Featured image credit: One Tree Photography
Not that long ago women birthed alone, only doctors and nurses trained to see such horrors were allowed to be with expectant moms. Men were in the waiting room, hands full of cigars, anxiously awaiting the doctor to come out and announce if they had a new daughter or son. He dared not see his wife in any state other than dolled up making his dinner. Friends and family waited at home for carrier pigeon to show up with the news.
That started changing and now an average of eight people are present with mom during labour. And let’s face it, how much of our life do we really keep private from our Facebook friends anymore? Our friends stalk Facebook almost hourly at times waiting for the news of our babies being born. While most still just show the after shots, almost a quarter of moms share birth photos online.
Birth photography is also becoming increasingly popular. While some feel that’s going too far, others feel it’s just as important of a moment as your wedding so why not photograph it the same? Many photographers make their entire living silently disappearing into a corner and masterfully capturing the most intense moments of labour and turning the grossest moments of birth (because let’s be honest, as much of a miracle as it is, no matter how you give birth some of it is just plain gross) into beautiful black and whites worthy of a museum – or maybe we’ll keep those ones in our homes.
If an audience and photographer aren’t public enough for you, and you really want to go big or go home, video tape your birth and put it up on Youtube with thousands of other moms’ videos. You wouldn’t even be the first if you considered putting up a live public feed of their labour and birth on the internet.
I did have a photographer for one of mine and shared the photos with my very birth worker heavy facebook friend list. I didn’t go as far as to live feed for them but, if I’m completely honest, it was due to my husband not wanting that. I was set to Skype them all in.
