Birth Photography
When your memory fades, as it inevitably will, your photos will remain.
Birth Photography
Birth is a ceremony. Let it be witnessed like one.
After my first baby was born, I tried so hard to remember every detail. This included the way the room felt, how the air smelled, the sound of my baby’s first cry; but nothing came back to me. Not a whiff. Not a feeling. It was as if my body and memory had erased every trace of the birth. The only proof it had happened at all? This beautiful baby in my arms. These three grainy mobile photos are all I had from my son’s birth.
SAVinG MEMORIES
How could I share that moment with him someday? How could I celebrate the raw, life-giving strength it took to bring him earthside? How could I tell him the story of how we met? In the chaos and intensity of birth, your body floods with hormones that help you cope…but they can also make your memories foggy. Entire hours vanish. Tiny moments blur. What you’re left with is a faint recollection of one of the most powerful experiences of your life.Â
That heartbreak became my mission.
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WHY BIRTH mATTERS
Birth isn’t a medical event. It’s a rite of passage. And like any sacred moment, it deserves to be witnessed and remembered. Birth photography allows you to relive the moments you were too deep in to notice: your quiet strength, your partner’s tears, the instant your baby was placed on your chest. These aren’t posed photos. They’re living, breathing proof of your power.
I believe that birth photography extends the high of a positive birth experience and helps heal a traumatic one.
No, my images won’t magically take away the pain of a traumatic birth. But with 50 time-stamped images it can help you process what happened in a chronological order better than your memories can.
When you are in labour we naturally (if left unhindered) go into what is called labour land. This is a place where all of your hormones are making a concoction potion; Oxytocin, testosterone, adrenaline, progesterone, endorphins….and heaps more to get you out of your logical brain. So you don’t have to think…you just do what feels good in that moment. This enables you to go deep inside of yourself and focus on your body and your baby. Making you less aware of the things that are going on around you. This is why we forget. We are biologically programmed to not remember. Not to protect us from the physical pain as mainstream society would say. But to help you birth your baby. This is the fight side of the fight or flight phenomenon.
WHY BIRTH mATTERS
After our baby is born, if things don’t go exactly to plan we have the ability to process exactly what has happened to us. Births, where we felt empowered, enables us to relive that feeling of being empowered. Hormonally, we are getting boosts of oxytocin over and over and over everytime we look at our images….meaning our high lasts longer.
Why do you want to relive this experience ESPECIALLY if it was traumatic? This seems like it would be a trick question. But it isn’t. It is because after we experience our power being taken away, the only power that we have left is the power over our emotions. When our bodily autonomy isn’t respected our emotional autonomy is OURS. Forever and ever amen. Once you have your images, with the time they were taken and an unbiased documentation of your birth story, it is then that you are able to look at them and decide how you want to feel and own that in whatever capacity you want to. It’s a way to take your power back, if not with your body, with your emotions. That in itself is incredibly empowering.
Birth Photography Investment
Melbourne Birth Photography sessions start at $1,500
With most clients investing an average of $4,500 for custom-tailored packages that include extended coverage, albums, and additional services.
Every package includes:
A professionally edited digital gallery of high-resolution images (See more)
A private online gallery to download, share, and cherish (See more)
10 Image Birth Story
If you select a 10 image birth story, you’ll receive a beautiful leather envelope with 10 print. These prints are archival fine art. These will last for lifetimes when stored and kept correctly.
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50 Time Stamped Images
Prefer to have your images printed with time stamps to put it all together? You’ll recieve an archival box with 50 archival fine art prints (photographers choice). Each print will have the timestamp of when the image was taken, helping you further piece things together.Â
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Experienced & Present
After 10 + years of photographing birth, my workflows are perfected.
I accept clients up to 1 hour from the Point Cook area in any direction. Anything further than that and I run the risk of missing your birth in transit. (It happens, albeit not frequently.)
I like to work on what I call the ‘two phone call’ alert system. Ring me once when you think things are moving and once again when you call your midwife or leave to attend the hospital. If you are free birthing, its when you feel you are ready for documentation to begin.
Please call me. I will miss a text message.
I stay up to 2 hours post birth and depending on the time of day and length of time I was present at your birth, you will typically have a text message within 12 hours of giving birth with sneak peeks. (Yay!)
Once you get your sneaky peeks, I edit the rest of your gallery. I strive to have your gallery returned within 48 hours. (I know me, so if it isn’t like this, it will sit the full 6 weeks I allow for in my contract haha.) Being an expert image editor, my workflows are fool proof and swift.
You will receive all of your images in an online digital gallery for you to download and share for personal use. I tend to photograph what I intend to give to the client, so if I photograph 350 images, you will not get the culled duplicates, which is about 250 images. The amount of images I take varies pending what goes on in your birth. It’s safe to say, on average, the gallery is about 200-250 images. I guarantee a minimum of 150. I will never withhold images from you because I think ‘you won’t like them.’ If it’s in your gallery, its every image I have that isn’t blurry, weirdly composed, or a duplicate image.
