The Birth Story of Eliza Grace Searle

Over the past 10 days, I have shared my favourite 10 images from the birth story of
Eliza Grace on 9th November 2016.

This blog post is to share the entire story…

Credit to these images is given to Jes Jackson of Itty Bitty Photography who has become more than my birth photographer, she has become a colleague and friend. I believe it was more than just pure chance that the same week we found out we were expecting was the same week Jes announced her return to birth photography at the conclusion of her own maternity leave. Throughout the pregnancy Jes and I chatted almost daily via text and she quickly became more than my hired photographer, she was a support, an ear, an encouraging and uplifting soul and a friend… and come the birth, she was an advocate, a strength and a friend… and now that all still remains, and with that, I am very much looking forward to what the future has in store for us as colleagues.

I’ve deliberated as to how I wanted to share these images. I felt as though being a birth photographer myself I needed to do something grand. But I sit here now and realise that it wouldn’t really matter what I did to share them with the world because to the world they will speak differently on their own merit to each who views them…

But whats more, as someone who has now experienced what it is like to first hand have their own birth photographed, the profound impact it has had on me is deep… it gives me a whole new appreciation and love for birth photography, it reignites that passion I have for the genre… It is truly incredible to sit here now and view these images and understand to the full degree what it is that my clients experience when I capture their birth for them.

More importantly though, these images are my personal story, and they will speak to me in ways and in volumes that no one else will understand, and that is the true power of birth photography. And these images I now have forever. And each time I view them, no matter how many times I already have, they continue to bring me to tears.

So here is the birth story of Eliza Grace…