Happy Birthday River | Uncensored Midwife Birth at Baptist Hospital Pensacola

River’s birth with Pensacola midwife, Jenny Allen, at Baptist Hospital was my first in my new role as a doula. Parents who want both a photographer and a doula are often faced with a difficult choice. Both are a major investment.

Megan + Ryan opted for a doula the first time around and, while nice to have, Megan felt like she could have done it on her own as she didn’t really need or want any physical support during labor. For baby #2, she decided that what she most wanted was to have her birth documented.

Click play to watch.

HEADS UP: This birth story is UNCENSORED.

Shortly after she booked with me, I obtained my doula certification! Kinda perfect right? It was perfect for me too. Megan was the ideal first client to serve as a doula. She’d done her research, knew what she wanted and didn’t want, and felt perfectly capable of advocating for herself. My role as her doula was to be her sounding board. Someone to talk through the options and pros/cons with.

She was remarkable. Deceptively so. She plowed through active labor and into transition without ever appearing to be beyond early labor. Her nurse and I were both in disbelief when Megan said she felt the urge to push. Her body is just a baby birthing machine!

Here are a few of my favorite images from the day for those of you too busy to watch the video above:

I love this last image of Megan Facetiming with big brother Carter. Not being able to have older children into the hospital to meet the baby has been heartbreaking for a lot of my clients. I’m so glad we were able to capture this moment with him…even if he is obviously more interested in Netflix than he is in his baby sister. But that’s a two year old for you.