Lisa went into labor on a snowy day, giving birth at home in a birthing tub. Two big brothers were excited to meet the new addition and what an honor to capture Lisa catching the baby herself! It was another boy for this family of five.

How dashing does Louis look! He was gracious enough to allow his little sister in on a couple of pics too.

I met Nicole, the amazing doula behind Rock Your Birth, several years ago when she was the doula for one of my birth photography clients. How exciting was it to be asked to capture the birth of her third child. The birth was at home in the early morning with midwives, doulas and family present. Welcome sweet little one!

It’s BIRTH WEEK on my blog and as promised, I have another beautiful birth to showcase as well as another chance to win a ticket to the Birth Without Fear Meet-up in Minneapolis on August 16th (see how to enter at the end of the post).

These are pictures from the birth of Mathias. I have known his mom for many years and was thrilled when she asked if I could capture the birth of her second child. This birth happened in the wee hours of the morning at Health Foundations Birth Center in St. Paul. It was attended by midwives Monica and Deb. Also attending was their doula Brook Holmberg.

The Birth Without Fear meet-up is coming to Minneapolis! I’ll be capturing it along with two other talented birth photographers (Peace Love Babies and Jennifer Liv Photography), so we’re celebrating with a giveaway!

All three of us are giving away two Basic tickets (1 each to 2 winners) to the Birth Without Fear meet-up, and you can enter by following Birth Week. You can gain multiple entries to the contest by heading to my blog every day this week and following the instructions at the bottom of the post to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Want more entries? You can see their posts, and enter their contest here and here.

This shoot was lots of fun including balloons, an antique mirror, outfit changes and of course, CAKE! Happy Birthday to this sweetie!

I am so excited to blog about this birth! Twin home births are fairly rare in Minnesota, so even though I was really wishing I could attend and document one, I wasn’t holding my breath. So you can imagine how I felt when this couple invited me to join their fairly large team at the birth of their twins.

I got the call on a cold December evening. When I arrived, mama was doing great in the tub. Baby Hazel was born at 2:12am weighing 7lbs 4oz followed shortly by her brother Harland at 2:18am weighing 7lbs 8oz. Everyone was healthy and happy. Kudos to the awesome birth team headed by midwife Victoria Edwards and included midwives Jennifer Freeman Hall, Aly Folin and Kate Saumweber Hogan and doula Gabrielle Hurd.

It is always tricky around the holidays to take on new clients. I wonder if it will mean I will end up at the hospital rather than with my family Christmas Eve or Christmas day. What will it mean for me to postpone the holidays with my husband and children? Will they understand? Does it make me a bad mom if I admit that I would be OK with it? That I feel such joy being present and capturing a birth even if it interferes with family life?

These were some of the thoughts rattling around in my head when I met with this couple at the coffee shop for our initial consultation. I knew the due date was within a couple days of Christmas. . .and I wondered if I should let it matter. But with births I have learned that things tend to work out with my need to intervene, so I wasn’t surprised when I received the call that labor had started almost two weeks before Christmas. I was able to witness a beautiful birth with an awesome, loving couple, amazing doulas and a supportive hospital staff AND spend Christmas with my family uninterrupted. Life is good!

Lots of love to Tabitha and her moms! It was a beautiful day.

Last year I was able to capture the peaceful home water birth of this sweet little boy. His mama is a doula herself as well as childbirth educator and co-founder of BabyLove. Along with midwife Aly Folin and her team from North Star Midwifery, this baby was greeted by dad,big-sister, grandma, an aunt and friends.

Things I loved about this birth:

• The look of peace on mom’s face as she labored in the tub
• Dad supporting mom in labor – even getting in the birth tub himself
• Pictures of the baby being born into the water and emerging from water into his mom’s arms
• Mom’s face after the birth
• The delight on big sister’s face when his saw her brother

Thank you to Brittany and her family for inviting me to share in such a special day!