There is a kind of magic that lives in the everyday moments of birth and postpartum — in the way a hand is held, a body is supported, a breath is taken, a new story begins.

This collection brings together featured photographs from our Fall/Winter 2025 submission series, highlighting births and postpartum experiences across homes, birth centers, and hospitals. Each image offers a glimpse into a moment that is both deeply personal and universally felt — strength, vulnerability, transition, and care.

Together, these photographs remind us that birth is not one singular experience, but many. And within that range, there is beauty worth witnessing, honoring, and remembering.

Scroll through to see the full gallery and read the reflections submitted by the photographers.

This is the first of two online features highlighting our Fall/Winter 2025 photo series — stay tuned for part two, where we’ll share images and stories from those featured in our print issue.

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"Sitting on the toilet with her feet grounded, body upright. There is space. Safety. Privacy.
A place to hide away without disappearing. A place where gravity becomes a gentle ally and the body is trusted to remember what to do next.
There is no performance here. No audience. Only breath, instinct, and time...
Birth doesn’t always end in the spotlight. Sometimes it ends in stillness, in a locked door, in safety, in the quiet dignity of a body completing its work."

Everyday Magic, Ashlyn Cooper @focusedonlovebirthphotography

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"In the hours after birth, a father holds his newborn daughter skin-to-skin, taking in the weight of the moment and the responsibility now in his arms. Early skin-to-skin contact helps regulate a baby’s temperature, heart rate, and breathing, and supports a sense of safety during the transition to life outside the womb. This moment reflects how fathers can play an active, essential role in their baby’s first hours earthside."

The Gentlest Strength, Savannah Bryan @savannaha.photography

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"There is a moment after birth where everything is both immense and gentle.
Exhaustion and love coexist. The body remembers, even as it rests.
Traces remain — not as disruption, but as evidence of passage. It asks to be respected, protected, and honored as the soft beginning of becoming a family."

Calm After The Storm, Marie-Pier Dion @mariepier_birthphotographer

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"This image speaks to a way of knowing birth that cannot be measured.
‍It is understood through presence, attention, and trust.
By listening, observing, and feeling, we learn to read birth with all our senses — without relying on tools, but on lived experience."

Gaze Into Birth, Marie-Pier Dion @mariepier_birthphotographer

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"This image was taken during a cesarean birth, a moment that can feel clinical, urgent, and overwhelming from the outside. But what I saw was something different. In the middle of bright lights, machines, and a room full of movement, there was this quiet pause. A mother meeting her baby for the very first time. That stillness in her face, the way the world seemed to soften for just a second, is why I titled this image The Quiet Among the Chaos. Even in surgical births, there is tenderness, connection, and an unmistakable calm that settles when a baby arrives."

The Quiet Among the Chaos, Lo Cerna, LC Birth Stories @lcbirthstories

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"This sweet big sister-to-be was so engaged with mama’s belly. I couldn’t help capturing the adorable scene."

Helping Hands, Elizabeth Anderson @elizabethanderson_photographer

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"This was a gestational carrier birth. It was such a moving and emotional experience for everyone. You can see on mama’s face the overwhelming emotion of finally having her baby in her arms."

The Greatest Gift, Elizabeth Anderson @elizabethanderson_photographer

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"Body, baby, surrender & inner knowing. SHE KNOWS."

Mama & Benji Working, Jenna Nord @jennanordphotography

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"These images capture a mother who knows birth from both sides —  She is a midwife, and a mother.  The first frame shows my dear client, laboring with intensity and resolve, embodying the raw power of bringing life into the world. The second shows her days later at home, calm and confident, breastfeeding her newborn with a steady, knowing gaze. It is a visual story of strength that doesn’t end at birth — it continues."

The Strength Within #1, Jennifer Mason Photography @jennifermasonphotography

The Strength Within #2, Jennifer Mason Photography @jennifermasonphotography

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"This photo is incredibly personal. My preceptor is the Midwife in the picture Jenna Hernandez CNM, she is the Mobile Midwife of San Antonio and the only Queer Homebirth Midwife in San Antonio, for the past 3 years she has taught me how and what being a midwife is truly about.

