Cody Taylor’s birth story |Los Angeles birth videographer & photographer

“I always knew I wanted to deliver my child naturally and by the grace of God (literally) I found Mountain Midwifery Center when I was pregnant with my first babe through a friend living in Winter Park (yes, people travel from far places to come to this wonderful palace… I mean place). When I made my first appointment with them, and long before the appointment, I knew the women who work there and I would get along more than “just fine.” In fact little did I know that in the end I would become “a groupie” and only wish and hope that one day they might possibly consider hiring me as their janitor 🙂 Through the entirety of both my pregnancies and deliveries at Mountain Midwifery, there are two things that stand out the most. One is the midwives and nurse practitioners who devote themselves to the empowering of woman to carry out birth as our bodies were created to do. Birth can be intimidating at moments and every mom at some point in their laboring process (usually when the baby is near crowning) thinks, “I can’t do this, I can’t do this!” But wait…YES WE CAN. Delivering Cody was my second experience with natural labor and delivery… so to say my confidence and empowerment as a woman has increased is an understatement. That is completely because of the Lord and the strength he has given me along with the midwives who helped me believe in myself.

After hardly a day since my last client’s birth, capturing sweet Evelyn’s arrival, I got a text from Tori at 4am Sunday morning on October 6th, (two dates before her estimated due date,) saying that she was having pretty regular contractions and was monitoring them.
A few hours later I got another text that they had stalled out.

I double checked my gear and prepared to head out at any moment that day, but not wanting to bother her for any updates. At 3pm she texted me to say they were back with a vengeance, and that they would be heading to the birth center soon.
I headed out, and got there just a few minutes after her and Adam arrived. (About 4 pm.) She was already at 8-9cm!

She was clearly having to work hard through each contraction, and a few of them brought her to tears.
Amazingly, she was able to still laugh and smile in between them though!
(Sidenote: this girl’s joy is infectious, and her laugh contagious. Seriously, a heart of gold.)

Her support team was incredible, and so amazing to watch her husband be the most perfect “doula” I could imagine for her.

Tori’s strength, determination, and power while bringing Cody earthside were just phenomenal, and all I could think of while witnessing it firsthand and reliving it while putting together their video was how raw, NATURAL, and beautiful it all was.