Sonny

Effie was sitting behind a large table the first time I met her.  She was softly spoken, and her pregnant belly was poking out of her tiny body. I immediately liked her as her laughter lit up the room.
We discussed all things birth and pregnancy and I couldn’t wait to experience my first homebirth with her.
Weeks later, I received notification that Effie was in early labour and as soon as I got the heads up that she had progressed, I whisked my kids off to the sitter and drove towards her home the next morning. 

I kept texting back and forth with her hubby Simon and my last message to him was something like “20 mins” away. The feeling of knowing I’m about to see a baby born is a huge rush of adrenalin combined with a little bit of uncertainty as to what’s to come. Is Mum going to be ok? Is the baby going to be ok? Hopefully there won’t be any interference needed etc…

And then I got the text: HE HAS ARRIVED. As you can imagine, the arrival of the baby before my arrival is every birth photographer’s biggest nightmare. I was about 12mins from the house and arrived simultaneously with one of Effie’s midwives Andrea. The midwife was very relaxed about the whole thing and walked in with the words: “Nice and easy, that’s how we like it!” Effie progressed from 3-4min contractions into bang! Baby is here, all without one of her midwives and her photographer (me)!

I met glowing mumma in the bath that was set up in one of the rooms with placenta inside and a baby boy in her arms. My eyes started to well up with tears of happiness and the terrible feeling of “missing out” was gone.

Sonny was born in tiny bathroom in presence of Effie’s mum (who caught the baby!) and Simon … and yes as much as the plan was to have a water birth, Sonny chose his preferred part of the house and that’s what birth is all about… unpredictability and spontaneity!

I loved everything about sharing that precious time with Effie and Simon, son Jesse, parents and her midwives.

The home birth allowed her to be in her environment surrounded by all the love from her family. It was on her terms with minimal interference from the midwives. I personally haven’t experienced anything like this before, even having had my three children. It has changed my perspective of home birth and part of my journey as a birth photographer is to show the beauty of all births, empower women to birth on their own terms, and try to remove the fear out of it.