This photo is of our Queer clients who were pregnant with first child via IVF, the partner who was carrying, her mother is also Queer. And that is her other mother touching her belly, with her Wife Amanda giggling excitedly above everyone. It was the first time they had felt the baby move, and I turned and captured this beautiful moment."

Representation in Generations, Allie Contreras @studentmidwife_allie

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The Thrill of It All, Erin Loughlin @loughlin_birthandfamily

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"When a woman feels safe and supported, she focuses on her body, her hormones naturally fulfill their role, and the baby finds its way out. Women know how to give birth and babies know how to be born.”

Between Two Worlds, Ana Carvalho @anacarvalhophoto.pt

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"A newborn still sleepy, instinctively searches for the breast minutes after birth, driven by primal survival instincts and the need for warmth and comfort. Placed skin-to-skin, he uses his senses to locate the nipple and mama is helping him, allowing to initiate feeding within the first hour.”

Unraveling Breastfeeding, Ana Carvalho @anacarvalhophoto.pt

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"Creamy, sacred, and full of purpose. Designed by nature to shield baby's delicate skin as they transition from womb to world, Vernix is a reminder that even in the messiest moments of birth, there is beauty and intention."

Creamy, Luz Elena Silva @mintandcocoaphoto

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"This image was taken during my second birth with this family. There's always something special about being invited back as a member of the birth team after you've supported and documented for a family previously, and something beautiful in the seamless way they make space for you as you walk alongside."

Held, Megan Angstadt-Williams @badger_and_quill_photography

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"Alexis didn't have a great first birth experience, and hired me as her doula to help her prepare and learn how to advocate for herself during her birth, and as a photographer, to capture the sacred moments during the process. This photo was taken very shortly after birth, and In Alexis' words: "I let out the most guttural, primal scream my body could muster, just to convey what my body was feeling. In between those screams, I remember nurses and midwives rushing in. The midwife encouraged me to push if I could, and I saw her fumbling to get her gloves on in between pushes. After about 3 pushes, the biggest wave of relief came as Henry came out. His body seemed unreal on my chest, and tears of utter joy and euphoria poured out of my eyes. I couldn’t help but laugh at the fact that mere minutes ago I was asking for medication, and now I was holding my son, in the most amazing, beautiful emotional high I’ve ever been through. In that moment of birth, I had never felt more powerful, more dependent on my husband/support and more close to my Creator. What a beautiful gift birth can be."

My Heart on the Outside, Megan Angstadt-Williams @badger_and_quill_photography

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"This image captures the quiet juggling of motherhood. One body holding many needs at once—feeding one child while another reaches for comfort. Our bodies, our time, our love are constantly divided, stretched, shared. And yet, somehow, there is grace here. Beauty in the way we adapt, in the way we give without keeping score. This is what it looks like to mother more than one child—full, messy, tender, and deeply human."

Juggling, Sarah Steffen @sarahwimmersteffen

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"This sweet family (Alexis & Armani Johnson) had long awaited the arrival of their rainbow baby and mom was quite nervous about birth. With the use of Nitrous Oxide during transition and into pushing, she with such control and calmness, breathed her sweet baby into the world on hands in knees. This image was immediately after baby was passed through her legs and into her arms."

Promised Embrace, Brianna Trammell @raising.serendipity and @thenurturingcompany

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"This birth was special in many ways. It was a VBAC2, carrying both trust and uncertainty. While it seemed there was still time, I decided to go to the hospital that night. As I entered the room, the contractions intensified and the baby was born within moments. The speed of it all caught everyone by surprise.

The room was filled with support and love, and this embrace, just after birth, shows exactly what I love to capture as a photographer: real connection and care.

I especially love this photo because it shows three generations of women, grandmother, mother and daughter, and it was particularly meaningful that the grandmother could be there to support the mother, as she had not been able to attend her previous cesarean births."

