attending. waiting. divining.  we as humans can't wait to welcome a new baby. it happens on the streets when strangers are drawn to the round softness of a mama's belly.

it is magic. it is divine. it is something so mysterious and so absolutely wonderful, that they just can't help themselves. they want to touch the pregnant mama. they want to feel the baby move deep inside, kick, respond to their touch, have the baby tell them, "remember you are human too, remember where you came from, remember how it felt."  

and sometimes, I am lucky.

I get to photograph those bellies. -that quiet anticipation. the moments before birth. the swelling underneath the clothes. the quiet, and sometimes frenzied preparation in the home. the joyful delight.  

and the very luckiest part of being a photographer and a birth doula is that I get to know these couples. I get to partake, ever so slightly in their joy, and their love, that they have for the wee human not even born.  

and I am reminded in my bones, of my own birth and the deep love I have for my own children. and, that my friends, is pretty special. 

xoxo