Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/267325
42 BRAVA MAGAZINE | MARCH 2014 The Beauty BY KATE BAST | PHOTOGRAPHY BY LEA WOLF Truly, no parent forgets the birth of their child. But where our awareness is focused changes with each stage of labor. For Barbara McGovern birth photography mended the disconnect between being absorbed internally or physically in what was happening with her body and being present in the moment. "I was checked out in labor land," says McGovern, of Milton, who hired photographer and doula Lea Wolf to document her son William's birth. "It was amazing," she says of the after-the-fact images, "to see the expressions on my face and remember it." Whether they go as planned or have unexpected twists, says Wolf, "All births have their beauty and moments that are worth capturing." The images are "honest, intimate and true," says Wolf, documenting "how it can be—and the intimate moments that exist in any birth." They dispel what she sees oft-portrayed in the media: birth as wrenching and scary.