I limit the amount of clients I take on to ensure you are served swiftly with no long wait times.
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Generations through Photography
This Is Your Story. Let’s Remember It.
When your memory fades, as it inevitably will, your photos will remain.
Not just for you, but for your child. For the people who will one day want to know how they came into the world. Let’s make sure their story gets told, with the care and reverence it deserves. What I wouldn’t give to have photos of my grandmother and great grandmother being born. Instead, enjoy my maternal line as it was as far back as the 60’s.
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My grandmother with my mother at a few months old
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My mother with me on our birth day (yes I was born on her 18th birthday)
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My oldest son with his great great grandmother
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My mother breastfeeding my youngest brother, paving the way for me to feed to todderhood of my own children
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My great grandmother with my younger brother
I HAVE QUESTIONS
What To Wear To My Birth? Is that a thing?
Now, I understand there is no real, such thing as ‘colour coordinating’ a birth, or curating a trendy fashion colour palette. But I do think it is good for you to know my shooting style and how I tend to edit. Not for clothing choices (um hello naked bodies) but for your own information. Some women enjoy buying pretty crop tops to wear during birth if they know they want to share them and not have any nipples exposed for social media and close friends and family. Some like to know what looks good with my editing style, some could give a shit less. But, because I’m a doula and enjoy giving information, I thought I would add it in, just in case you like to plan heavily like me ha!
I tend to shoot with cooler shadows and warmer skin tones. I LOVE colour. Like, I mean, colour is my favourite. I meticulously manipulate colours in my images to bring out small but crucial details in skin. Blues, creams, and magenta tones tend to do this beautifully. Below you can see a few sample images and the tones you will see repeated through out my art.
I want to see every vein in your breast. I want to see your rosy cheeks to remind you how hot and flushed you were after working so hard. I want you to see the vernix on your cheek where you brushed against your baby’s face seconds before. Details matter. I promise, they won’t be lost in post-production here.
How Does It Work, do you just show up at 3am?
Yes, why yes, I do. I show up whenever the hell you call me, no matter rain, snow, or shine….3pm or 3 am. I have made this work my family’s sole income. My husband is a stay at home dad to enable me to leave at a moments notice. All I ask is that you don’t text me from 8pm to 8am, but rather give me a phone call. Only because text messages don’t wake me up. I like two phone calls, one to give me a heads up things might be happening and one more once you head to the hospital or call your midwife to be with you at home. My theory is, if it is intense enough to call in for extra support, or go where extra support is it is intense enough for my presence as well. Giving me that first heads up allows me to make executive decisions…like its 3pm and contractions are starting and you live an hour from me- that tells me I should get a head start and not wait for that second call. Because if you call me at 5 pm and request my presence the chances of me missing it are much higher because well, Melbourne traffic is a bit of an asshole.
I believe that my energy makes a difference to your space. I don’t believe in the ‘fly on the wall’ approach. It is bullshit. Because my energy speaks louder than my words do. So with that said, I promise to have my own personal shit dealt with before I ever walk into any birth space. I have seen how poor attitudes and shitty energy can change the trajectory of a birth. And because of that, you won’t find me hiding. I will however only speak when spoken too (for the most part.) I ask for your birth plan so I can know exactly what I need to be documenting. I need for you to receive what you expect to be given. If you ask for delayed cord clamping and I know it is within my power to deliver to you what you expect, then I may pop my hand on your shoulder if I see a medical professional prematurely reaching for scissors and just ask you, “Babe, are you ready to cut the cord now?” I will never speak to a member of your medical team when it is inappropriate to do so. It isn’t my place to say stop. That is yours and only yours to reclaim. I want you to be empowered. I will never take that from you by telling someone to stop when you can claim that power and tell them to stop. That will be the only time I likely speak up with out ‘permission’ and it is in the name of making sure I give my clients what they asked for. When you give me a birth plan, that is what you are asking me to document. If it is within my power to give it to you, I will.
Will You Use Flash? Will That Be Best For The Birth?
What Exactly Do I Get From Your Birth Photography?
9 years ago, I was trying to mirror my hard drive and instead, I erased it. 3 years of my life, like it never existed, gone. From my touch down on the aeroplane into Australia to my wedding, to my three damn pictures from my first baby’s birth clean up until he was 2 years old. Gone. In a split second. I wasn’t able to recover anything…only what was on Facebook. And if Facebook ever ceases to exist, it would be like I never existed. So I value hard prints, even if I don’t hang them.
With 100 time stamped prints (I tried fitting an entire gallery in a single glass box, but my lab couldn’t source a box big enough haha) you get a tangible, product to reminisce whenever you’d like. Not just when you are on the computer. This is something you can share on your coffee table, or tuck away under your bed to hand down as an heirloom. How I’d love to see the images of my great-grandmother birthing my grandmother and then my mother… it gives us a connection through a single similarity. And that is that women are powerful.
How Do I Begin The Process, Where Can I Book You?
Have you read enough and want to hire the most experienced Melbourne Birth Photographer?
Click below, fill out our enquiry form and I’ll be in touch with you.
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