The post Empowering mothers through Doula work and birth photography with Leona Darnell appeared first on Welcome to IAPBP.
]]>Today I am chatting with Leona Darnell, an incredible birth photographer. Leona gave birth to her own triplet boys via IVF in 2013 as a solo parent. She studied at the Academy of Arts in San Fransisco when dark rooms and chemicals were used to produce photos. After Leona did her very first birth photography session in 2013, she new she had found her new path and calling.
Leona opens up about her own birth journey and how she wished there was a photographer there in the room with her to record the once in a lifetime moment. Afterwards she started investigating birth photography and how she could become involved in marking the wondrous moment for other parents. Leona joined the International Association of Professional Birth Photographers in 2014 after she did her very first birth session. She never wanted anyone else to feel the way that she did when she disassociated during her caesarean section and didn’t have a clear idea of what happened.
Leona added doula services to her packages because she wanted to be a part of the birthing team and become more involved than just acting like a paparazzi. Her passion for her doula work shines through in the way she talks about her client’s birth experiences, deeply listening to what they want and how they feel in the room, and sharing in the most incredible moments.
We talk about reading a client’s hesitations and how to help her advocate for her wishes to the medical team, the challenges when facing nurses and doctors who insist on no videoing or photography, and everything Leona has learned from being a member of the IAPBP.
This conversation is raw, honest and enlightening. Leona candidly talks about her journey through birth photography, becoming a doula and her own personal experience with birth. Her advice, knowledge and expertise will shine a light into your own birth photography practice and the remarkable privilege of how much more there is to learn.
LINKS
Where to find Leona Darnell:
Instagram: @birth_and_beauty
If you’d like to become a member you can sign up here!
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]]>The post Beyond Birth Photography with Belle Verdiglione appeared first on Welcome to IAPBP.
]]>I’m so excited to be bringing you Belle Verdiglione. Belle is a former birth photographer, now a potent identity photographer, and a truly inspiring coach. Through her online community, Camera Queens, you can learn from experienced photographers, be surrounded by like-minded women (both online and in-person) and learn exactly how to operate and grow your photography business in your own unique way.
Belle dived into birth photography back in 2011 when she was on maternity leave with a newborn and a toddler and was itching to get back into the workforce. After studying photography at university, Belle was always very passionate about it but wasn’t sure what path to take. Her friend sent her a link with photos from an American birth photographer and when she saw them she was swept up in full body tingles and an inner knowing that she had found her new path.
Belle shares the evolution she’s witnessed in birth photography in Australia throughout her career, especially the way that activism has led to normalising birth and images on social media. The healing that can happen when we celebrate, not only the life of a baby, but also death. Miscarriages and stillbirths are no longer swept under the rug and there is so much power and healing that comes from having that celebration and sharing those photos with others.
We explore how new birth photographers can create a holistic experience for the families they serve. Belle discusses when you enter that space, you must have an open heart and be present to all aspects, not just the physical, but also the energetics of a room.
Belle shares how she moved from birth photography into potent identity photography. This type of photography involves bringing your whole essence, your truth and your light into the images. We are anchoring your higher self vision into these photos so that you can birth your offer and your vision into the world and everyone viewing it will feel it.
Belle encourages you to take the time to really nourish yourself and rest in between births to prevent burn out and recognise when you’re at a close of a cycle and ready for something new. Tune in to hear all about Belle’s amazing journey and her incredible advice, wisdom and experience.
LINKS
Where to find Belle Verdiglione:
Instagram: @belleverdiglione
If you’d like to become a member you can sign up here!
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]]>The post Capturing Resilience: Trauma-Informed Birth Care with Tania Fragoso from The Grateful Doula appeared first on Welcome to IAPBP.
]]>I’m chatting with the remarkable Tania Fragosa from The Grateful Doula. Tania offers her clients doula and birth photography services and is passionate about walking alongside her clients while holding space, guiding and sharing knowledge with them throughout their journey.
