to the event that day. it was hard to believe she was in labor, except that she occasionally paused to focus and breathe. 

as soon as the to-do list was all crossed off and her sister and bestie-doula came through the front door, things got serious. and they got serious FAST. within 15 minutes (?) -- following nate's prayers, and through just a couple pushes in the birth tub -- their baby boy came rocketing out into the world, caught by stacy herself. and i think everyone got a little teary. 

because here is mekhi. and he is perfect.

birth photography :: roman jacob

what is astonishing about birth is that it works at all; that a 6 to 10 lb baby can find it's way out. and so there are times when it seems NOT to work, and when interventions become necessary. that was the case with nicky's first birth, which ended in an emergency cesarean. coming to terms with that outcome was difficult, as it is for many women. though she has since made peace with it, there was a part of her heart that still really wanted a home birth. she comes from a home-birthing family, and that was a really normal idea to her. her husband jake was the one who encouraged her to give it a try with their second baby. he believed that they could do the thing that it seemed couldn't be done the first time around: that this baby could be born vaginally AND at home. 

their seeking led them to Yolanda, the city's longest practicing midwife with thousands of births under her belt, and many of them HBACs (home birth after cesarean). her experience and encouragement bolstered their confidence, and they made plans to have this baby at home. 

over their entire home while nicky labored was a thick peace, that kind of peace that exists when the Holy Spirit's presence is near, and when a laboring woman is surrounded by a birth team that believes she can do the impossible. jake, me, yolanda, and nicky's mom and sister were all with her as she labored, while her dad and son were playing downstairs. it was a textbook labor, but not an easy one. she had a long-ish pushing stage (which she had never had to do before) to move that baby down and through, but she never complained or whimpered, just pressed on, steady and sure. fearless. 

jake was a rock -- supporting her emotionally and physically with such natural ease that i feel he could possibly be one of the world's few male midwives.

when at last baby's head was crowning -- which meant birth was for sure going to happen in the way and place she dreamed of -- she reached down to feel his fuzzy head and gasped with joyful disbelief at how close he was to being in her arms. after delivering the shoulders, yolanda invited nicky to reach down and grab her own baby, which she did! 

this was a moment of true triumph and redemption. absolutely beautiful to witness. and the baby at the end... well, he's pure sugar. ;)

so enjoy these photos! know that there are many left out due to nudity, but i think what remains here is still sufficient to tell the story quite well. and there are still lots of them (130 or so... i need to get better at culling things down maybe). grab a cuppa and a box of tissues... 

Thanks for riding along on these birth story adventures. I hope that the more we can see birth working well, and mamas surrounded by loving support, the less afraid we can be of it. It's powerful, miraculous, and mysterious, but it is not something to fear. 

contact me if you have a fearless birth story you're about to write, and which i can help you document. i'm taking 2 births per month at most, so don't delay. 

birth :: emmaus sol (an adoption story)

i was supposed to be on maternity leave. but when maleny contacted me about photographing her birth story, i couldn't say no. i just couldn't. because maleny is one of the generous and selfless women who chose life for her child, and then bravely chose to share that child's life with a family whose arms had long been empty, waiting and longing to be filled. in other words, this birth would be an adoption story. 

maleny wrote out her story for me, the story that begins with finding out she was pregnant with emmaus. though it's too long to share here in its entirety, i'll insert a few excerpts in what follows.

“On October 27, 2014 i found out i was pregnant. i knew then that i would not be able to provide and adequate life for this human developing inside of me. my conviction to give birth was solid, but parenting was not. despite my episodes of fear, confusion, and rage, i knew that baby was and is worthy of experiencing life. life of beauty, wonder, amazement, hurt, surprises, questions, answers and most importantly: love.”

after a long journey filled with disappointments and false starts, maleny was connected with the couple who would end up being emmaus' family. megan and luis are the couple maleny chose to raise her baby. maleny describes them:

“As i got to know Megan and Luis, I adored them... Megan is the kind of person who isn’t afraid to speak her mind, but feels the mood to approach things in an appropriate manner. she’s unique, intelligent, creative, and encouraging... Luis is an introvert, quiet, gentle, thoughtful, and entirely stoic. He processes subjects critically and is very conscientious on how to frame his ideas.... They balance one another. I like them very much.”

