I remember when I first started photographing births I heard a midwife say, “We call them the tricky three because they are a wild card. You never know how the birth will go.” I never really understood this saying until I started attending births for mamas having third babies. I now realized what they meant by wild card is that it can be slow and steady or fast and furious.

That evening, on June 16th, I got a text message saying, “tonight is the night.” This sweet mama had been having some start and stop contractions but that night they were different. She knew her body was changing and getting ready to birth her baby. Much later that evening I got a message saying that contractions were getting closer together. Not long after that a message mentioning mama’s water had broken. There’s something about the water breaking that just lights a firecracker under you as a birth worker, especially when it’s a third baby. Needless to say I flew there as fast as I could, knowing it probably wouldn’t be long until baby was born.

When I arrived mama was already headed into transition. I heard one midwife call out, “You’re 9cm! Way to go mama! I’m just going to call my back up.” With each contraction she allowed her body to be consumed by the waves of labour. Each one long and strong, bringing her closer and closer to meeting her baby.

Transition is the moment in labour you feel like you have reached the end of yourself and then finding a strength within you that you didn’t know you had.

This mama listened to her body as the fetal ejection reflex began to kick in and her body began to birth her baby involuntarily. It wasn’t many pushes before this mama welcomed her sweet baby into her arms right in the comfort of her own home.

The moment you meet your baby for the first time is breath taking. It’s a moment when time feels like it stands still yet also feels unbelievable and unreal. A heavenly moment here on earth.