03/02/2024
“ ✨ I arrived with only minutes to go. Upon walking in, camera in hand, the midwife got down on her level, and looked at her gently.
“Mama, I know you’ve waited for the photographer. But she’s here now. You can push if you want to.”
My mind raced, “How did she hold 2 babies in there...” but alas, laboring people are resilient. We do what we have to do to get the outcome that we want.
I glanced at her above my viewfinder. It was dark. The room was quiet.
“I don’t want to.” She spoke.
“I don’t want to be in labor.”
A room of 8 of us. All women. Holding space around her. A feeling so real, so true, that there was nothing to say. Just to nod in agreement. To nod in respect.
After reassurance that she did not have to push until she was absolutely ready, a contraction came, and with it she pushed.
In the water was her son.
She looked up at us all after catching her breath.
“What just happened?!”
I stared back, “You tell me.””