Midwife to Motherhood, Maternity and Newborn Photography Specialist…

Many of you may already know but often it is something new that you learn about me when you come to my Birmingham studio at your maternity photoshoot! 

It is true, I used to be a midwife! I worked in a few local trusts and one outside of Birmingham and I LOVED it. I qualified as a registered midwife in 2014, following an accelerated degree programme for registered nurses, lasting 18 months.

Becoming a midwife was a dream come true for me, I knew deep down I always wanted to become one and my parents speak fondly of my love for the babies in the family. I do remember always voluteering for babysitting and spending as much time as possible when I could around the new mother and baby.

During my career, I spent time on the delivery suite, where many of you will know is the department where you labour and birth your baby, however I got some time on the birth centre, community and wards during my training. 

I remember some of the most incredible births, on beds, floors, bathrooms, pools. Babies came whenever they felt like it and the joy of being there to witness that carried me through the 12-13 hour shifts. 

Of course, becoming a mother hadn’t always been the joyous occasion for all and I always felt so deeply privileged to care for women birthing angel babies.

So Why Did I Leave?  Most, if not all of my maternity and newborn photography clients ask me this and I always speak highly of my previous career but like you, I eventually became a mother myself and I suddenly felt the change in my priorities. I nolonger wanted to ‘work whatever shift I was given’ because I wanted to spend as much time as I possibly could with my baby girl. One of the wonderful parts of working for the NHS meant that I was able to stay off work with her and enjoy the first year of Motherhood and I struggled with the return to work and changing shift patterns. Plus, I missed her dearly!! My partner was a nurse too so we had conflicting working patterns and trying to have the most time together and least time for nursery for her was so stressful.

At this point, in 2017, I had already picked up a camera and I was taking pictures of Olli. Little did I know that in 2021 I would have a thriving business, that actually survived a pandemic, an incredible studio space in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, creating award-winning maternity photography, a partnership with the camera brand Nikon Europe and be an ambassador for LSP Actions and Editing Tools for Photographers as well as judging image competitions and accreditations for APNPI which is an international photography association!

I chose maternity and newborn photography because I am so deeply inspired by pregnancy and birth. It fundamentally underpinned my career choice in the NHS and it is a joy to have it continue to inspire my love for photography and choice of genre. 

As a midwife, being ‘with-woman’ to encourage, adore, inspire, support and empower women is our ultimate goal. Being able to do that with my maternity photography is an absolute honour and I would always be grateful for my career as an NHS midwife for influencing that.

I am extremely grateful to the clients who choose me and it really does make me so happy to know that part of your choice being made was because of my experienced hands. This unique element has enabled me to be so comfortable with creating incredible photographs with pregnant women and of course, handling and photographing those precious newborn babies! 

I do miss midwifery, the excitement and the rush, witnessing people become parents! 

BUT, I absolutely adore being CHOSEN by clients to capture a moment in time that is so, very special. So thank you. That means the absolute world to me. 

One of the things about this job is that I get to meet other incredible creative people and I wanted to share the work of Carolann Neil who is a specialist in the most beautiful, Fine Art portraits of children. You can learn more about her here: 

C A Neil Photography

I hope you have enjoyed reading about me!

See you soon on the next blog!