What does birth look like?

by Traci Weafer

It's all smoke and mirrors.

I have a love/hate relationship with birth photography. 
It can capture the greatest images of a mother's journey but also can give the illusion of what things are supposed to be. 
The perception of birth. 
What does that look like ? 
If you've never given birth before, this could be a dangerous place to be. Are you scrolling through images daydreaming about a birth that might not be in your cards? 
Birth can be glorious, magical, and an illuminating space between woman becoming mom, but what happens when it's not? 
Are you doing it wrong? Why wasn't your birth a picture perfect, edited, baby on chest in a birth pool with sibling hanging over the side and partner behind you with a faded background?  
Because all birth journeys are individual. You've heard me say it before. Each journey is what you need/want to get through the very second you need it. The images and daydreams you've thought before are just as obtainable, but remember these are not the over all standards of birth. 
Beautiful? Yes 
Dreamy? Yes 
Possible ? Yes 
Definite? No. 

The images of birth can also include:
-Positions to reposition baby 
-weary laborers keeping focused 
-Tear stained faces of mom and partner because labor is long and hard. 
-Sweaty faces 
- And signs of discouragement 
-disappointment in an unforeseen outcome 
-relief from a needed epidural 
-unanswered concerns 

So when you're visioning your labor and birth, consider the entire birth big picture. 

Birth is beautiful, but only the way you do it. It's not always instagramable.