It’s really quite simple, I wanted to tell a story about the strength and resilience of women post childbirth that I feel goes largely unacknowledged in today’s world. To reassure women that childbirth is ok; yes it’s painful but it is a positive pain, one that has purpose and is just part of the journey, a rite of passage into motherhood. To make visible other emotions that are far more powerful: the joy, the overwhelming love and the triumphant victory every new mother feels. In my mind this is the supportive message we should be passing on to future generations rather than being paralysed by fear.
Very early on in the project I knew I wanted to concentrate on the first twenty-four hours, when a woman’s body is engulfed by hormones, to capture the unrelenting physicality of the moment, straight from the battlefield. Sweat still glistening on the mothers’ skin, the translucent umbilical cord freshly severed and wide-eyed wonder as the women come to terms with the magnitude of what they have achieved and survived.
I leafleted Hackney, the borough where I live to find my recruits. I was clear I did not want to cast people on looks, age, race or class, to be free from any agenda and include all who responded. As the series developed, the mantra of calm running through the images was impossible to ignore. I find the collection of images quite defiant and beautiful, challenging the expected vision of those first twenty-four hours, a pure celebration of what it means to be a mother.
