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Homebirth and the Coronavirus

A Los Angeles Homebirth

Let me start this blog post hoping you are all doing well. I hope you are safe from the virus, enjoying your life and practicing self care. Boy, isn’t that term practicing self care  thrown around a lot and ever so important during this crisis. My hope for you is that you are  doing things that make you feel good and granting yourself grace for the things that are not going so well.

At the beginning of this pandemic, I was on call for a home birth.  I would check in with mom  making sure she was doing well and to make sure she felt I was still essential to her birth. The call came about 9pm on March 24th asking if I had been to any hospitals. I had not.  I had been self isolating because of the order and because I wanted to make sure I was healthy for the home birth. She said that she and her partner were ready for me to join them. I kissed my son goodnight and off into the empty night streets I went.  I arrived a little before the midwife, Catherine of Homebirth Services. While the powers that be may not deem my profession essential, this mother and her partner did and had enough faith in me to come and photograph the birth healthy.

This was my first quarantine baby birth. As I drove, I thought about other births where parents were not going to have the birth they wanted. They were not going to have their birth photographer, their doula and some were not even going to have their partners with them.  I let my mind wander to how this was going to affect birth. How was it going to effect birth photography as a whole?  I wondered if we would see a surge in home births.  As a birth photographer, I love home births. In most cases, they really do tell a larger story.

Here are some images of the home birth. I have also added their highlight reel. I hope you enjoy.

Color birth photo of a mother laboring on a birth ball by Los Angeles birth photographer, Leona Darnell

color birth photo of a mother laboring on her birth ball during her homebirth in North Hollywood.

color birth photo of a mother and her partner taking a break during labor by Birth and Beauty.

Color Birth Photo for Birth and Beauty showing a mother laboring and holding her partners hand in Los Angeles, California..

color birth photo of a midwife weighing a newborn at a home birth

Color birth photo of a family looking at a newborn baby on top of mom by birth photographer Leona Darnell.

Color birth photo of a newborn being handed to the mother by the midwife by Los Angeles birth photographer, Leona Darnell..

1 thought on “Homebirth and the Coronavirus

  1. Tom says:

    So, did you have to wear a face mask, gloves, or other PPE while doing the shoot?

    Reply

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