Birth Center Photographer

Birth Center Photographer… I tried!

I reached out to a birthing center several months back about shooting several births for them. They were so kind and absolutely willing to help me out. They helped pick out the most deserving, sweetest families and I didn’t have to do much of anything.

Summer called me to let me know that she received my number for the birthing center and was interested in being my guinea pig. I was over the moon that someone was actually willing to let me be in the room during the most important time of their life! At the time, she told me she was 36 weeks pregnant. My son was born at 37 weeks, so I knew that a birth could literally happen any time. Because of this, I stopped taking my sleep aids in fear of missing the call.

38 Weeks

At 38 weeks, I still hadn’t heard from Summer. No biggie- it still wasn’t time. A week later at 39 weeks, I was getting a little nervous because I knew I was walking into an unknown territory of birth photography. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing! I would practice using my flash in dark rooms, practiced changing my camera settings on the fly, and tried to learn how to be a fly on the wall (that’s what a birth center photographer does, right?)

40 Weeks

40 weeks came and went. Ugh. By this time I was quite literally dying from anticipation. Imagine how Summer felt!

41 Weeks

41 weeks. Still no baby. Forty-one weeks and still no solid night of sleep for a terrible insomniac. I had to text Summer and tell her that I was desperate for the baby to be born because I was heading to Tennessee within a couple of days. I would have been devastated to miss this birth!

Finally…it’s time!

On Monday, March 21st, almost two weeks late, I got a text message from Summer’s husband saying that contractions have started and today was the day! Woohoo! I told him I would jump in the shower, gather my gear, and wait for him to tell me when to head to the birthing center. I ate a giant breakfast because I didn’t know what the day was going to look like. Packed snacks, waters, pop- I was freaking ready.

I sat on my couch eagerly waiting for him to call. Finally- a text message!

“She had her in the car.”

Um excuse me, what? This is definitely a typo. Surely he meant to say, “We are headed there in the car.” I stood there blinking at my phone in disbelief. Shocked and utter disbelief. I missed it. I missed the birth that I had been waiting almost six weeks for.

After getting over the immediate shock, my feelings quickly turned into something like, “oh hell yeah! What a badass birth story is that?!” I quickly congratulated the new family. What a wild ride!

Little Atlas was born in the family Volvo at mile marker 230 just a few minutes away from the birthing center.

I told Summer that I wasn’t sure how to proceed. Do I meet them on the side of the road? Should I still meet them at the birthing center? I decided to let them figure out what to do and to just holler at me when they’re ready to talk.

I told them that there’s no way in hell that I wasn’t NOT going to meet them after waiting for this for so long. When I got back from Tennessee, we agreed I would do a newborn session for them at their home. So…here’s Atlas!

Birth Center Photographer (sorta…haha)

The best part of this entire session was that we took some photos of all three of them in their Volvo…the birthing center. The most perfect birthing center for a perfect family.