03/28/2024
Earlier this month, I had the great honor of attending a free birth.
I got a call at 2 am saying she’d been laboring for about an hour and I should come (I live about 45 minutes away). So I got my camera bag, basket of birth homeopathics & herbs, and a bag full soup ingredients! I snuck out of my house and drove in the dark to Allie’s home.
As soon as I got there, I could hear Allie moaning and working through contractions upstairs in her bedroom. I set my bags down and brought the groceries into the kitchen before heading upstairs to see her. She was already saying “I can’t do this” so after offering some emotional support and a hand to hold (her husband was occupied with the other children) I was definitely trying to rush the soup that was to be her first postpartum meal & balance my time between getting that ready and being in the bedroom to photograph the birth 😅
Well, I did not get the emergence photos and Allie birthed her baby alone with her husband in true sovereignty.
I was in the kitchen chopping potatoes when I heard a baby cry! I grabbed my camera and walked in, trying to not rush or create any panic in these first precious moments.
I snapped some shots, observed Allie and baby, and then went back to try to rush the soup 🤣
This birth was one of those births that reminds you just how natural and normal and non-emergent or medical birth truly is. It’s actually quite boring at times, for anyone not the mom. There’s no need to be over analyzing or rushing or touching or anything really other than just *being* there in sisterhood and steadfastness. Cook, clean, hold hands, soft kind words when needed… that’s it! 🥰
I got the pleasure of returning to their home for some postpartum meals and a newborn / family photoshoot the following weekend, so that’s the photos you’re seeing above 🤍
Thank you Allie! And let’s everybody congratulate her on the very peaceful and calm free birth of her fourth baby 👇🏼