I am calling attention to the mental health aspect of birth photography for women
I am calling attention to what having phototherapy from birth does for the post partum woman
DISCLAIMER: YES, WHILE THERE ARE DOZENS ON IMAGES ON MY WEBSITE, MY BLOG, MY SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES, THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ME, AND 100% TO DO WITH THE MOTHER, THE POST PARTUM WOMAN, THE FAMILY. APPROXIMATELY 70% OF THE BIRTHS I PERSONALLY AM HIRED TO DOCUMENT NEVER MAKE IT TO THE INTERNET DUE TO CLIENT PRIVACY. THIS IS ABOUT THEM, IT IS NOT ABOUT US. DON’T MAKE THIS ABOUT US AND THE INTERNET.
“[Birth Photography] is an emotional release
Because we try to recount the series of events
And sometimes we can’t always put the pieces together ”
You register at your local hospital for your upcoming birth.
The thought is that you chose this hospital because you trust them as a facility (or in some cases you chose this hospital because your insurance is only accepted there). With your registration comes an assumption, you chose this hospital, therefore you should trust them to call all the shots, they are professionals, well rated — but it’s not that simple.
The world constantly attempts to simplify birth into one statement:
“Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby”
with the implication that Health is purely Physical.
THE MAJOR FLAW WITH THIS….
The major flaw is that is no one ever thought to address what effect birth has on a woman’s mental health.
…Is mental health not EQUALLY considered Health?…
Is mental health not urgent?
Do we not have mental health licensed counselors, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists in America?
Of course we do.
Yet as a nation, as a species, we completely discredit the urgency and gravity of mental health.
We discriminate against mental health, we side line it, we put it on the back burner because if you do not have physical health, what does mental health matter?
But doesn’t it work the other way around too?
If we do not have our mental health, how can we maintain our physical health?
As an entire species, we have been conditioned into pretending that our safety and our health is 100% physical.
For decades, the way we do birth as a species has been affecting women’s mental health but we are all in denial that our actions and words as birth workers have any lasting impact on a woman’s mental health.
As I sit here writing this blog, I receive a text from a friend:
I’ve been so emotional. Maybe it’s because [name]’s birthday is coming up.
And reading her text, it brings up a memory in me, I think on how every year, leading up to August 25th, the birth of my second child four years ago, brings with it subconscious anxiety that builds and builds until I cry, every single year. I don’t even think about it and suddenly become aware of why am I feeling so anxious? Every year.
This is only two women, but this is your friend, your mother, your neighbor, your coworker, holding onto trauma and most of our species experiencing triggers from this trauma, or unexplained anxiety, carrying it around, have no awareness where it is coming from.
Yet as a species we avoid talking about or putting any gravity whatsoever on the profound effect that THE WAY WE BIRTH has on a woman’s mental health.
We are ignoring what message it is sending to our partners, spouses, families and our world’s women, when the outcome of our birth experience is trauma, (not only physical trauma, but also emotional trauma) and we seem to sweep it under the rug and call it all part of the birth process.
When our trauma is produced as a result of the LD nurse who tells a woman in labor not to push just yet because the doctor’s not here yet, or when our birth trauma is caused by the fact that no one in the delivery room is strong enough emotionally to not be triggered by the intensity of the mother’s labor to stop reacting to her emotionally and help her focus on breathing, to give her the emotional support she so desperately needs in this critical moment, or when our birth trauma is due to the OBGYN who lacks compassion because this is an “everyday occurrence” that needs to be handled with detailed precision by a medical person, or when our birth trauma is caused by a birth support team that is so excited to be witnessing birth and to be there, they forget to hold space for the mother who’s on a subconscious transformative journey through the unseen universe.
The human species is so focused on the vagina, (or in the operating room, on the incision), that everyone completely forgets, that in this moment in time, in this moment of intensity, as a life emerges, to look up and be humbled by her face and view the goddess who is being reborn in this exact moment as a mother.
DURING BIRTH:
The mother is not under general anesthesia (usually not)
The mother is not completely knocked out
The mother is completely conscious and aware which we often forget especially during c-sections and stop talking her through her nervousness, through the surgery
During birth, the mother is completely present
She is FEELING THE INTENSITY of her body transforming
She is connecting her body & mind
She is experiencing this moment AT THE SAME TIME HER BABY EXPERIENCES IT FROM WITHIN HER
The mother and her baby travel together through separate but uniform journeys and they meet in the human world
Yet we all focus on the vagina, as if her consciousness is not with us.
Who is speaking to her in this moment?
Who is reassuring her to breathe, who is holding HER hand, who is carrying for her emotions?
I think perhaps since I experienced two traumatizing births myself with both of my children, (each traumatic for two totally different reasons), that when I attend births, in this moment as the newborn life emerges, while I capture this newborn life entering our world, I am also so deeply focused on the newborn mother that emerges, entering our world. Every single birth I have pictures of the mother’s face in this birthing journey, not just the baby.
Birth is not purely physical, it is not just the vagina.
Birth is not one day of our lives
Birth is not a routine occurrence
Birth is a transformative event, allowing us to find connection between our mind and body (source: sararosser.com)
