Anytime I'm invited into a birth space, I feel grateful that the family has chosen me to document one of the most amazing days of their life. But I'm even more honored when a friend wants me to document her birth, and it was the home birth of their third child and a VBA2C. When I share her story, I also share a part of my story.  Our birth stories are intertwined and it was such a wonderful experience going through having VBAC's together after we shared our cesarean births together in 2011.

A mutual friend introduced Jasmine and I in 2012.  When we met, we realized that we were both in the same childbirth class at Mountain Midwifery Center in 2011.  The similarities didn't end there.  We both had to transfer out of the birth center, and had to deliver our babies in the hospital, by cesarean section, after an induction didn't work.  We both had baby girls who were perfect in every way.  And we both started doing birth work after the experiences we had; Jasmine trained to be a doula and I turned to birth photography.

When Jasmine found out they were pregnant with baby #2 in 2013, they planned a homebirth and were my first birth photography clients. However, baby #2, Auden, had different plans.  She was breech and had to also be delivered by cesarean section.

When they found out they were having baby #3, they wanted me to photograph their hopeful VBA2C home-birth, and I was beyond thrilled.   Jasmine was due just three months after my baby was due, and we went through our pregnancies together.  We shared our hopes for having a safe birth, a home-birth, a VBAC, and our struggles and worries as well.  It was fitting that we were both going through this together.

During Jasmine's pregnancy, this little baby flipped to breech position, and Jasmine spent much of her third trimester going to numerous appointments trying to get baby to turn.  Then, after everything else had been attempted, she tried a version (external cephalic version) at St. Joseph Hospital, which was successful!  Baby was now head down and ready for birth!  A few weeks later, Jasmine's water broke and contractions didn't start right away.  Once they finally did start, they were not consistent.  Jasmine had been laboring, on and off, for two days.  Eventually exhaustion took over and she went to the hospital for rest and pain relief.  I came to the hospital in the middle of the night, as Jasmine labored through tough contractions and slept in between when she could.  Finally, it was time to push!  After having two cesarean sections prior to this, pushing was a really exciting moment.  It only took a few minutes of pushing and their baby was here and it was a GIRL!.  They were now the parents of three girls, and Jasmine had her VBA2C.  It was a long journey to get to that moment, but it was worth it.

Take a minute to see some of my favorite photos during Jasmine's VBA2C birth!  I cried happy tears throughout the entire delivery, you can feel the emotion in the room.

Laboring on the third day, hoping to still be able to VBA2C.  It was finally time to push out her VBA2C baby and to find out if this little person was a boy or girl!Each placenta is different, I love the colors, the vibrancy and the life that this organ brings. First latch.