Fresh48 Photography | Atlanta | 2020

As things settle down from the crazy holiday season, and we celebrate our second new year as a collective, we’ve realized that we have some openings for Fresh48s in February and March. So we would like to gift a photobook to each client who books a session in those months!

What is a Fresh48 Session?

This session takes place in your postpartum room during your hospital or birth center stay and is shot in a documentary style just like our birth stories. Capture those sweet, magical moments the first days of getting to know your newborn are full of. Our aim is to capture the story not pose or stage. A great session for sibling introductions, this session lasts about an hour. Within 24 hours you will receive a sneak peek that is perfect for your announcement.

View more examples of our Fresh48 photography here.

What is a Photo Book?

We offer softcover books from Redtree Albums. Printed on fine Mohawk Superfine Eggshell matte press paper, then bound into a custom photo cover. These books are a gorgeous way to display your photos, that is also safe for little hands. You choose between a single 8.5×8.5 book or a pair of 5.5×5.5 books (a perfect grandparents book!)

Fresh48 Photography | Atlanta | Baby Boy Woodall

Fresh48 hospital newborn sessions are always some of our favorites. There's just something about new families getting to know each other, finger by finger, tiny toe by tiny toe. 

They are a great option for families who want the details of their little ones captured while they are still brand new. Hiring a photographer not only allows you to be in the photos but also gives you peace of mind in knowing all of the details, the ones you so desperately want to remember but can forget so quickly in the post-delivery haze, are captured beautifully.  

Typically we go on call for clients when they are 38 weeks but we are often asked, "What happens if I deliver before then?". Just give us a heads up and we will be there!

Because of the unique way we work as a team of three, if a client goes into labor before we are officially "on-call" we are able to be there, period. You can relax and know that the moment will be captured.

The Woodall family found that out when Mom’s water broke at 35 weeks. Surprise! They had a healthy, beautiful, 4lb 11oz baby boy! We met them in their postpartum room the next day to photograph their newest family member, as well as super excited grandparents.

Congratulations to this sweet family!

Doula Advice - The Right Questions

So, you just had a baby...

“CONGRATULATIONS! How was your birth? What happened?”

These are all too often the first questions we are asked after giving birth. Questions about details and logistics. Sometimes probing to see if the experience we prepared for actually happened, usually fueled by curiosity and our tendency to compare “battle stories”.

While the events of our deliveries matter, perhaps the more appropriate question, the more helpful one, would be, “how did your birth make you feel?”.

Sometimes everything goes right on paper. Every box is checked, everything goes according to “plan”, but still, something didn’t sit quite right and colored your experience in a way that you didn’t expect.

Or maybe several things led you away from what you thought your plan was going to be. Interventions were necessary, maybe even more than a few, yet you felt even more empowered than you thought you would.

Yes, the details of what happen matter, but what matters more is why they happened and how.

“How do you feel about your labor and delivery?”

“Was it some medical event that happened to you?”

“Was it a situation you felt you had control over?”

“Were you an active participant in making decisions about your care?”

“Did you have a voice?”

“Were you educated about interventions before they happened? And asked for your consent?”

“Were your questions/concerns/fears addressed with understanding and respect?”

“Were you given time to discuss your options and to think about what was best for your specific situation?”

Recently, we had a client who delivered her baby via an unmedicated, vacuum-assisted, vaginal delivery. It was incredible watching her labor, she fell asleep after nearly every contraction, and even a few times between pushes. Her baby was stuck under her pubic bone and after pushing really well for an extended period of time, her OB suggested attempting a vacuum-assisted delivery. There was no rush, mama and baby were happy and vitals were great. So she took some time to discuss, first with her husband, then with us and then as a group including her doctor and nurses. They were educated on what to expect, informed of potential risks, and they were given time to ask questions in order to make the decision that was right for them. Together, they chose to try the vacuum and their daughter was born just a handful of pushes later.  

During one of our postpartum visits, she brought up the fact that a lot of her friends and family were “sorry” to hear she had to have a vacuum assisted delivery. They each assumed it was a disappointing outcome because it wasn’t part of her original plan.

They had all asked, “How was your birth? What happened?”, but failed to follow up to see how she felt about it. It hadn’t even occurred to her that her birth could be considered a bad experience until she had these conversations.

So many mamas have had deliveries that ended with c-sections or other interventions and are told over and over again, “at least you and your baby are safe.” I am one of them and it still drives me crazy! Just as I know hearing, “I’m so sorry” was both confusing and frustrating to Jessie. Yes, mama and baby are safe, that is the ultimate goal, but the road you take to that goal, the choices that are made, whether ones you played a role in or ones that were made for you, can be just as important.

We talk so much about how birth transforms us, in ways we expected but even more so in ways that we never could have imagined. New moms need to feel supported and to have their feelings and experiences validated. What we don’t need is lip service or placations about the events that shaped our experience.