Tania is a mother of three beautiful daughters and her first birth was a very traumatic event. Through her experience she fell in love with birth work and everything that comes into it. She was motivated about studying and acknowledging the impact of trauma, especially birth trauma and how the affects ripple out into the birth mother, her family and her support network. Tania made it her mission to use trauma informed care in her approach as a doula and birth photographer to offer her clients a holistic compassionate service.
Tania takes us through what it looks like to use trauma informed care with her clients and acknowledges that you can’t keep pushing a pregnant woman in labor on and on as she might be pushed too far into a traumatic event. There can be a fine line between cheering the mother on and learning when to hold back and acknowledge where her head is at.
Tania advocates for health professionals to use empathy and think twice before saying something that can be interpreted as aggressive or dismissive that can lead the mum to freeze or disassociate.
As birth photographers, we have to know how to understand and work with our own triggers. Tania shares how every birth has the capacity to be triggering for the photographer and you must learn how you will overcome it in the moment. Have an active conversation with yourself about your own limits and participate actively in your healing.
Remember what can be traumatising for me may not be traumatising for you. You should be checking in with your clients on their own healing journey to find how you can best support them in the moment.
This was such an empowering and insightful conversation and I encourage you to tune in and take on board all of Tania’s wisdom and experience into your own practice.
LINKS
Where to find Tania Fragoso:
If you’d like to become a member you can sign up here!
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The post Capturing Resilience: Trauma-Informed Birth Care with Tania Fragoso from The Grateful Doula appeared first on Welcome to IAPBP.
]]>The post Intuition and power in birth with Lindsay Askins appeared first on Welcome to IAPBP.
]]>This episode we’re in conversation with Lindsay Askins who is passionate about empowering women to trust their intuition and reclaim their power in birth. Lindsay is a professional birth photographer, home birth and postpartum doula. Educated in animal science, she worked as a veterinary technician for a decade and later taught high school science.
Spot of Serendity was launched in 2010 with a focus on capturing military homecomings for couples and families. After Lindsay became a mother in 2012, her work organically shifted into pregnancy, birth, and caring for mothers in the postpartum period. Her first home birth was transformative and fuels her passion for birth advocacy. Lindsay believes the majority of perinatal mood disorders and other symptoms of birth trauma can be prevented by educating families on the pitfalls of obstetrics and modern birth.
Our conversation touches on some really beautiful perspectives – both for birthing mothers and birth photographers. We discuss the importance of feeling safe when birthing and the importance of listening to our intuition.
Lindsay discusses the simple truth that all mammalian birth (ours included) progresses best in calm, dark, private environments. This awareness has altered her approach to birth photography.
Linday’s approach is incredibly inspiring. She reminds us how important it is to allow ourselves the space to work through our own traumas and discomfort with empathy and grace. She has learnt over the years that being comfortable in your own true lane is the best energy you can bring to a birthing space.This was a really powerful conversation which I know you’re going to get a lot out of, so dive in.
Where to find Lindsay Askins:
Instagram: @spotofserendipity
Where you can find us:
Our website: International Association of Professional Birth Photographers
If you’d like to become a member you can sign up here!
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]]>The post Advocating for trauma informed birth care and maternal mental health with Paulina Splechta appeared first on Welcome to IAPBP.
]]>I am truly delighted to be speaking with Paulina Splechta today, a passionate advocate for women and trauma informed birth care with a deep understanding of working in the birth photography industry.
Paulina is a full time on call birth photographer based in South Florida and fell in love with being a birth story teller after photographing her first birth in 2014. As a young mother, Paulina started out photographing her friends with their babies in the park, which led into lifestyle, maternity and breastfeeding photography. This eventually opened the door to her passion work – birth photography.
As a passionate human rights advocate, Paulina studied criminal justice in college. Although a far cry from what she does now, the same threads of advocacy, justice and communication are woven into her role as a birth photographer.
In this honest and open conversation, Paulina shares her story – what led her into birth photography, what drives her to continue in the industry and how her own traumatic birth and postpartum experiences fuelled the fire in her belly to advocate for women before, during and after birth.
