Only 5% of babies are born on their Estimated Due Date (Birth Center Birth) Hollywood, FL | Paulina Splechta Photography

Only 5% of babies are born on their EDD ( Estimated Due Date )

We knew that very well going into Madison’s pregnancy with baby. Her due date was 8 days into September, but her entire pregnancy, she felt that her baby boy would make an appearance earlier than expected. Sunday night I was up late printing birth preferences for Madison and Drew (just in case they needed to be transferred from their birthing facility - the Hollywood Birth Center, to the hospital, (Joe DiMaggio Hospital) for any reason, so that the medical staff would know that we are grateful that she can deliver at their facility and willing to work with them as a team). I knew it in my heart that Madison was going to labor and birth smoothly, my intuition was telling me that we wouldn’t need to pull the birth preferences list out, but I always like to be prepared just in case.

Madison and Drew became a very special couple for me through their pregnancy. They carried an energy with them as first time parents. They are the sweetest couple that lived next door to each other for 18 years, blissfully unaware of the radiant future that awaited them. But they are completely and utterly the ‘girl next door’ fairytale that we all day dream about.

From the first time I met her, I loved how she said to me how important pictures are to her.

I know that because I’m a photographer that its expected for me to say pictures are important to me too. But even before I ever became a professional photographer, pictures have always been such a vital part of my life. I have albums from before I was born from eastern Europe of my families on both sides. Albums from my childhood, from my first school dance, from Christmases for decades, of my own children. I look through photos constantly and love to think back on those memories. For me, my albums and my pictures are priceless.

So these powerful words from Madison “pictures are really important to me,” completely resonated with me.

And just like that, as part of this mama’s intuition, two full weeks before her estimated due date, labor went into strong contractions 5 to 6 minutes apart 2:30am.

(((As I sit here, thinking back on the night of August 27th, just two days after my second daughter turned 3 years old, and write this blog post, I find it completely makes sense that my notifications for my Instagram app pop up on my phone, that in this exact moment, Madison shared a photo from her birth story on Instagram and tagged me. Sharing a wave length! This mama is SO special to me!)))

I drove to meet them at the birth center and walked in at about just before 7:45am, about 15 minutes after they arrived. I see Madison experiencing the full, raw, pangs of labor, surrounded by waves of support coming from Drew and his sister Daye. Midwife DellaReece filling up the birthing tub with warm water. The sun aching to rise from the horizon.

Despite the intensity of the waves of labor, Madison breathed and swayed fluidly through each, almost as if she was a third time mama.

She was surrounded by the flawless support of her birth team.

Fully trusting in them and in her laboring body.

She knew she would be meeting her baby boy soon.

Only minutes later she asked if we could turn off the lights.

Nothing made me happier.

I cannot tell you how much I love working with the natural, available light in a birth. Photography is the art of working with light, and when I am looking for light sources to tell a story, it is when I am at my best and most magical.

What made this room so special is that Madison chose the room in the Hollywood Birth Center that faced the East, the ocean. I know how special that is to her, because she is a child of the ocean.

For me, it was the room that faced the birthing sun of August 27th, 2018.

Drew Krush

Born, August 27, 2018

9:45am

Togetherness - The Birth Journey Done Together with your Partner (Home Birth) Miami Beach, FL | Paulina Splechta Photography

As first time moms, even sometimes second time moms, we often don’t know what we should expect from the last few weeks of our pregnancies, let alone our labors and births. So it is completely normal when the partner (or spouse) is clueless as to how to support their significant other who is in labor.

Even if you’ve spent the entire pregnancy supporting her through hyponbirthing, childbirth education classes, maybe even the Bradley method (which involves both parents, prepares the mother to deliver her baby without pain medications and educates the partner in birth coaching techniques), it is still quite common and normal for partners to freeze during labor.

Birth is complex and often unpredictable. No two labors are alike, not even among a woman’s own three children.

I am a big believer in go with the flow, and fill the role that you feel called to.

You may not know what to say, you may not know what to do, but just being there can often be enough.

Birth is Beautiful | Home Water Birth of Second Baby Girl

This is one of the most beautiful birthing images I have ever captured, that I have ever witnessed! It is profound in so many ways. 35 minutes from this point, her second baby was born in her home. It was the quietest birth I've ever witnessed. She was a complete mama goddess. I was in awe. And I was inspired. We don't all birth this way, but it is a testament to how incredible and powerful the woman warrior, the mama warrior is. We all have different birthing experiences, and we can make them our own.

Take note that as of Monday, June 12th 2017, this post on my Facebook page has 40 likes, which is low for 3,000 followers, and no comments, no shares.

I saw a post in my FB timeline yesterday, from "On the Day" from 2009.

I had debated whether to share it. In comparison, my first child was born in 2012, 3 years later.

It said something to the effect of how I had to view photos or video of women giving birth and cesareans in some class in college and how I was pretty horrified because they looked scary and painful.

My life would have been really different had I witnessed and attended most of the births I have been to over these last 4 years before I had my first child.

I don't know how many people are aware of my own personal journey through birth, but I had traumatic birth experiences with both of my girls. I was in birth trauma therapy for 8 weeks after my second daughter. I am still getting over them to this day on multiple levels. The trauma, the disappointment, feeling like my voice and my own wisdom and intuition as a birthing mom were taken away from me, having my birth plans removed without reason, it is something I will probably carry with me in some capacity for decades to come, because YES, birth means that much to me. For me, the two days that I gave birth to my daughters were the days I changed forever in my thinking, in my feeling, in my compassion in my love, in my purpose on this earth, in the way I live.

Many of my birth clients may not know my births were traumatic, I try to bring only overflowing positive energy with me into the sacred space I co-occupy with my birth families, free of judgement, free of agenda. But I also feel my families are drawn to hiring me to capture their birth story because they can feel the passion and all the feelings in my work of what my heart and soul speak about birth.

I believe my path was meant to be. Some artists do suffer in ways to create beautiful art that is fueled by incredible passion and commitment. I do believe that is the story behind why I have laid down my life for my birthing clients and made these women, these sisters, as important to me as my own two daughters are important to me.

This image speaks too all of that. I pour my heart and soul into giving my birth moms everything I could never have, everything taken from me, and giving them this gift that I am able to create, gives my soul calm, knowing that this birthing story will impact their life, and generations of their families and friends to come in a way no one could have ever foreseen.

So lets rise up together my dear friends, sisters, and bring this image to the edges of this world, to young women in schools in every country, to know that birth does not have to be what I thought it was back in 2009 (scary and horrifying).... birth can be what you make it. Find your voice, find your empowering team that you trust blindly without hesitation, find your support system, educate yourself to the ends of the world, and find your path towards a birth you find beautiful, empowering and sacred.