You have to make yourself pretty compact to hang out in mom’s belly for nine months.
It’s a pose Marry Fermont — a birth photographer in Middelburg, Netherlands — always tries to capture in the delivery room as parents meet their little ones for the first time.
When their baby is born, most parents can’t believe their kid was inside their tummy. It’s difficult to envision your kid coiled up inside you after it was born. You watch it coming out, but until you hold him or her in your arms, you can’t believe it was ever inside of you. This incredulity has been expressed several times, and it is for this reason that midwives began to adopt this posture – to satisfy the parents’ curiosity.
Marry has been taking pictures of newborns in this unique way ever since her first assignment. Marry was amazed at how the midwife showed the family how the baby was positioned within the womb when she photographed her first birth in 2011. “You watch the baby come out, but after they’re out, it’s impossible to believe they were ever inside of you,” Marry explained. “This will give you an idea of how it [fits].” Since then, she’s made it a habit to ask midwives to demonstrate it for the parents (if the baby is healthy enough).
Marry generally takes the photographs an hour or so after the baby is born. The newborns stay on their moms for the first hour to have skin-to-skin contact. The midwife then examines the babies’ reflexes. That’s when “I ask her to show the parents how the baby was positioned inside the womb,” Marry told us. “A lot of midwives in the Netherlands do this in general.”
“It’s a really short moment in life and so precious,” Marry said.
Women often ask their partners to hold the baby this way for the photo, but “not all dads dare to do it,” she added. Many men comply with a little encouragement.
In the photos, the babies look a bit precarious. Have you ever had one start to tumble in any way?
No, this never happened, and if there was a chance of this happening the pictures would never be done. The babies are mostly totally relaxed in this pose. They feel secure and comfortable. They are used to being folded up this way.
What about getting them in the proper spot? It does not need any particular abilities. “If you hold them properly, they will do it on their own!”