Paulina talks about being a highly sensitive person and how this is her superpower to be able to deeply understand the emotional landscape of childbirth. We discuss some of the issues surrounding maternal mental health and the need for education about how trauma plays into birth. We also talk about being honest on social media, why this is so important for the industry as a whole and so much more.
I know you’re going to get so much out of this conversation and love Paulina’s fiery and dynamic spirit.
LINKS
Where to find Paulina Splechta:
Where you can find us:
Our website: International Association of Professional Birth Photographers
If you’d like to become a member you can sign up here!
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The post Advocating for trauma informed birth care and maternal mental health with Paulina Splechta appeared first on Welcome to IAPBP.
]]>The post Inner knowing and being informed for birth with Orsolya Elek appeared first on Welcome to IAPBP.
]]>For the episode today, I am really excited to welcome Orsolya Elek, a Hungarian birth photographer living in France. Orsolya is the mother of two young children and a member of the Postnatal Support Network (PSN) and the French Birth Photographer’s Collective. Orsolya’s personal journey into motherhood led her to specialise in maternity and birth photography as well as doula work. She firmly believes in the power of images to change the social norms around birth photography and parenthood.
Orsolya studied photojournalism and contemporary art but it wasn’t until after her first birth that she came to birth photography. She shares with us that having her first child raised many questions for her about values, how to be and connect in society and what she should do with her life. After working with a coach she came to birth photography and doula work as a vocation.
We know that birth photography is powerful, and Orsolya shares the ways that having a record of birth can be a potent way to connect across generations. She explains transgenerational transmission and how knowing and sharing birth stories across a family’s history can give us power and knowledge.
Orsolya shares with us what she understands an empowered birth experience to be like for parents and how deep listening to your own intuition and inner knowledge is vital.
Being informed is a cornerstone of Orsolya’s approach and she encourages us to understand our rights and the things we can do to make birth our own experience.
We also discuss how overlooked the postpartum period is, the steps you can take to make it as beautiful as possible and how to be with the difficulties throughout this time.
This is a really juicy conversation that shines a light on the overlooked and unacknowledged parts of birth, pregnancy and postpartum. Orsolya has a beautiful way of looking at the world and I know your journey into or through parenthood will be made all the richer after listening to this conversation.
LINKS
Where to find Orsolya Elek:
Instagram: @orsolya.elek.photographie
Where you can find us:
Our website: International Association of Professional Birth Photographers
If you’d like to become a member you can sign up here!
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]]>The post Birth photography from a mother’s heart with Nora Dalmasso (Spanish) appeared first on Welcome to IAPBP.
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This conversation centres around Nora’s journey into birth photography and how her love for her own children drives her passion for capturing moments at the beginning of life.
Starting out with maternity photography, Nora found her true calling on the day she photographed her first birth. Elaina and Nora talk about this unique experience, being a caesarean section, and some of the most impactful moments of her career.
Being a mother and knowing how precious the moments of birth are, Nora has an incredible passion for her work, showing deep empathy and connection to the mothers and fathers she works with. She fully understands the responsibility of showing up for her clients, standing side by side with dedicated midwives to create lasting memories for her clients.
Nora shares the deeply moving story of photographing a baby’s farewell and the depth of emotion this event sparked. She also shares some of the lessons she has learned over the last 3 years and her advice to parents who might be unsure of birth photography.
LINKS
Where you can find Nora Dalmasso:
Where you can find us:
Our website: International Association of Professional Birth Photographers
If you’d like to become a member you can sign up here!
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The post Birth photography from a mother’s heart with Nora Dalmasso (Spanish) appeared first on Welcome to IAPBP.
]]>The post Birth and bereavement photography with Cyd Lapour appeared first on Welcome to IAPBP.
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In our conversation, Cyd shares how her experience photographing her autistic son doing whatever made him happiest led her to pursue the power of documentary and real life photography. Cyd’s view is that real life is more interesting, funnier and more joyful than the studio smile and cheese moments. She reminds us to pay attention to the beautiful moments in our everyday lives, as ultimately these will make up what we will come to treasure.
