Women Catching Their Own Babies - Babymoon Inn Birth Center

A few months ago while retelling a birth story in my Lamaze class, I got to the part where “mom reached down and caught her baby,” and was met with giggles at the use of the term.

We talk about about “catching babies,” pretty frequently around the birth center. A midwife or doctor doesn’t deliver a baby. The mother delivers her baby, while a midwife, birth partner, or mother herself “catches” the baby.

I realized two things at that moment in class – that a woman “catching her baby” was not only an unfamiliar term, but also an unfamiliar concept. I was, of course, delighted to share with the class the joy of catching one’s own baby – an experience that personally still gives me goosebumps years later.

Doula and birth photographer Morag Hastings or Apple Blossom Families shares my love for seeing and hearing about women catching their own babies – so much so that she recently shared a blog post containing ten stunning images of this exact event.

Morag writes:

I was showing my girlfriend my recent slideshow featuring a mom catching her own baby. She asked me part way through, ‘Where are the midwives?’ I explained they were in the background for most of the birth, they would pop over quietly for a moment then go back to the kitchen table. They were giving my clients space to work through the intense waves. Not breaking the dance that was ensuing between the birthing mom and her partner. When the baby was being born into the mom’s hands, the midwife was right there ready to help if the mom needed it.

Who caught your baby? What was that moment like?

See all of Morag’s images.

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