Image: Shutterstock
Ask a mother, in a lifetime of firsts what tops the list, and you can count on the answer being seeing or holding her baby for the first time! If you are hoping to get pregnant or going to bring your little one into the world soon, this photo gives you a glimpse into the magic of birthing.
Warning: Be prepared for lumps in your throat and that blinking feeling in your eyes. It’s about to get emotional!
In the ongoing debate about the better birth process between C-sections and natural births, it’s easy to miss the beauty and joy in the moment of the actual birth. Whatever the debate may have been before going into labor, once the baby has started crowning everything else gets pushed to the background.
Ironically, the only one in the delivery room who cannot actually see the first appearance of the baby is the mother, if it is a natural birth. Husbands and partners, nurses, midwives, and doctors – mothers tend to piece together hushed, exclamatory words of awe, celebration, and assurances of a safe delivery to know what’s going on in the screened part of their bodies.
Unlike in a vaginal birth, in a c-section birth the mother’s body is partitioned with a screen, and hence she is visually unaware of the entire process. Now that delivery rooms have more relaxed protocols, mothers can often request photographs of the first sight of the baby to look back in wonder, later.
This photo, of a baby emerging through a C-section, was captured by the father upon the request of the mother and shared with their doula who posted it on her Instagram feed empoweredbirthproject.
The photo clearly had an impact given that it went viral almost immediately. If its arms are any indication, the baby looks as though she knows it is a victorious moment for the entire birthing team. The mother of the baby girl in this photo said she had to shake the father out of his trance to capture this photo.
Image: empoweredbirthproject/Instagram
With so many photos of water births and doula births going viral, this photo offers a glimpse into one of the oldest birthing processes in the world.
Some babies need surgical intervention, and despite the higher rates of C-section deliveries, this birthing process and the mothers – some of whom choose it, and some who do not have a choice in it – have received a lot of flak recently.
Talking about the process and the surgery’s scars continues to be a sensitive subject. In many countries, women are opting for C-sections, as opposed to previously when C-sections were advised only for complicated vaginal births, and women have been at the receiving end of criticism for it.
C-section birth processes are by no means easier or simpler for the mother, and they go through the same emotional rollercoaster as mothers opting for vaginal and other births.
Image: empoweredbirthproject/Instagram
Going beyond just her personal experience, the mother of the baby girl said that through the photo she had hoped to honour the strength of those women, who had given C-section births before her. Also, she wanted to offer strength and inspiration to pregnant women who are to deliver soon. Is there anything more inspiring than a fellow mother sharing her own experience to reassure us about our soon-to-be experiences?
What’s even more special about this photo is that the baby is still tied to the mother through the umbilical cord and speaks about an unbreakable bond between the two. How many mothers get to preserve such a moment in a photo? If a picture is said to be worth a thousand words, this one is worth at least a million (and that’s an unbiased view!).