The best thing we can do for our new mamas is to listen to their stories, validate the experience without projecting our own opinions, and never leave their house after a visit without offering to help with the laundry, pour another cup of delicious coffee, or change a diaper.

Doula + Birth Photography |Regan| Atlanta, GA

Being asked to be a birth doula and birth photographer is an honor that we do not take lightly. Birth is un predictable and often difficult, and sometimes that difficulty starts even before labor begins. This family had to change their very well laid plans from a Birth Center birth to an induction—that took a very long time (as inductions often do!). Through it all they kept their sense of humor, and learned to be flexible in the hardest moments. It was quite beautiful to witness!

“She stood in the wind, and when the wind did not blow her away, she adjusted her sails”

— Elizabeth Edwards

Atlanta Doula and Birth Photographers

The Birth Story Collective is a group of three Women, each committed to supporting and documenting life stories. We offer birth doula services, birth photography, and Fresh48 sessions to Atlanta and Decatur families.

Our Feature with Voyage ATL!

We had the please of doing a feature with Voyage ATL recently. Click the above image to read the article to learn more about how and why we came together to from The Collective— and how our unique shared call method sets us apart from other in our industry!

Iris | Fresh48 Photography + Videography | Atlanta

Sweet baby Iris arrived on a chilly morning in October to her eager parents and big sister. She was 7 pounds 15 ounces, and super cute! Big sister Scarlett arrived with her grandparents and was a little shy at first, and then wanted to hold her baby sister. Her sibling present was new polaroid film, which I think she probably used all of during our session :-)

Enjoy the Thomson family’s Hours Old (Fresh48) video; a peek into their first days as a family of four:

---

The first days after a baby is born are like no other time in a family. There is a shift as everyone transitions into the new roles they now have. Iris’s parents shifted into the parents of two daughters, and their older daughter shifted from an only child to a big sister. Before long this will be their new normal, but there is beauty in the newness of it all. It’s this beauty that an Hours Old, which many call a Fresh48 photography session capture.

An Hours Old (Fresh48) session is a photo or video session in the first hours of your child’s life. It is usually a session before you leave the hospital to go home, but sometimes it is actually a Coming Home session (if you are leaving the Atlanta Birth Canter soon after birth for example). We offer Hours Old (Fresh48) sessions at all of the Atlanta Hospitals, and we offer Coming Home sessions inside or near the perimeter.

Hours Old (Fresh48) sessions can be photo or video sessions. Photo Hours Old (Fresh48) sessions include a slideshow that is perfect for sharing with friends and family, and photo sessions are perfect for albums. We deliver an online album proof that we can tweak until it is perfect for you.

Video Hours Old (Fresh48) sessions include at least 5 edited photos, as well as the finished film set to licensed music. It’s a home movie that you and your family will cherish forever! When we sent this Hours Old

The Birth Story Collective offers birth and fresh48 photography and videography to families in Atlanta and Decatur. Reach out to see if we are available around your due date!

Sophia | Birth Photography + Videography | The Birth Story Collective | Atlanta, GA

We do our best to tell the story of our client’s births in a way that is both beautiful and honest. We know what an incredible privilege and responsibility it is to be invited into their lives to document one of the most anticipated moments of their lives. So, when we start thinking about sharing their very personal images with the world, great care is taken with the words we chose to accompany them.

There are times when our own words just can’t do justice to what the family was going through and feeling and so we turn to them. The following is from Michelle, one of the strongest mamas we have ever had the pleasure of knowing.

“I've been thinking a lot recently about how to make this post, or rather to make it at all. After getting Sophia's birth story video yesterday, I decided to move forward. All of us encounter ups and downs in life. We celebrate the exciting and happy things that come our way and mourn our tragedies and losses. Sometimes we share those with others, sometimes we keep them privately to ourselves.

As many of you know, Zach and I, we had a pretty heavy loss last year. Half way through our pregnancy, we lost a baby girl. We had already shared this pregnancy publicly, which resulted in a publicly shared loss. To be honest, it was a blessing. Communicating individually to people who I didn't know well and asked me how the baby was, became much more difficult. To add in those that asked when I was due when I looked very pregnant but carried no child, was hard as well.

We thank God every day that we are fortunate and blessed with now not one baby boy (well big boy if you ask him) but a baby girl as well. Admittedly, what I didn't expect was the profound mix of emotions upon Sophia's birth. I was so excited and in love and yet equally struck again with grief over the loss of a baby girl that was due the same time as this one a year before. By no planning on our part, their due dates were days apart (although Sophia decided to come a month early).

Early in the pregnancy, I talked to Zach about documenting Sophia's birth as I wanted to remember her coming into the world forever. We wanted to share this with you to come full circle in our journey. We are so grateful to our friends, family, doctors, and nurses who have supported us along the way.” - Michelle

Here is the birth story of the beautiful Sophia James.