At My Finest

by Ashley Weeks Cart

Yesterday evening, I received a text from a local acquaintance informing me that she’d received an email from Vine.com with me in labor all over the content. Yes, you read that correctly. In labor. As in about to squeeze a human being out of my vagina.

Obviously.

That statement was not in the least bit shocking or embarrassing. There have been photos of me in labor on the Internets since May of 2009, and I was merely concerned that the photographer who snapped those pix was getting properly credited.

(Fortunately, yes, she is).

I’ve written about birth photography before, but as a reminder, we had a birth photographer present for Sunny’s arrival and she did the work for free in exchange for my permission to use the images to promote her work. So, four years later, some snaps of me (and a series of other women who I assume had a similar arrangement) are pictured in Vine’s recent newsletter about what to pack in your hospital bag.

I was about to make some sarcastic crack in my text reply to Tracy that I was “so glad to be pictured at my finest all over a heavily subscribed national newsletter.” But I paused, recognizing that I actually do think that those images capture me, maybe not at my finest, but certainly at my strongest, at my most powerful and brave. Why poke fun at documentation and a life experience that is some of my proudest, most important to date (and I imagine it’ll be that way for life)?

You can click on the pic below to see the full guide and array of other images from Sunny’s birth used within it. Inspired once again by these photographs, I took a pause to revisit the full experience and was again humbled and awe-struck. I will always be grateful for this photography. It never ceases to amaze.

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