1/28/24 1/28/24

Birth Photography + Videography FAQ's

#1. What can you expect from your birth videographer + photographer? (aka me!)

I am a professional birth videographer and photographer who believes in throwing 150% of myself into each and every birth. My goal is to give you the best photos and video I can from the day of your birth. I believe in building a relationship with my clients (especially birth since it is such a sacred space!). This is why I not only meet you before we go through the booking process, but I meet you at your home. I want to see your birth space and see the vision you have for your birth. My goal is to bring you back to the very moment your baby entered the world for years to come.

mom labors during home birth in tub water birth Earthside Birth Tub

#2 How soon should you book your birth photographer + videographer?

Immediately. I know that you have to go through the process of hiring a midwife and possibly a doula and getting insurance in order to pay for your home birth, but don't be afraid to start the conversation while you are getting your ducks in a row. I only take on 6 births a year, so availability is extremely limited.

home birth midwife examines new baby after birth

#3 When do I arrive at your birth and how long do I stay?

I aim to arrive 2-3 hrs before delivery, around 6-7 cm (all a guesstimate, as we know!) and stay approximately 2 hours after birth. I am aiming to capture all of your transition phase of birth as well as immediately after birth as you have skin to skin, cut the cord, latch for the first time. I will also capture daddy holding baby for the first time, baby getting weighed and measured during their newborn assessment and then if applicable, the siblings meeting their little baby sibling.

mother labors at home in birth tub water birth

#4 What happens if I miss the birth?

I give my clients the option of either having me call in a backup or converting their fees to other types of photography. Most often, clients don't want an unknown person walking into their birth space, so most often we plan to convert it to a credit (this has never happened by the way!). Clients can then use it for a family film or photography sessions.

Midwife Sarah fuqua ford of August Birth loves on her client in labor during a home birth

#5 Do you offer payment plans?

Yes, I do! I can divide it up into 4-6 payments, depending on your preference. As long as your invoice is paid in full by 36 weeks, all is well!

1/26/24 1/26/24

The Birth Story of Melody Ann | Nashville Birth Videographer + Photographer

Melody Ann Rhodes Allen Birth Story (as told by the mother, Emily)

December 29th 2023

With her 1 month Earth side quickly approaching (Friday) I didn’t want to put off sharing our birth story any longer! I am so proud to share our story. When preparing for a home birth, listening and reading about positive home births and mamas experiences was so beneficial for me. My hope is that this would serve as the same for others ❤️ Daniel recorded some time stamps so I’m going to go through the sequence of events in that way.

The Birth of Melody Ann | December 2023 from Jennie Pyfferoen on Vimeo.

Brief context and a little bit of my why on choosing a homebirth. I had the pleasure of meeting my beloved midwives as my own clients before I ever became one of theirs. Over the span of knowing Sarah fuqua for a few months into a year I met Sara Rosser. We became fast friends and I grew to understand their work a lot more. We shared a lot of commonalities with all things natural and holistic. I had always wanted a third child but felt so blessed to have two healthy children, so I had come to terms with having our two and calling it quits, well, God had other plans! ❤️ I’ll always say the Sarah’s final last words were if you ever have a third…😉 From the very first prenatal appointment in our living room I could tell this experience was already going to be vastly different from my previous two births. I felt held, heard, understood , and incredibly lucky to be under the care of my friends. Then I had the pleasure of meeting the force of nature that is Jennie our photographer. If I was going to do this I wanted it to be documented and she is the ultimate expert in this field!! We had the all-star team in place! I was already confident in my body with the way I birthed my other two (induced/epidural/vaginal delivery/labor time lasting less than 8 hours for both) so I was ready to embark on this new adventure!

2:45 AM: I woke up to a sudden leak of fluid and when I got up to check I dismissed it and went back to lay down. Not a minute later I felt baby move and this time a lot more fluid was leaking out so Daniel and I both got up and I got a test strip to check if it was amniotic fluid, sure enough, it was! We looked at each other excitedly! I was so excited to have this happen naturally for me and not have my waters broken in the hospital like with my other two. I called Sarah Fuqua to let her know and she told me “I was just dreaming you were calling me and then I picked up!” (I swear God made her for this work) she proceeded to tell us to try to lay back down and rest and that she understood it may be difficult to since our adrenaline spiked but that we’d need all the energy for labor in the near future. So we listened and tried to fall back asleep. We may have dozed off a little bit but eventually I just woke up expectant of baby’s arrival soon!

