So how did a guy like me end up becoming an Office Manager of a birth center, as well as a Birth Photographer? Well, it’s simple, I married a midwife! In 2004, I was hired to be a supervisor at a private airport, and I was placed on the same shift as Alex. From the very first night, I spent the last hour of my shift in the office talking to her and apparently, I distracted her from doing her homework (I didn’t really care about that though, and just wanted to spend time with her). One night, we talked about our career ambitions and Alex told me she wanted to be a Midwife, but I had no idea what a Midwife was. Since my mom had two scheduled c-sections, I was under the belief that all moms go to the hospital to birth babies. I went home that night and did an internet search and spent hours reading various articles and blogs about how babies can be born safely out of the hospital, and in some countries, Midwives attending a birth was a normal practice.
When we started dating and I encouraged Alex to become a Midwife then instead of waiting, I had no idea what I was getting in to. Her first birth as a doula, I kept calling/texting her asking when she was going to be done, but I don’t think I saw her for two days! What I did see though was the passion she had for natural childbirth and being a part of the process of birth, and I knew she had found her calling, and midwifery would be a big part of our lives.
After Alex and I were married, we wanted to start our family and there was no doubt that we would be having an out-of-hospital birth with a Midwife. Everyone thought we were crazy for having our daughter Keira in a birth center with a Midwife, but I didn’t care. I loved being involved and supporting Alex with whatever she needed through her labor, birth and postpartum, even if the tub was too small for me to get in with her. When it came time for our son Hunter to be born, Alex was in the middle of her midwifery training, and we decided that a home birth was our best choice this time. During early labor, our Midwife suggested that we take a long walk around our neighborhood and while on our walk, her doula and I would take turns supporting her upper body through contractions while the other supported under her belly with a rebozo. When active labor started, Alex began vocalizing more loudly, to the point where an elderly lady came out of her house and nervously asked if she should call an ambulance. I looked right at her with a huge grin and said, ‘Nope, we’re good! We’re just having a baby!’. She had a puzzled look with that one! For this birth, I got to to be in the tub with Alex, holding and supporting her in my arms, as well as be right next to her as she birthed our son into her hands. She was amazing!
In 2017, we bought our first birth center, and I got to help with some of the building renovations, which I love doing. When the birth center opened, I wanted to spend more time at the birth center than I did at my own job, so in December 2018, Alex and I agreed that it would be best for our family for me to join her at Heritage Births, and take over the business, cleaning and maintenance responsibilities. But that was only the beginning! When our kids were born, birth photography wasn’t really a thing yet, so we just had a friend snap a few pictures for us. We’ve always regretted we didn’t have professional pictures to document our births, so we wanted to make sure that wouldn’t happen to any other families. Starting in 2020, we needed some marketing pictures for our website, so Alex talked to a couple of her clients who couldn’t afford birth photography, and we came up with a free trade where I was able to photograph my first births. The photos I captured became so popular with her other clients, they started asking Alex if they could have me photograph their births too and so began this chapter where I’ve now been hired to photograph over 75 births. Yes, I love what I do!
When I’m not at the birth center, or working on things for Heritage at home, I am a devoted husband and dad, and a full-time zookeeper for our 5 cats and dog. I also enjoy renovating flip homes with Alex, taking lifestyle, nature and aviation photos, quoting lines from our two favorite TV shows Friends and The Office, and I am an avid sports fan. But above all that, I absolutely love working side by side with my best friend in the entire world, and I love being the ‘Husband to the Midwife’!”