Deathtog

Last night I got to witness the miracle of birth, followed immediately after with the shattering pain of death. A woman reached out to me asking if I could photograph her baby boy who was to be born with anencephaly. What I didn’t know until I got there was that I would be in the room for the actual delivery.

Struggling between the love and strength this woman and her husband showed, and the immense pain and trauma of watching a baby birthed only to die on his mother’s chest, my heart breaks for the family. My heart breaks as a woman and as a mother; as a human watching another human in pain.

I didn’t sleep at all last night. Instead I was restlessly filled with tossing, turning and heartbreaking imagery of what I can only imagine in the absolute worst pain in this human lifetime: the loss of a child; the loss of a dream.

I wish I could attach a photo of this warrior woman, but she deserves privacy and solidarity from me, not just a photo for likes, so I’ll just use a stock photo instead.