Posted byJessica is the photographer behind JRSD Photography (she’s also written about pre-baby body myths on Offbeat Mama). She’s also a brand new mama (as of October 8), and she shared a few of her birth photos in our Flickr pool.
“I scheduled my birth…which is weird as hell to me because I had serious, false labor grade contractions for a full month before my due date. We ended up in labor & delivery three or four times, with me having off-the-chart contractions and absolutely NOTHING ELSE going on. When I finally went in for my induction, more than a week after my due date, I was still only 1 centimeter dilated.”
“A lot of this experience sort of blends together…and 20+ hours of contractions means I don’t remember at which point I took this shot.”
What you’ll forget to pack in your birth bag
"As the time draws nearer for my son to arrive and I prepare to go to the hospital I can't help but wonder what should... Read more
“Halfway through my labor I finally started to go crazy in my bed, so they unhooked all my various medical accessories and let Mike and I walk around for an hour. We waddled around (I did most of the waddling) and took pictures in the halls.”
“We did it! Echo Luna Shirley-Donnelly was born 10/8/10 at 10:04pm. She was 8 pounds 7.5 ounces and perfect from head to toe.”
so beautiful! I love the name too. Thank you for letting us in on your special day.
beautiful photos! and my partners mother’s name is “shirley donnelly,” so i was supremely surprised! lots of love to the new mama and papa!
Awesome! We don’t meet a lot of like-named people. 🙂
Baby’s got the same birthday as me! Rock on! I love that you had your camera going, you’re my hero 😀
I love that these pictures really capture the waiting part of birth. A lot of pictures just focus on the birth part but I think it’s just as important to show that there’s a lot of waiting involved a lot of the time.
But maybe that’s just me. My daughters birth was over almost before I realized I was in labour, so I love these quiet moments.
absolutely!! One of my favorite pictures is of when my doula took a pic of my husband and I doing “America’s Next Top Model” poses in the hallway in between contractions!
Gorgeous! Thanks for sharing!
For how long we waited around, actual labor really shot by.
These shots are all beautiful, I’m glad I was a part of it. <3 you, Jess.
It’s awesome that you came over to comment this.
Love you, Mike.
I’ve been yearning for the news and pictures. Echo is gorgeous and so are both of you!
Love, Janis
It’s also awesome that YOU came over to comment this. Thanks, Janis!!
Wonderful! I’ve been missing my camera time since I have been pregnant, and this is inspiring… I’m due in 2-3 weeks and who knows when things will happen, but I fully intend to keep the camera in hand! They didn’t have any issue w/ the photos in the hallways? Medical privacy, and all that…
They were very cool at my hospital — I’m sensitive enough not to photograph anybody but us, but honestly they didn’t question us at all. I had been taking photographs for over 12 hours in my room at that point, too, so they may have just gotten normalized to it by the time I started wandering around. 🙂 Good luck with your labor and photos!
So awesome!!! I have some great pix from my delivery (my husband suited up doing the Robot before my emergency C-section, way too graphic photos of the actual surgery, etc…) but they don’t compare to the talent and raw beauty of yours. Congratulations on your daughter!!!!!