Margot Birth | GRAPHIC IMAGES

This isn’t the first birth I’ve photographed and I doubt it will be the last but each one feels like it’s own experience so much so that I know I’ll never photograph another one just like it. I photographed Emily’s first birth with her daughter Louisa and when she asked me to be there for Margot’s birth (pronounced mar-go) I knew I couldn’t say no. So we planned our summer travels around her birth window and waited for the call.

Her husband Matt called me around 11:50am on Monday July 1, my first real day off all summer. I rushed over, didn’t stop to pee or brush my teeth, I made that mistake once when I first started doing birth photography. A lesson I’m glad I learned because when I got there before the midwife (who lives 15 minutes further away), Emily was already feeling the urge to push. I realized she was holding in the urge until her midwife could arrive, but dang she escalated quickly. Margot was born within 30 minutes of the phone call from her daddy and actually closer to 15. Emily is a nurse in Nurse Practitioner school and as a home birthing mama of two myself, I was confident we could have handled the unassisted birth if necessary. Thankfully, their midwife showed up quickly and barely had time to check for heart tones before Margot made her escape. Happy and Healthy she was born at 12:06pm and these are the images I captured of her birth.