Birth Photography Competitions AREN'T really about winning

 As a good majority of birth photographers scrambled around trying to figure out what to submit to IAPBP's 2017 competition one of our very talented collogues brought something to our eyes. These competitions while they do have awards to be won, something bigger is at work.
​These competition raise the awareness to birth in a new way. Birth is something that needs to be celebrated. The options that birthing women have, need to be known. The beauty and the uniqueness each birth holds, is absolutely amazing on it's own. Then you add the creative eye and passion of a birth photographer and you cant help be stand in awe of what the beginning of life looks like. Every women. Unique. Every labor. Unique. Every baby. Unique. While there will be hundreds of images in this competition, I assure you, EVERY SINGLE IMAGE will have its own story. Take time to see the story written in the furrowed brows, the tears, the bellies, the eyes, the hand and whatever else the image holds.

​I was planning on submitting two images this year one in the details and one in the labor category. The weather around here seemed to have a different idea and our power went out as I was submitting my second image. Competition submission or not, it has a beautiful story to be told.

​What does it say to you?
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My 2017 IAPBP Submission in the detail category is from my last birth of 2016. This birth was the perfect way to finish out my year as a birth photographer. A beautiful birth The Birth Center in Sacramento with one of my favorite midwives, Ruth Cummings, CNM. My reason for choosing this image for the detail category is all the details that work to tell a beautiful story. The gentle support of her husband, her relaxed hands even as she feels the surges of transition, the strech marks across the front of her belly, the shape of her contracted belly as it moves her baby closer to the outside world.

2017 IAPBP Submission in Birth Detail Category.