Cyd shares how she got into birth photography, and how she knew it was for her after just one session photographing a co-worker’s birth. Cyd sees that the work that she does as being a family historian, documenting the stories that families write together.
Cyd explains how she shoots from the perspective of having the baby look at the images in the future, and how that perspective alters the way she documents births.
We also chat about the the difference between real life and documentary photography, and nature of documenting real life. Cyd talks about her work with Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, a photography service for families that won’t have the chance of getting a lifetime of photographs with their infant. She reflects on how this photography has been her most important work, the lessons it has taught her, and the reasons she does it.
Cyd’s work and her approach to life is incredibly inspiring. She leaves us with such a beautiful message about being ok to laugh at our mistakes, and the importance of living our lives authentically.
LINKS
Where you can find Cyd Lapour:
Instagram: @cydley
Where you can find us:
Our website: International Association of Professional Birth Photographers
If you’d like to become a member you can sign up here!
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]]>The post Documenting the birthing experience with Eva Walther appeared first on Welcome to IAPBP.
]]>Documenting the birthing experience is often more of an afterthought – or not thought of at all. But there are so many valuable moments throughout the experience that are so beautiful to capture.
This episode we are joined by Eva Walther, a German award winning and self-taught family and birth photographer who lives in Denmark.
After a life-long corporate career in advertising and software, Eva changed to work as a full-time photographer, online educator and mentor for upcoming lifestyle photographers in 2019. Eva’s own birth experiences in 2013 and 2015 have been a huge part of her journey as a photographer. Today, she is passionate about documenting all aspects of birth and demystifying birth in Denmark.
The most important topic for Eva is educating future mothers to learn about their options, and more importantly their right for a self-determined birth and after-birth experience. For Eva, a good birth experience is a fundamental element of the transformation into a mother.
We explore how Eva made the transition from 9-5 into photography after her own children were born, and the ways that the Danish hospital system and her Danish husband transformed her view on birth.
We chat about Eva’s initial aversion to natural birth, the importance of mental preparation for birth and how birth photography is a powerful educator.
Culturally, birth photography is not common or understood in Denmark. Eva talks about the steps she’s taking to help birth parents understand the transformative power of birth photography, including founding the Danish Association for Birth Photographers.
This was a beautiful, cross-cultural conversation and Eva’s approach to and passion for birth photography is uplifting.
LINKS
Where you can find Eva Walther
Where you can find us:
Our website: International Association of Professional Birth Photographers
If you’d like to become a member you can sign here!
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]]>The post A life-changing VBAC birth and how empowered birth changes our story with Jamie Scearcy appeared first on Welcome to IAPBP.
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After having her own healing birth experience with the support of a doula, Jamie knew that birth work was where she wanted to be. Jamie has learned women are empowered in birth when they are supported, informed and leaders in their own care. She believes that every woman deserves a safe and satisfying birth experience, and that experience might look different for each one of us. Jamie wants every family to leave their birth feeling strong, heard and empowered.
During this conversation, Jamie shares what she found helpful in preparing for her first VBAC birth, and how powerful the gift of a normal, uninterrupted, physiological birth is. It can be life-changing to not be fearful of birth and how an empowered birth can change our journey as parents.
Jamie is also a birth educator – we talk about how being an educator, photographer and doula is such a powerful trio, both for the parents she services and also for her business.
In this conversation, we also touch on how the system, provider, hospital, protocols, culture and environment changes birth statistics. Jamie’s partner doula always says ‘Your care provider is your birth plan’, and we chat about the power of choosing your provider.
This was such an empowering conversation. Whether you’re a first-time Mum, birth photographer or just curious about what birth photographers do, you’ll leave this conversation feeling hopeful about the power of birth.
LINKS
Where you can find Jamie Searcy:
Where you can find us:
Our website: International Association of Professional Birth Photographers
If you’d like to become a member you can sign here!
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