4:30 AM: I took a shower and prayed for Daniel, baby and myself, our midwives, my sister and our photographer. I prayed everything would flow seamlessly and that this birth would turn out to glorify him. I gave up my surrender and told him I trust in his design to help me birth my baby.

5:00 AM: By this time my sister had woken up and met us with the same amount of excitement we both were having! We started reminiscing on our birth stories together and it was such special time spent that I won’t ever forget. I had imagined that since my water broke I would start contracting soon but nothing was happening other than a steady flow of fluid.

We hung out chit chatting until our kiddos woke up at 6:45 and 7:15. Grace and Daniel made them breakfast, got them dressed and sent off to hang out with our best friends Jake and Cristy who live in our neighborhood.

9 AM rolls around and I still wasn’t feeling anything, like nothing at all, just more fluid leaking. I kind of started getting discouraged because I thought I should be feeling something by now. I asked my midwives what I could be doing to get things started. They had me start the miles circuit which is laying in certain positions to get the baby in optimal birthing position. I spent about an hour doing that until their arrival at our house.

11:15 AM I told them I am ready to do whatever in order to meet our baby soon! Another final last words scenario…😂 Sarah fuqua proceeded to have me climb our stairs three steps at a time for 15 mins straight 🥵 I felt like I bossed that out 💪🏻 and was ready to move on to the next thing. Shaking apples! That helped baby get into a good position. After this I contemplated a cervical check…I was always used to cervical checks in the hospital and didn’t necessarily think I wanted to do that this time around. But, my eagerness got the best of me and I asked them check. They said I was dilated to 4 centimeters…In my previous labors 4 centimeters was the point when I got an epidural so I was excited to feel everything in its entirety moving forward.

12:15 PM we came up with a game plan on what I’d do next; eat lunch, maybe go walk around target, come back and rest. My sweet friend Betsy showed up with lunch for us and during that time I experienced a large contraction. Hoorayyyy!! Bets prayed with me which was such a burst of encouragement to get me started into my steady flow of contractions. We ditched the game plan of going to Target because I felt like I needed to head upstairs to get more comfortable.

12:30 PM By this point my contractions were lasting 1 min each and coming 4 mins apart. Technically this indicates active labor, but I was in denial. I was hunched over holding myself up on our bed mumbling “I think I’m fine, don’t call Jennie yet”. To which Daniel and Grace called BS and called the troops in 😂 (thankfully) Then they asked if I wanted them to set the birth pool up. We wanted to time it just right so the water would stay warm. I couldn’t get out a yes or no and just said “I don’t know” and Grace said “that’s our answer” so they proceeded to start filling up the pool. Now this part of our home birth was Daniel’s territory. He was going to handle the pool and filling it up. When we went to do a practice round of blowing up the pool and connecting the water hose to our shower head, the water wasn’t fully flowing through the hose and kind of leaking out. Daniel said it’d be fine and that we didn’t need an adapter but he’d use tape if needed 🫠 alas, the day comes and as im contracting on and off the toilet and swaying side to side on all fours on the ground, I see water splashing all up and down the wall. The water wasn’t filling the pool fully and we ran out of hot water. To which I then start to cry and express “I knew this was going to happen!! I just wanted the water to work out!” Grace explained in this moment her and Daniel shared a gaze of terror like we are about to figure this sh*t out if it’s the last thing we do, lol! So they snapped into action with a new plan.

1:50 PM So by this time my midwives were actively guiding and coaching me through contractions. Grace and Daniel, the king and queen that they are started heating up multiple pots and bowls of water on the stove and microwave to take up the stairs to fill the tub (by any means necessary 😂) I was so thankful I was able to get relief in the warm pool water. All while that was happening Sarah fuqua had me on the dilation station (toilet) with my feet up on a squatty potty (not my favorite thing in the world) but this was getting me more and more dilated, I could feel it.

