{birth story}This mama! Wow. The second I walked in to the room at the Toronto Birth Centre and saw this scene in the first image, I whispered, "wow!". This mama. So beautiful! So focused. She trained! She was prepared. She was ready! She worked so so hard for her sweet little wrinkly baby! She was well educated. She did everything in her power to help that baby down and out. But sometimes, try as we might, things happen that are no longer in our control. Baby was sunny side up and would not turn. She got stuck. And this mama didn't give up. She tried to turn that baby in every way she could. If you have ever experienced real back labour, it's worse than labour itself. And that happens when baby isn't facing the right way. So after 8 hours of intense back labour and with 2 exhausted soon to be parents and one soon to be grandma, they made the call and we did a hospital transfer. This mama didn't give up. She worked all through the night at Sunnybrook Hospital. Her goal at this point was to avoid a c-section. But alas after about 30 hours (24 of which I was there documenting) the tough but necessary decision to do a cesarean section was made. It was time for these parents to finally meet their baby!
These are some of my favourite images from this birth story. At the bottom of these images you will find a video of the full birth story. Grab a whole box of tissues for this one. It's a real tear jerker! It was a real powerful emotional birth and you can really feel it in the video. Spending this amount of time with families through these intimate moments, you really can't help but get emotionally involved. This birth was the 20th birth I have documented, and you can bet your bottom dollar I remember every single one.
Press play!!