Sonja | Home Birth Story | Virginia Documentary Birth Photographer

July 6, 2019

Baby girl, Mahina, born in her home on June 20, 2019 at 3:37 am

As I approached Sonja’s house in the dark around 3:20 am, I wondered whether or not I should knock or ring the doorbell. I decided to not do either since I knew she had two other kids in the house most likely sleeping. I texted letting her know I was outside. So I waited a few minutes growing anxious as I looked up to see her bedroom light on. I even contemplated throwing a rock at her window, kicking myself for not asking her beforehand if I should just walk in. All of a sudden, I heard her scream & with that, I bursted in her front door to be greeted by her mother who wasn’t even surprised that I basically broke into their house. She calmly pointed me upstairs & I ran up rounding the corner to be met by Sonja’s two midwives sitting in the hallway. They looked so chill & relaxed, I was convinced I had a lot of time so I slowed down to catch my breath, but as Sonja screamed again from her bedroom, one of them looked at me & said, “You might want to get in there. Baby is coming really soon.” I ran into the room & without thinking too much, I cheerfully said “hello Sonja!”. This woman was literally pushing a baby out without any pain medication & I walk in saying hello like nothing is happening.

This is Sonja’s third baby. She wanted this birth to be different from her first two. She desired full control, so she opted for a mostly unassisted natural birth in her home. This would be her first time going natural & she wanted every second of it to be documented in the raw, no restrictions. I had no limitations as to what I could shoot & after viewing her gallery, she gave me permission to share all of the images, if I so wished. Amazing! I am seriously in awe of this woman. She went from sleeping comfortably in her bed with zero signs of labor, to waking up with contractions around midnight, to giving birth at 3:37 am. Crazy fast!! I arrived just in time to capture the last 17 minutes of pushing, & stayed for another couple of hours photographing all of that postpartum magic.

Sonja found me on Instagram back in January. We hit it off RIGHT away chatting almost weekly. We became fast friends & I quickly fit right in once I arrived to photograph her birth.

Meet her amazing midwives here https://www.threeriversmidwifery.com