Jessica Jackson has been a birth photographer for four years, and has seen some pretty emotional moments.
But none have been quite as memorable as her latest.
That’s because Jessica captured a very rare moment on camera – the moment mum Koto Nakamura learns that her baby ‘girl’ is actually a boy!
Naturally, first-time mum Koto’s reaction is pure shock, which is perfectly captured by Jessica.
It was all the more remarkable given the conversation that had occurred just a few hours earlier. Koto’s midwife had been regaling them with a story of a past client who had had the exact same experience.
“We were all laughing and joking, saying ‘oh gosh imagine if that happened to Koto’ we really didn’t believe it was possible,” Jessica said.
Koto and her husband Sina had already received countless girly gifts and had picked out the name Hinata for their baby ‘daughter.’
“She was saying ‘not Hinata?’,” Jessica said. “Once she took a look for herself and it sunk in, they were beyond excited and Sina was planning camping trips with his son.”
In her four years as a birth photographer, Jessica has never experienced such an incredible surprise.
“I knew I had managed to capture Koto’s initial reaction as it happened, but I was worried because of all the excitement and laughter that it may not have been bang on in focus,” she said.
“The look I captured was her saying ‘a boy?’ Jess am I hearing this right’, I remember saying to her, ‘Yes, you have a son!’ It was the first image I opened when I got home to edit.”
The amazing surprise was even more exciting as Koto’s mum was there, having travelled from Japan to Hobart for the birth of the baby, who has been named Taiga (meaning ‘big and gracious’ in Japanese).
“The laughter, the excitement and the tears actually left me without a voice for a week, it was an absolute dream to be witness and document the birth of this baby, and how awesome for Taiga to have the exact look on his mum’s face to look back on.”
Aww. We’d love to see Taiga’s face when he sees that snap and hears the story of his birth.
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