Baylor Dallas, Birth Photographer | Birth Story of Eile Church

It was an honor and privilege to be asked to join this birth team. I had answered a call just that morning from our local Clickin Moms group from Adria whos Birth Photographer was out of town and her baby was coming early.

She let me know that within the hour they were having a baby and in 30mins I was meeting Adria and her family for the first time as she was heading back to the OR for her cesarean at Baylor Dallas. We hadn't ever met until this point. This wasn't the plan. But oh how I am glad I was able to capture this first birth and second little girl for this family.

Pregnancy was not my favorite thing in life. In fact, it was pretty miserable.

When there is so much you can't control, you want something that you have a choice in, and that was having a natural birth for me. I think as soon as our sweet little one found out we wanted a natural birth, she decided she had other plans ;). With a very healthy pregnancy, but a very difficult one with sickness, pain, indigestion, insomnia, and some minor complications, we realized that our plan may not be what our sweet girl had in mind.

When I started having heavy contractions over a month early, the doctors realized I was dehydrated and they were able to get them to stop. A week later, the contractions came back but everything was great and the doctors couldn't get them to stop. When they decided to check on her, she gave them a few signs that maybe it was time, and we all made the decision together that 3 weeks early was going to be just fine with us if it kept our little baby healthy.

I was terrified. Regardless of how she got here, I was terrified. My husband and I were foster parents for several years and have one adopted daughter, and although we know children well, birth was a completely different story.

My husband is an amazing peace in my life and he was right there next to me the whole time to reassure me that everything was going o be okay. As soon as I heard my baby cry, my heart was calmed and our lives were changed forever.

Being a photographer myself, I knew that documenting my daughter’s birth was something that was extremely mportant to me. Even my expectations were exceeded, and I have been amazed at the emotions the photos have brought back. Photos last a lifetime, and in the heat of the moment, or even surgery, it all seems to pass so quickly. Having my daughter’s birth photographed will help us to remember those raw emotions on one of the biggest days of our lives. It is extremely hard to pick a favorite because there are so many important moments captured that day. We love how she captured it all- how scared I was and my husband catching my tears, my face after I heard our daughter cry for the first time, and we especially love the ones of our oldest daughter getting to see her little sister for the first time.

Our oldest daughter is adopted, so we had no idea what to expect with our second. I was terrified of giving birth. There are a lot of changes that take pace when giving birth, physically and emotionally. It is so cliché to say, but I didn’t know if I could love our second as much as we loved our first, and the moment we heard her cry, our hearts grew an enormous amount. Growing a child inside my body and giving birth is absolutely empowering.