It is unusual to begin a labor blog with a photo of a midwife outside of a hospital. But this was the beginning of Kasey's labor as I knew it.
Y'all say hey to Mandesa!
Let me set the scene.
Birth photographers sometimes meet mom at home, and sometimes meet mom at the birthplace. I knew that Kasey was in early labor and had planned to meet her at the birthing center. If I could go back in time, I would give a million bucks to have been able to capture the whole story.
I was receiving traditional labor updates, then all of a sudden a message from dad (Josh) that they were going to the hospital for an emergency c-section. SO I threw the kids in the car, dropped them with their dad and rushed to the hospital. And who do I find waiting? Mandesa! And what did Mandesa say to me?
WHERE ARE THEY?
ut oh.
*Thoughts going through my head*
"Umm, I am just supposed to be taking pictures. Where the heck ARE they? Did I miss the birth? Is the baby ok? What kind of birth photographer am I? Someone should burn my business cards out of anger. But where are they? Mandesa is freaking out. I am freaking out. I hope they are ok!"
After calling Josh about 15 times, i received the following texts which will give you a small picture into all the confusion.
Kasey went in for a quick scan while in, what she thought was, early labor. A lot of confusion and she delivered the baby in a doctor's office. Not exactly the birthing center tranquility she was aiming for.
We did run into some of Josh's family and got to facetime them on their ambulance ride.
Again, these (ie, an ambulance) are not the norm in birth photography, but hey, I just go with the flow.
Hello Ezra. It was nice of you to enter the world in such a grand way.
Mandesa's face pretty much explains her feelings about the previous hour of uncertainty.
When the only thing you can do is laugh.
And finally, mom and dad get to take a breath and enjoy their baby.
Let me just take a moment to say something about this amazing mama here. This birth was the exact opposite of her plan. Nothing was comfortable and she did not know the people providing her labor care (a group of paramedics and people who give ultrasounds for a living). She didn't have it documented and she ended up staying days in a hospital.
THIS MAMA IS STRONG.
FIERCE.
AND SHE DESERVES AN AWARD.
She delivered her baby in a glorified storage closet with 15 strangers yapping at each other. And she did it without medication. Kasey, your strength and ability to take birth's punches amazes me.
and after all of that, look at how incredibly
beautiful she looks.
Of course, only in "Ezra fashion", he had to have some extra monitoring. But a great opportunity for Josh to bond with his son.
After some time, the nurses decided that Ezra needed a little extra monitoring, which meant a short goodbye from mom.
