Even before your baby is born, you can't help but worry.

I think it's part of the mom code or something.

You worry about whether your baby is healthy or your bump is too big or too small.

You worry about what kind of mother you'll be and what kind of personality your little one will have.

You worry about the birth.

What if something happens?

Women having been having babies forever, but everyone has at least one friend with some terrifying birth story (unfortunately, I think I'm sometimes that friend for some people).

What would a birth photographer do in those cases? Would you even want a birth photographer there?

These are all legitimate concerns. Birth is incredible and miraculous and in a lot of cases, completely normal.

But birth is also unpredictable and sometimes unexpected events can happen, even for the most prepared mother.

In those times, moms often feel a wide range of emotions.

Fear.
Vulnerability.
Lack of control.

I speak from experience here (remember how I said I'm often that​ friend?). If you've never read the birth story of my first born (lovingly called Bug), you can find it here.

I felt so out of control... like my body had failed me and my baby.

I remember laying on the OR table thinking, "How did I get here?"

It wasn't until a day or two later that I saw my own strength through the eyes of my own mom. She had been with me throughout the entire process and even in the OR when my daughter was born.

She made a post on Facebook talking about how brave I was and how I was the calmest one in the OR. She praised how I set aside all of the hopes I had for my birth and laid myself out on that table for the sake of my baby girl.

I won't say I magically felt better about everything after that because it's just not true.

But it was a start.

I needed to get out of my own head and see my birth from an outsider's perspective.

I needed to see my birth from another angle.

That's what birth photography does. It shows you the depth of your own strength.

You can see the look of determination on your own face as you work to bring your baby into the world.

You get to see the joy in your eyes when you meet your baby for the first time.

You can see the love and support of the people who surrounded you that day.

Even more important, birth photography can give you moments that you may have missed.

That's actually one of the biggest reasons I decided to become a birth photographer.

After my daughter was born, my husband went to the nursery with her and I was left behind in the OR.

He held our daughter - the first baby he had ever held in his life - in the nursery, and I missed it.

It's a moment I'll never get back. It's the reason why my favorite pictures during my clients' births are usually dad meeting or holding baby for the first time. I feel like I get the chance to give other moms something that I wasn't able to have.

Birth photography can be healing and empowering. My goal as a birth photographer is to show you the beauty in your baby's birth day - no matter what else happens.

I get a wide variety of reactions when I tell people I'm a birth photographer. I hear everything from "Ew... isn't that weird?" to "That's AMAZING! I wish I had photos of the day my baby was born!"

Our society has always painted birth as something gross and unpleasant - a necessary evil in order to keep the population going.

However, in recent years, the view of birth has started shifting. People are realizing that their baby's birth day is one of the most important days of their life and one that they're going to want to remember!

​For other major events, like a wedding, everyone plans and invests in professionals to make sure their memories are preserved for them. 

But, for some reason, when it comes to the births of our children, we just wing it and hope someone with an iPhone will remember to take a couple of pictures.

Think about this for a minute: this is the day that you're going to meet the little human that has been growing inside your body for 9 months. This is the story of the day a totally new person came into the world. You have planned and waited for this person - wouldn't you love to have photos of this life-changing day?

I get it, though. Really, I do.

Birth photography can be expensive. It's certainly not an amount of money that I spend without lots of thought and planning and budgeting - but I ABSOLUTELY think it's worth it!

Birth photography is not your standard portrait genre. There's a lot more included in the price than most people realize.

Just imagine this scenario:

Think about the photographer you hired to photograph your wedding.

Now imagine you call them and tell them you are planning a wedding, but you don't have a specific date. It will be happening sometime within a span of 3-4 weeks, and you probably won't notify them until it actually begins.  It could potentially be at 3 AM with little to no available light. Again, no way to know.

Also, you're not sure how long the wedding will last. You might only need the photographer for 3 hours, but they might need to be there for 23 hours. You'll just have to wait and see how it goes.

Now, what do you think your wedding photographer would say to you? I'm guessing they'd think it was a joke and hang up on you! But if you think about it, this is what a birth photographer does!

So what's included in a birth photography package? I'm glad you asked!

This is what all of my birth clients get from me:
​
-Consultation during the third trimester to get to know each other and your expectations before the birth of your baby.

-On-call 24/7 for your birth starting at 38 weeks until the birth of your baby (and yes, that means I'll jump out of bed at 3 AM for you if that's when your baby comes!)

-Unlimited time present at your birth. I don't have a cut-off time for how long I'm willing to be at a birth. If you have a long labor/birth (Mama, I can so relate!), you don't have to worry that you're running out of time or that I'm adding a fee or anything like that.

-A slideshow and a gallery of your images, so you will get to see all of the moments - even the ones you weren't aware even happened!

-A backup photographer in case of emergency. I only take a limited number of births per month to make sure I'm available to my birth clients whenever the big day comes. However, I like to partner with other local photographers in case of emergency, so you'll have someone there for you, no matter what!

I really do love my job and I feel so fortunate every time a family allows me to be a part of the birth of their new baby.

Over the next several weeks, I'll be posting blogs answering some of the most common questions I get about birth photography. If you have any questions you'd like answered, leave them in the comments!

Think you might already be interested in birth photography and just want to know more now? Fill out the contact form at the bottom of this page and I'll email you more information. We can even set up a totally free consultation, so you can get to know me and we can talk and answer any questions you might have.

Are you located in the Lowcountry and currently expecting?

Is your due date in either May or June 2018?

Are you interested in having the birth of your new baby artfully photographed to capture the story of this very important day?

If you answered yes to the questions above, I have an amazing, limited-time offer for you! I am in the process of creating some new promotional material, and I'm looking for 2 or 3 Charleston-area moms who would be willing to sign a model release in exchange for a 50% discount on ANY of my birth photography packages.

It does not matter what type of delivery you are planning: hospital birth, planned csection, home birth, birth center, etc. I think birth is beautiful in all of its forms, and want to represent all moms in my work.

I will not offer a discount like this again in the future, so now is your chance! Keep in mind, I'm only choosing a limited number of moms, so contact me now to make sure you don't miss out on this opportunity!

To apply, click here to go to my Contact form. Please enter your name, email, due date, and where you plan to deliver. I will then email you more information about my packages and planning your consultation.

If you have any questions, you can also email me at [email protected]