The gift of precious memories through birth photography

Catching the very moment a newborn takes his or her very first breath, an unusual team of two photographers and a gynaecologist are gifting parents with magical memories at Mediclinic Nelspruit.

An esteemed obstetrician and gynaecologist, Dr Richard Joubert, has been working with two professional birth photographers since late 2020, capturing the miracle moments during the child birthing process so that parents are able to look back at this wonderous time in detail.

Joubert and photographers Lizelle Schoeman and Charlotte van Rensburg of Dynamic Photography have successfully captured these rare and emotional moments in over 250 births since September 2020.

Speaking to Lowvelder about this unique project, Joubert said he had had the idea about birth photography for
many years, but could not find the correct photographers to work with until one of his own patients, Schoeman,
called and asked him if she could offer his patients maternity shoots at reasonable rates.

“I told Lizelle I would think about it and the next day I called her back and asked if she would be interested in birth photography and she was immediately excited about it,” said Joubert.

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Schoeman then roped Van Rensburg in and soon after, they were being called into theatre every few days to document the emotion.

“Often with births, the father is so busy taking pictures and videos of the process that they do not actually get to fully experience and enjoy the moment, so we take that pressure off the parents completely,” said Schoeman.

“We capture all those raw emotions and the wonder of new life. Each birth is unique and so very incredible. We see and hear all these wonderful moments, and the heartbreaking ones and photograph what we can,” she said.

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Joubert said when this project initially started, there was some hesitation from some of the other staff, however, soon the two photographers became part of the team.

Soon other doctors were asking to be involved in the project and now there are several who use the services of Dynamic Photography.

“They make the parents and the staff feel so comfortable and are extremely sensitive to the emotions of the parents and what is going on during the birth,” said Joubert.

He said he helps the pair to capture the best pictures they possibly can by placing the baby on the chest of the mother for a few minutes after delivery, before handing the newborn to the paediatrician.

“That’s when you get that raw emotion. We recently got permission for fathers to cut the baby’s cord. There are a few more logistics to work out as the cord cutting is usually done by fathers in natural births, but now we can encapsulate these wonderfully extraordinary moments with different methods of birth.”

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Joubert said the project would not have been possible without the willingness of Mediclinic Nelspruit to accommodate them. “I have to commend Mediclinic on being open-minded and allowing and embracing the idea,” he said.

“Hundreds of parents now have these memories in extreme detail and that would not have happened if Mediclinc
had said no.” Schoeman and Van Rensburg also thanked Mediclinic for allowing the process.

” We have met the most incredible people and have been able to photograph the most amazing moments as well as the heartbreak. We love what we do and the memories we can give all these parents,” said Van Rensburg.

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