Birth photographers capture deeply emotional and personal moments for parents.
To celebrate this work, Birth Becomes Her, a birth photography blog and community, held a contest featuring real images focusing on aspects of early motherhood. The prompt invited photographers around the world to submit images they took in 2017 for the categories of labor, birth, postpartum, breastfeeding and maternity.
A panel of judges selected three winners in each category and an overall winner out of a pool of nearly 1,000 submissions. More than 20,000 Birth Becomes Her followers voted for the people’s choice award winners.
“We believe that these images are worth seeing and celebrating,”contest organizers wrote on the site, where they announced the winners on Feb. 13. “We believe that motherhood and the female body should not be censored.”
Here are 20 stunningly intimate photos of pregnancy, birth and postpartum experiences. To see all of the submissions, visit Birth Becomes Her.
(Note: Some of these photos might not be considered suitable for viewing in all situations.)