In the months leaded up to maleny's estimated due date, the three of them worked hard to build a trusting, open relationship, and then to develop a birth plan. they chose a natural birth at a birth center with a team of midwives, as well as a doula. they also worked together to come up with a boy name and a girl name, but decided to leave the gender a surprise. 

i can't begin to express how in awe i was of maleny as she labored for this boy. she chose the absolute best start for him through a series of loving and informed decisions: like a birth that would not include drugs and interventions, and the careful selection of a birth team that would surround her and the baby in trusting support and love. my eyes filled with tears at this demonstration of love, which was so evident every step of the way, through all the pushing, then the moment he was laid on her chest, and into the moment she released him into megan's arms, then as she smilingly watched him be measured and weighed and fed his first "meal" of donated breastmilk. 

while Maleny labored and delivered, Megan and Luis were waiting just downstairs for the moment when someone would call down for them to come up and meet their baby. the moment they came into the room and laid eyes on their son is an incredible one to see (check out their facial expressions in the photos!) they were effervescent with joy as they held him, grateful disbelief spreading over their faces.

after emmaus arrived, was measured, weighed, diapered and fed, megan asked if we could take a few shots of him in a special blanket. this blanket (in which you'll see emmaus wrapped in the final photo in the slideshow below), was knit square by square through tears and prayers over the last four years, as megan and luis waited in hope and fought off despair, until at last there were enough squares to be put together into a baby blanket. a baby blanket that is finally full with a baby. a handsome, dark-haired, and perfectly formed 8 lb son.

and now i'll stop my effusive writing about this birth and let the photos do the talking. 

[note: just one more thing: several of these photos include nudity that couldn't be cropped out as i was actually shooting. though the family wants and treasures those images, in the slideshow below i have opted to use simple opaque shapes to preserve modesty because it was either that or omit some images that are pretty important to the storyline. i hope this choice won't too badly distract from the emotion and flow of the story.]

Here's a huge shout-out to the incredible team that made this birth as supported and empowering and loving as it could possibly have been.

Midwife: Sara Badger

Student Midwives: Becky Burkett and Kelsey Ingvartsen

Doula: Erica Guthaus

Birth Center: Cedar Tree Birth and Wellness

on mother's day

In this work I do, I get to see and photograph a LOT of mamas. Mamas at the moment they become mamas, as they pull their babies up to their chests and cry happy tears over them. Mamas who are welcoming their 2nd (or 3rd or 6th) baby into their families, and thereby growing their mothering heart exponentially...again. Mothers nourishing their babes at their breasts, then nourishing their children at their kitchen table with lovingly prepared meals. Mothers comforting, holding, kissing, singing, scolding, teaching, tickling, correcting, carrying, playing, and laughing. Mothers at home in their own spaces that they've created to be soft landing places for their families. 

I SEE you, mothers. I see you because I am one of you. And when I come photograph you, I do it because I want to show you -- through my limited by loving and artistic perspective -- that you are a million good things: you are faithful, steady, sacrificial, blessed, of value, loved and loving. From the moment you get a positive pregnancy test and through every moment that follows.

So Mother's Day this year meant a lot to me as a photographer this year, just as it meant a lot to me personally as a mother who recently birthed her third baby. 

I put together a couple collages to celebrate. Since I didn't have unlimited time, I just made them to wish a happy FIRST mother's day to those mamas I've photographed this past year who just became moms for the first time. But if i'd had more time, there would have been collages of all the Milk Time mamas with their little ones, and all the mamas of 2+ kids in their family photojournalism sessions, and the mamas whose births were for their 2nd+ child. 

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If you haven't already, please consider letting me -- or another gifted photographer you admire! -- come by with my camera to "see" you in this way. You will never regret it, not ever. I love the movement going on to #getmominthesquare and similar. I want to get you - the mama, who is usually behind the camera -- into the visual history of your family in an authentic way. So get in touch. 

I'm also going to be launching a new "deal" toward that end soon. Stay tuned.

To end, here are a few photo collages I made to celebrate my own motherhood this mother's day. These three bring so much goodness. My cup runs over. 

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Happy Mother's Day... every day!

Love, 

Brooke