International Associations of Professional Birth Photographers Competition / Delivery Category Winner / Roanoke Birth Photographer

It's that time of year again!

 

Every year in January, us birth photographers sift and sort through all of our births from the year to find the best of the best.

 

Images that tell a story in that tiny 1/200th of a second in our client's life. Images that regardless of the light, unpredictable movement, and the objects (or people) in our way are in focus with beautiful composition.

 

You'd think with all of these obstacles it would be a competition that had some beautiful images and some cool images, but the images this year are. AMAZING.

The International Association of Professional Birth Photographers' judging panel had their work cut out for them this year!

 

Judges like...

Ricki Lake & Abbi Epstein

Penny Simkin

Catherine Pearson

Jan Tritten

Peggy Vincent

Kirsten Lewis

and other amazing people in our industry...

 

This year...I decided to only submit just one image. One image that spoke to my soul. One image that took my breath away.

 

And that one image is changing birth around the world. Countless countries have seen the beauty of this amazing capture.

Countless people are learning more about the miracles of birth.

Countless women are seeing the beauty of a caring doctor.

Countless women are commenting and reflecting on the different birthing positions that they didn't even know were possible.

 

This image. The one that won Best In Category - Delivery.

This image is beautiful.

The beauty of this contest is that it brings exposure to birth, allowing the world to normalize all different types of birth. As January Harshe (from BirthWithoutFearBlog.com) says:

"I do not care what kind of birth you have... a homebirth, a scheduled cesarean, epidural hospital birth, or if you birth alone in the woods next to a baby deer. I care that you had options, that you were supported in your choices, and that you were respected."