Birth Photographer Duncan Oklahoma

Heather and I almost had our first face to face meeting in the birth room itself.

It was the day of my first Model Shoot for my 2023 Seniors, and Heather messaged me that she was in triage, just under careful observation. I loaded up my backpack for the hospital, and texted my sweet assistant, Kaelen, to bring her own camera and prepare to shoot the Model Session. While my girls were in Hair and Makeup, Heather was released to go home. Mom was good, baby was good - and I turned my full attention to my senior girls.

A few days later we met at a park, which was the plan all along. As it turned out, we had known of each other for a really long time - since high school! And I will tell you, it really is the coolest thing for me to have the opportunity to tell the stories of people I grew up around.

I’m not sure if you know Heather, but she gives off very much ‘chill mom’ vibes. We talked about how she would like the birth story to unfold, but also some ways that it could be different than ideal. She was ready!

And wouldn’t you know it, that very same night, she messaged me that she was on her way to the Birth Center for signs of early labor. It was time! I waited till about 11pm that evening to show up. They both were trying to get a little power nap in before Baby would be born.

She was about 9 cm dilated when I arrived. After some waiting and another check from the Carrie-Anne, the nurse, Heather was complete. She could have started pushing, but the Carrie-Anne had an idea. She asked Heather if she thought she could handle more contractions and let her body do some work on it's own to get Baby to a lower station. Heather said she could, so Carrie-Anne changed her position and set her up right. The position change did exactly was it was intended to do, and in just a few minutes Dr. Elfrink came in to delivery the Baby. After just a few rounds of contractions, Baby popped right out - perfectly pink!

The nurses were so happy with her coloring they gave her a 10/10 on her first newborn rating!

And in the same Chill Mom fashion, Heather snuggled her new Babe, and Ronnie kept bending down for a better look.

It’s part of the protocol now for Mom’s at Duncan Regional Hospital’s Birth Center to get an hour of skin-to-skin time with their baby. All exams for the baby in that first hour are done while they are on Momma’s chest. I always stay there to get those first moments that the Momma can treasure forever.

After the hour is up, if the Mom is ready, they will weigh the baby and place the baby on the warmer to finish up any measuring that needs to be done, and get those tiny baby foot prints.

Dad, of course, needed another up close look at his newest girl.

It was about 2:30am when things had settled down, and we decided that I would come back the next day to get the pictures of Big Sis’s first look.

Heather’s sister and nieces dropped off Big Sis, then peeked in the window for their first looks at Baby H. They were very, very excited, as you could imagine - you could practically hear the ‘Awwww’s through the glass.

Big Sis walked in, maybe just a little timid, but definitely amazed that the baby that used to be in Mom’s tummy was now out in the world.