The birth of a baby is truly amazing! There are so many emotions - nervous, scared, anxious, excited, happy, and overjoyed are just a few that come to mind. Each doctor's visit means you are one month, week, or day closer to meeting your new baby. The emotions continue to build. The big day FINALLY arrives! Every labor and delivery is different. Some progress quickly, while others progress slowly...and at any moment things can change. This is such a big day for your family as a whole! Your lives will be completely changed forever.

What will you remember from this day in a year? 5 years? 20 years?

Technology has made it possible for so many of us to own a smartphone with a decent camera built in to it. This makes is so easy for us to take photos of all sorts of things that happen in our lives each and every day. What about all the "big" things? Weddings, senior years, first birthdays, and family photographs? We usually hire a photographer to photograph those big things in our lives for obvious reasons.

What's more live changing than a birth of a child? Looking back on all of the events within my own family, I can say that the birth of my children has been the most life changing event in my life - even more so than marrying my husband! Our entire family as a whole changed at the moment a new baby entered our lives. For this reason, I have compiled a list of the Top 5 Reasons to Hire a Birth Photographer.

1. To document the birth of your child. This is probably the most obvious reason that anyone would want a camera in the delivery room. After all, this is the ONLY time this child will be born. When they ask about the day they were born, what details will you remember? What would it be like if you could show them what it was like when they were born? After each birth session, the moms cry when they see the photographs. The emotions are captured and it truly is amazing to SEE and FEEL the emotions from that day. Words cannot begin to describe the day.

Dad holding mom's hand, supporting her during the birth of their baby.

2. To remember more than bits and pieces. During the labor and delivery of your child, you are focused on one thing - bringing your baby into this world. There are so many details that you do not see and comprehend at that moment because of the task at hand. The look on your husband's face while you are laboring and the look on the face of other family members as they meet the new addition. You spend the majority of the time in the delivery room in pain and often times your eyes are closed. How can you possibly notice all the details from the day?

3. A professional photographer knows how to get quality photographs. Delivery rooms have poor lighting that can negatively impact the quality of photographs. As a professional, I have studied and practiced various conditions with my camera. I know what settings to use to produce photographs that are of professional quality.

4. Let me take photographs so dad can help you. You will need your husband's support during the birth of your child. You will more than likely want his hand to hold and comfort you during the labor process rather than him standing next to you with the camera. I'm sure dad would rather experience the birth with you rather than trying to figure out the camera settings and checking to make sure that the photograph turned out. A birth photographer allows dad to be 100% present in the birth of the child.

5. This is an experience for BOTH of you. Are you going to remember, or even notice, the look on dad's face the first time he sees your baby? You obviously won't remember the look on your own face since you can't see yourself. What about the look on dad's face when he holds his child for the very first time? When you hold your baby for the first time? Hiring a birth photographer allows you both focus on the entire experience AND have the details documented. Looking back on those photographs will be priceless!

I have had five children and I never had a photographer in the room. My oldest child is 17. I remember very few details other than the "big" ones. The one memory from that day is a photograph that was taken after our son was born by my mother-in-law. This photograph was of my husband holding our son for the very first time. The look on his face, the love in his eyes, cannot be described by words. My youngest child is 2 and again, I seemed to have only remembered the "big" details. In just two short years, those tid bits of memories are gone. I'm scared to ask, "What will I remember in the next 10 years?"