Generations United, Christine Roose of CameraChris @camera_chris

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"The sun was setting outside their bedroom window. That golden hour hit just in time for a new mother during her own postpartum “golden hour”. It could not have been more perfect. Mom just gracefully welcomed her baby girl into the world. She sat in her birthing pool admiring every detail of that perfect new face. I just completed my first “water birth” birth story. It was euphoric for everyone!"

Light of Their Life, Sydnie Decou ofBaton Rouge Birth Photographer @sydniedphotos

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"Dad placed baby down to take part in the newborn exam and baby held onto his finger, not quite ready to separate."

Held, Autumn Hutton @neworleansbirthphotographer

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Between Worlds, Morgan Liberatore @morning_owl_fine_art

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"The selected image was captured at a beautiful home birth I was invited to photograph last year. It was an incredibly special space, supported by the most wonderful team — a warm and grounded primary midwife, and a second midwife who also happened to be the birthing mother’s twin sister. They had actually been pregnant together three times, and the twin sister had only recently had her own baby (and had the little boy with her), which added another layer of tenderness to the room.

The couple’s older child was present, and just before the baby arrived, the dad stepped into the birth pool to support his partner. This image shows the mother leaning her head on his shoulder, their baby newly born between them — a quiet, powerful moment of connection and love. It still gives me goosebumps every time I see it."

Born From Strength, Antje McLaughlan @antjemclaughlanphotography

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"This photograph was taken as part of the Black Birth Joy Project, a photovoice campaign aimed to help shift the narrative of Black Maternal Health to be more empowering and positive through storytelling and visual photographic art. What I love about this photograph is that it captures a tender, yet powerful moment. Baby is resting in those first moments, skin to skin on his mama with the umbilical cord still intact, playfully between his tiny toes. The surrounding hands reflect collective care, advocacy, and presence, emphasizing support rather than urgency. This photograph affirms that Black birthing people deserve gentleness and to be fully seen and protected through all phases of childbirth."

Entwined, Tiana Lashae @blackbirthjoy and @motherhoodportraits_tlashae

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“I feel this image captures so much of the raw and real immediate postpartum moments: the relief and exhaustion on mom’s face, the partner reaching out to comfort her, the placenta still attached to baby.”

After Birth, Aubrey Gann @nurturingdawnbirthservices

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“This second-time mom was transferred from birth center care to the hospital to be induced. A few hours into her induction — with no epidural — she told her nurses she was ready to push. A cervical check 'showed' the nurses that it wasn’t time to push. Well a few minutes later, baby was crowning with no provider in the room. You can see the nurse getting gloves on, the mother reaching down to touch her baby’s head, and the doula and partner comforting her as the room got chaotic. It’s a good reminder for pregnancy providers: believe your patients.”

It's Not Time to Push Yet, Aubrey Gann @nurturingdawnbirthservices

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“Mere moments after the most redemptive home birth, she sweeps her baby into her arms and announces the long awaited question: a boy or a girl? Her husband and mom grab hands and squeeze in anticipation, excitement, and pure awe. Another sweet, strong, and fierce baby girl welcomed into their family and this world."

I Did It, Miranda Jewels Garcia @mirandajewelsbirths

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"What if we grew up learning that resting was the first rite of passage after birth? That the quiet, dim, sacred postpartum hours were not something to rush through or clean up (let your birth team do that for you!), but to soak in like sunlight for the soul. Birth doesn't just open our bodies-but cracks us wide enough to let the immensity of love pour in.

In this sacred space, mother and baby are still one -learning each other, imprinting through skin, breath, milk and presence. This is the medicine. This is the ceremony. This is how we root love in the next generation."

The First Latch, Diana Hinek @dearbirth

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"After the heartbreaking loss of their beloved son, this journey into parenthood has been one marked by both deep sorrow and enduring hope. Through IVF (and knowing this would be their final attempt due to the mother’s age) they took a brave step forward, carrying their love, their grief, and their longing with them.

Now, against all odds, they welcome the birth of their triplets. Their arrival does not erase the loss of their son, who will always be part of their family and their story, but it brings new light after a long season of darkness. These three precious lives are a testament to resilience, love, and the quiet strength it takes to believe in joy again while still holding space for what was lost."

Bo De Saedelaere @bofotografie_doula

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