2:30 PM My photographer Jennie rushes over and arrives right in perfect timing! Praise Jesus!! Another perfectly timed part of our story. I remember I asked for music to be put on. “what my fathers like” by Bridge Worship came on and the intro had me in tears. The songs lyrics always made me cry during my pregnancy and it gave me comfort during this part of my labor. “After all that I’d done, didn’t know what I’d find, but you ran out to me, and to my surprise put a robe on my back a ring on my hand a crown on my head and you welcomed me in” This was such a impactful moment for me to remind me how much I am loved by my Father and how he always takes care of me. I was so proud of my body and the decision I made to birth at home. I was trusting the process and trying to stay as limp as possible and just let my body do its thing rather than tense up. After this I got out of the pool and into our bed. Sarah and Daniel started massaging my hips and applying counter pressure which felt so good! She had me alter from side to side which did not feel so good lol. I remember feeling at this point like I couldn’t go on any longer to which I expressed to Sarah and her reply was “you were made to do this, just melt into the bed” those words pushed me through the mental wall I was facing. The next feeling I had was intense pressure to go to the bathroom 💩 I actually fully thought I 💩 on the bed and I was very embarrassed, but come to find out never did (so crazy how it feels like that!) I really wanted to birth in the pool so I made a quick move from the bed into the pool, where I started to feel the overwhelming urge to push. The contractions were very intense at this point and I knew baby was about to arrive. I was on my knees in the pool with my arms draped over the edge completely focused on my body and my baby. Daniel and Sarah were positioned behind me pouring the warm over me and getting ready to receive our bundle of joy. I summoned all the energy I had left and with two primal roars and two huge pushes our newborn baby was out at 3:15 PM!!

During this pregnancy we decided to be surprised by the gender of our baby. So moments after the birth, I excitedly asked, is it a boy or girl!?! Daniel took a look and got to proclaim we had another precious baby girl!!! We were so happy! I had always heard the natural unmedicated post birth euphoria was unexplainable and transformative. I was so proud of my decision, I GOT to experience it this time! That was the most incredible thing I have ever been through. My body is incredible. I am incredible. My baby girl is incredible. My husband is incredible. My birth team is incredible. BIRTH is INCREDIBLE!!! Undisturbed, unmedicated, physiological birth. It is how God intended. It is whole. It is perfectly by design. It is not scary. It is transformative. It is powerful. It is sacred. It is the forging into motherhood. I have been made new, for the third time. In charge, confident, remarkable mama bear who accomplished her goal, my Everest. Thank you to my whole rockstar team and my incredible community of friends and family to help turn this into a reality. I wouldn’t have been able to take the steps needed to see this through, with out you. I will be forever grateful, I love you!!!

If you would like your birth videoed and photographed, you can contact me here!

1/23/24 1/23/24

Father + Son Basketball Bonding | Nashville Family Photographer

Do you or does your husband remember playing basketball with his dad?

When my son Greyson was 5, he "played soccer"... or rather, he would run back and forth pretending to be a garbage truck. I can remember it vividly (because we have video) of him running, making his lips into the shape that made the sound of a garbage truck...

He was never into athletics. Always finding frogs and loved studying snakes and reptiles and being in nature.

And then... something... changed (a lot changes in a year!) and out of nowhere in late 2022 he announced "I want to try basketball!" So we fumbled and found i9 basketball in Franklin TN.

This was the perfect league for our family. We aren't a family who runs the rat race. We cherish time together and don't want to raise our boys to be workaholics or too busy to actually live life. We try to role model and teach them to strive for balance, rather than money. So i9 sports, is GREAT! They have a 45 minute practice followed by a 45 minute game once a week! For 6 weeks.

Anyway, it's now early 2024. And Greyson has turned into a full blown athlete. It's still something my husband and I look at one another and shake our heads and say "this was not on our bingo card!" We love it, it just still shocks me that he became athletic. You just never know how these kids will shape up as they grow.

For his 11th birthday, we got him a basketball hoop and the kid practices daily! Lately he and his daddy play games together on the regular. and I HAD to capture it, because I know these will be one of those things that feels unimportant in the moment and later we realize was VERY impactful. The memories of daddy and Grey playing games, the smack talk, the wins and losses and remembering that when he asked, his daddy said YES.

It's like that with a lot of little things in life as we raise kids. We under appreciate the value of what we are doing day in and day out. We undervalue the rocking, the snuggles, the kisses, the hugs, the boo-boo kisses, the dinner making, the game playing, the trips we take... they ALL add up to the story of our kids growing up, the story of their roots, the story of their bond with their siblings and parents. It all makes them into who they become. AND it all matters. SO much.

If you want your family Photographed, Lets chat!

1/22/24 1/22/24

Unposed Vs Posed: What's the difference? | Nashville Family Photographer

In the Photography network, photographers refer to types of photography with the terms documentary or lifestyle... but for the average mom or dad out there looking to hire a photographer, they may not know what all of these terms mean.