With her talents, Dallas-based photographer Carmen Bridgewater hopes to change the narrative about the Black birthing experience. Her work highlights the bold, powerful stories of people birthing, specifically in the Black community. As an award-winning photographer, she captures powerful images and videos that beautifully depict the magical birthing experiences of Black women and their journey to motherhood. She often photographs Black women with an all-Black birth team and supportive partners.
Recently, Bridgewater spoke with 21Ninety about the value of sharing the Black birth experience through visual media, her photography and the beauty of the Black birthing experience.
21NINETY: What prompted you to start your business and focus on highlighting the journey of Black motherhood?
CARMEN BRIDGEWATER: I have been a photographer for about 14 years. I have dedicated the last four years specifically to birth. When my husband and I found out we were expecting back in 2019, I did tons of research on unmedicated, out-of-hospital births. I struggled to find information or stories pertaining to Black women birthing in this way.
The visuals I did find were “struggle-themed.” They would be in black and white, with no smiles, and the first image would be of a mom with tears streaming down her face.
Imagery and representation are so important. It matters to see Black women in calm, beautiful spaces where their birth teams and partners are supporting them. Because of that, I became very interested in birth photography and yearned to join in on the story-telling of Black and brown women in the out-of-hospital birth space.
21N: You offer birthing photography/videography, maternity shoots, family shoots, breastfeeding/motherhood shoots. What is your favorite and why?
CB: Of all the types of sessions I capture, births are my favorite for so many reasons. Documenting someone’s journey to motherhood is so sacred and not something I take for granted.
21N: How do you think your work might give Black moms and Black moms-to-be hope in the face of the statistics?
CB: My work takes on a very focused view that Black women can and do have magical birth experiences. These are experiences where they are safe, surrounded by love, and provided with informed consent and childbirth education.
As I mentioned, when I was pregnant, I couldn’t find many birth images [and] information about Black people birthing outside of hospitals. However, I did find an abundance of information on the Black maternal mortality crisis and how Black women were dying in childbirth at record rates.
I was surrounded by trauma-porn and it scared me. Instead of envisioning a beautiful safe birthing experience, I began to wonder if I would simply survive childbirth.
21N: Black women have a right to a healthy pregnancy and birthing experience. How does your work educate and inform Black women of the options other than traditional medicine?
CB: The demonization of granny midwives or Black midwives in the 1920s forced Black women into hospitals. There, white obstetricians operated on them without pain medication and without providing them with informed consent.
In modern days, midwifery gained a bit of popularity again, but it was a luxury that seemed to only be accessible by white women. Modern Black women, whose grandmothers and great grandmothers most likely birthed at home safely with a midwife, now knew nothing about midwifery. This gives way to the lack of options for our community.
We are, however, returning to what we have done for centuries. We are focused on a natural, normal, and non-medical process again. My work represents what they could look like so Black and brown women can visualize themselves in the same spaces.
21N: Has anyone ever shared that your work empowered them to seek a doula/midwife team?
When it comes to being a source of information, I am very active on the internet. Thus, my online community asks me all the time about how to find and build a birth team. People also often ask me if the birth workers I work with most often travel. An A-list celebrity even invited us as far out as Los Angeles to support them in labor and postpartum.
21N: What is your hope for Black mothers and what do you hope they gain from viewing your work?
CB: They say images are worth a thousand words and I would like to take it a step further and say images are priceless. A photograph has the power to change the trajectory of someone’s entire thought-process and birth photography is no different. People see my work, which often depicts Black women birthing out-of-hospital, at home with their spouse and pets, and supported by a midwife and doula. These women are often joyous, relaxed, and excited to meet their babies.
My hope is always that people can see my photography and videography work and say, “I want that experience too.” Black women should not have to focus on survival, much like I did during pregnancy. I want them to instead focus on thriving. I want them to build the birth they want – one that will fulfill them and give them the best start on their motherhood journey.
This article has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.