Dec 20 2008

Birthing Buster… 24 hours of labor!

I had the incredible honor of shooting a live home birth with one of my maternity subjects, Alice these last 30 or so hours… It was a magical day– the first real snow here in NYC to stick, and walking to Alice’s apartment in the lower east side I got to take in the beautiful clean snow scenes… seemed like a good omen to me. I walked in around 1pm on the 19th to find Alice already sitting in her warm birthing pool, having contractions (still mild), and didn’t leave (or sleep really) until today around 1pm.

The birthing was so very intense and painful for her, and the labor dragged on for so long, she was exhausted, but what a trooper! Fortunately the reward was equally extreme–seeing this couple’s joy when they finally gave birth to their first baby, a boy they’ll be calling Buster, all the releif and the outpoaring of love, it was amazing to be present and I felt so happy to be able to be there documenting it in photographs. I know they will be amazed to look at and remember all the work they did to get this boy out into the world. Here are a few blog-suitable favorites, shown with permission of course.