For nine long months, (It’s really TEN months. The betrayal!) parents dream of and imagine their new baby. Preparing their home and nursery, scouring the ultrasound pictures for WHAT their baby will look like, dreaming of all the things they will do with this kid. And many parents plan especially for the first few hours of the baby’s life.
It’s difficult to recall what happened in the first hour of your newborn baby’s life outside the womb after you give birth since the memories are so blurry. To help new moms see just how much does, in fact, happen, Minnesota birth photographer Bryanna Field shared two powerful before-and-after photos.
The first shows a baby immediately after childbirth, and the second is that same infant, just “one hour later,” Field, who owns Swaddle Shots Photography, told POPSUGAR.
In the initial snapshot, the crying baby’s skin is still covered in a thick, white layer of vernix caseosa, which protects their delicate skin from the acidic quality of the amniotic fluid.
And then sometimes the baby isn’t quite ready to gaze into your eyes, either. Sometimes they are fussy or stunned, as well. The “Golden Hour” is best when all parties are ready and onboard.
The second, cleaned-up picture is that sweet, cinematic image most people have in their minds of what a newborn baby looks like – smooth skin, rosy cheeks, and serene, sleeping eyes.
Birth is beautiful. It’s life-changing. But no one knows you like you. Maybe you’d prefer to keep the sacred birth space for just your envisioned birth team. The golden hour session is the perfect compromise between birth photography (labor + delivery + golden hour) and fresh 48 (a couple of days after birth, before heading home)
It’s a great reminder of how fast time goes with a newborn, how things change in the blink of an eye . . . or within 60 minutes in the delivery room!
