My Philosophy On Birth
The ocean never promised to be still.
Just that you would emerge a transformed
version of yourself on the other side.
You Deserve To Birth With Confidence
Jordan Tomkinson
Birth Photographer, Doula, and Student Midwife
Surrendering to your body’s instincts is a necessary part of the transformational aspects of birth. You become a primal, unstoppable force that moves with purpose and rhythm. Just as the tides rise and fall with the moon, your body knows the currents needed to bring new life ashore. Yielding to this natural flow allows you to harness a deep, elemental power, much like the ocean’s relentless surge, shaping and forever transforming the coastline. As a part of your trusted birth team, it is my goal to help you release your fears, trust your body, succumb to the waves and the forces of the rising tide within you, and embrace the journey of birth, empowering you to discover a deeper strength within yourself.
The most important thing you can do to prepare for birth is heal the parts of you that learned it wasn’t safe to trust your body.
-Demi Betschart
For millennia, women have had intrinsic knowledge of how to safely and effectively birth our babies - and obstetrical birth practitioners have spent the last 115 years doing everything in their power to completely erase our confidence in our own bodies, and replace it with fear and distrust. These efforts have not only resulted in an over-medicalized clinical birth model, where hospital administrators and insurance companies profit tens of thousands of dollars per birth, leaving families with substantial medical debt and the threat of medical bankruptcy, but it has led to a maternal mortality crisis where 80% of maternal deaths are completely preventable, and black women are 3 times more likely than white women to die in childbirth.
The board of directors push unsafe nurse-to-patient ratios, increasing excessive and unnecessary interventions to make labor progress more quickly at their convenience, so they can get patients in and out of the delivery unit as efficiently as possible. It’s good for shareholders, sure - but at what cost? In many cases: completely avoidable surgeries and scars that impact every successive birth we have, and a permanent increased risk of mortality. This was a particularly complicated revelation for me as I was preparing to enroll in college to become a L&D RN. I couldn’t wait to help mothers bring their babies into the world… but what if it would require me to stand by and watch silently, while a woman bleeds out in the hospital parking lot with a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, not even allowed to sit with her and hold her hand?
I am so thankful that I am able to pursue birthwork as a photographer, doula, and student midwife. Midwifery is ancestral work for me; I know in my soul that supporting women through the transformation of birth is my divine calling, and I bring the Midwifery model of care into all aspects of my services, to empower women to reclaim birth.
My Birth Toolkit
I bring a doula bag with me to every birth, and it includes a range of effective tools that many of us student midwives and doulas have come to love. This includes:
a rebozo (pictured: a large traditional woven Mexican scarf) which is great for swaying with your body, supporting your belly, tug-of-war if you have an epidural and are having a hard time pushing, even changing baby’s position, and shaking tension out of your back, hips, and legs. I have a full album displaying some of these rebozo techniques in my portfolio!
a massage gun, which can relieve tension and distract your brain from contractions, provide comfort and reinvigorate your birth team for those long births where we’ve all been on our feet for hours on end, and comes with multiple attachment heads for a variety of sensations to target specific needs.
wood combs to squeeze in your hands, in what we call the “gate control” technique - your nervous system can only process so much sensory input at one time, and by squeezing the rounded points of these combs into the Laogong acupressure point in the palm of your hand, you can disrupt some of your pain signals, which may be effective to ride through particularly intense contractions.
battery powered candles and a galaxy lamp - warm candlelight has been proven to stimulate your natural oxytocin production, while harsh bright lights are less relaxing and can be a hindrance to labor progression. Cozy lighting allows you to more easily slip into the liminal space of birth.
Do you cope well with pain? How would you describe your pain tolerance? Is an unmedicated birth important to you? What coping techniques work for you? Are you planning to bring any tools or utilize specific techniques during your labor?
Pictured: At Naolí Vinaver’s rebozo workshop, 50 midwives and doulas gathered to learn about what a powerful tool the traditional Mexican rebozo is to support mothers through pregnancy and birth. Karely gently rocks Dani’s hips, while she melts into Isabelle’s arms. Look at the bliss on Dani’s face!
Doula Support from
a Student Midwife
After you’ve filled out my consent form and I’ve got your phone number and important information, we’ll start chatting about the more in-depth details the birth experience you’re envisioning, whether you’d like me at your birth as a photographer, some doula/student midwife advice, a full doula experience, a hybrid model of support, or if you’d like a separate referral for a trusted doula. And if this isn’t your first baby, we’ll also explore your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum history together, which can help me identify warning signs to watch out for, better understand the role you envision me fulfilling at your birth, and better advocate for you with your providers.
We will work together to formulate a plan for when you’d like me to join you. Some mamas are more private, and don’t want to summon a birth photographer until they’re far enough into labor to ask for an epidural, and they’d prefer me to be a stealthy ninja on the sidelines while they’re in the zone, and others want to have more documentation of their early labor for a more full picture of their baby’s whole birthday, including their birth supporters and care team, the details of the room, etc, and we tend to pass the time with longer conversations and have a great time together.
Plan to keep in touch during your pregnancy, and have more regular check-ins in the last few weeks. Be sure to text me when it feels like labor is on the horizon: leaking or broken bag of waters, prolonged and regular braxton hicks contractions, a passed mucus plug, restlessness, and excitement that it might be about to happen, are all signs that birth may be imminent, and that it’s probably time for me to start making arrangements for child care and making sure my birth bag is packed, my memory cards are empty, and my camera batteries are fully charged.
When you’re nearly ready to summon me to your birth, or if I haven’t already responded to text messages: it’s time to call me!
Pictured: Discussing the night’s game plan with a new friend who had become a doula client, the night she went into labor with her third baby. Since we had a more informal arrangement like when I came to births to support my friends, our conversation didn’t begin with her signing my client intake and consent form, so I still didn’t have their address when things got moving and she was ready for some rebozo support!
“What’s In Your Camera Kit?”
What I bring to a shoot depends greatly on where we’ll be photographing at, and how much my back hurts on any given day, but generally I roll up to a photography session with:
my MVP combo for compact birth spaces: Sony a7R V + 24mm f/1.4GM
my tried and true for portraits in large spaces: Rokinon 85mm f/1.4 Series II
my just-in-case: Rokinon 50mm f/1.4 Series II
my backup camera body: Sony a7R II
If my back isn’t killing me and I’ve got time to grab some extra gear, I’ll also bring my mini tripod and phone grip for sidelines videos at births, some rugged mini spotlights, and for those rare professional headshot shoots, my flash.
“What Else Do You Photograph?”
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![Utah Family Photographer]()
Families
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![Utah Wedding Photographer]()
Weddings
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![Three people at a wedding ceremony exchanging braided cords for a handfasting ritual, outdoors under a makeshift tent.]()
Handfasting Ceremonies
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![Utah Elopement Photographer]()
Elopements
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![Utah Professional Headshot Portraits]()
Professional Headshots
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![Utah Recital Photographer]()
Recitals & Performances
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![Friends]()
Just For Fun
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![Travel Photographer]()
Travel
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![Fresh 48 Photographer]()
Fresh 48
Whether you give birth at home, at a birth center, or at a hospital, I would be honored to be part of your birth team to bring your little one through the veil and into this world.