Well here I sit…on the brink of a new horizon. I am finally breaking into what is my absolute PASSION: birth. Yep, childbirth. Bringing new life earthside. I am super-excited to be photographing the birth of a friend of mine, due in two weeks (although baby may come sooner!), and things are really coming together! I cannot WAIT to stop time for this family as they welcome their newest little one. For me, birth is a rite of passage. It’s the ultimate symbol of strength in a woman. It is something that only WOMEN were created for, and something only WOMEN can handle. (You know all those jokes about how men wouldn’t be able to deal with one hour of active labor? Well, it’s true! Most of them can’t! My husband included…and yes, Mr. Bunch, I know you’re a bodybuilder…but women win the strength, stamina, & determination contest hands-down. Unless you would like to have our next baby drug-free? Let me know. Kiss kiss.)

I’m so totally stoked to finally be merging my passions and living my dream of becoming a Florida birth photographer!

Personally, I have a LOT (a LOTTTTTTTT) of experience with & education on babies, births, new mamas, breastfeeding, post-partum, children, toddlers, new daddies, vaccines, etc etc etc. First, I have two babies that I carried in my womb. My son was born in a hospital, a very clinical setting that was terrible with its stark walls and sterile smell. He was also 20 weeks too early, so he went home to be with Jesus about 30 minutes after he was born. So not only have I dealt with giving birth in a hospital, but I have had pregnancy complications, non-natural labor & delivery, but I’ve also dealt with the loss of my baby, which was life-changing in and of itself. Then, my daughter was also born in a hospital. Although I wanted to deliver in a birth center, my husband was too nervous for us to do that due to the complications of my pregnancy with my son. But I wanted as natural and drug-free of a birth as I could get, even in a hospital setting. So, after about a decade of research at that time, I labored at home with my daughter until I was 7cm. (Mr. Bunch was pacing the house; he thought for SURE I was going to have our baby right there on the bedroom floor!! Which, looking back now, I probably should have! ha)

(That’s my Angel-Baby on her birth day!)

In addition to birthing my own children, I have also worked in various aspects of healthcare for many years. I have worked on a Labor & Delivery unit, a Mother-Baby unit, a pediatric Cardiac ICU, a pediatric Emergency Room, a pediatric ICU, and hematology/oncology. I now have more than 12 years of research & practice under my belt with regard to birth, labor, delivery, breastfeeding, newborns, and post-partum. I nursed my daughter for almost two full years…we dealt with thrush, clogged ducts, cracked nipples, low supply, teething, mastitis, you name it. It was WONDERFUL!! Truly. Every moment spent with my children (and our two older children) has been pretty stinkin’ amazing.

So anyway, now that you have a GLIMPSE of an idea of where I’m coming from…NOW we bring into the picture my OTHER passion: photography! (Betcha already knew THAT answer, didn’t ya!)

It is fulfilling my ultimate dream to be a photographer. Every day I wake up realizing how BLESSED I am to be able to do what I love. But offering BIRTH PHOTOGRAPHY to soon-to-be new parents (and lots of seasoned parents!)…WHOA. Now you’re talkin’!!

You might have a couple of cell phone pictures or a 1-minute video to mark this massive milestone…but most new mamas and dads suddenly find themselves in the brand new world of parenting, without documented memories of the powerful life-change that took place when their tiny one came earthside. Having photos of your birth is so important…I know personally, for the births of MY children, I was exhausted for the first couple of DAYS, so trying to remember those laboring hours, and the details of my babies’ tiny toes and eyelashes, and the look on my husband’s face when our baby came earthside…well, having those memories in my hand, in birth photographs, means more to me than anything else in our kids’ Memory Boxes. I can look at those pictures and go right back to those very moments. And it is purely AMAZING.

Birthography (or birth photography) not only captures the moments as they unfold…but also the details; the feelings; the emotion; the sense of actually BEING there.

Birth photography allows you to have more than a birth story.

It creates the ability to relive every moment of your child’s BIRTH. Even with the tiniest detail of a calm birthing tub or a soon-to-be mama humming through a contraction… to the raw emotion shared between a loving couple… to the moment where baby snuggles up to mama and daddy… and they all fall in love together.

So many parents have voiced how much they regret not hiring a professional photographer for their birth. It breaks my heart that these parents will never have those once-in-a-lifetime memories captured! And so many parents who do hire a birth photographer are so grateful to have their professional photos… many of them realizing after their baby’s arrival that they “didn’t realize how important these photos would be.” As one of my recent moms said, “I could have never remembered the birth of my little girl in such detail… she completed our family and we are done. So being able to have these photos is such a huge blessing! THANK YOU for being there so I can relive every minute, anytime I want.” We create professional art which can be proudly displayed in your home… and in your new nursery.

Your story…your details…your spouse…your family…all living these moments together.

With a birth photographer, you not only get to LIVE the moment, but you get to relive it again and again, through photos taken by a professional who specializes in birth. These fleeting moments in your family’s life that pass by so quickly, and cannot be recreated. Every birth is unique. Every detail is personal to you and your family. And you don’t have to miss out on any of them!

If you’ve been on the fence about hiring a birth photographer, let’s sit down together over a cup of coffee (or pickles and ice cream!) and we’ll talk about all of your plans, wishes, wants, and needs for how you want to remember the birth of your baby. Believe me when I say, every birth is different and EVERY baby deserves to be remembered on their birth day.

We currently offer birth photography in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Naples, Punta Gorda, Sarasota…so we cover most of Southwest Florida. Click here if you are looking for Fort Myers Birth Photography; click here if you are looking for Naples Birth Photography, and click here if you are looking for Sarasota Birth Photography. Or head on over to our Facebook page and come see all the fun stuff we’ve got going on (including special deals just for our Facebook fans!). And please feel free to drop me a line (here) so we can chat about your upcoming birth… I can’t WAIT to hear all about it!!

(pardon the cell phone pic. Angel-Baby was about 4 days old here,
so we were both exhausted…)

Stopping Time…Capturing Life…

Shay