New born babies

image by Thierry Bouët

Before I had children, I was accustomed to seeing the TV / movie 'newborn' - a robust, alert and rounded baby, covered in strawberry jam and cream... and thought "Awww. How cute!" During the prenatal classes we attended while expecting our first baby, we were shown a slideshow of shriveled, scratched, red, asymmetrical and emaciated babies. The room full of first-time expectant parents collectively sighed for the poor parents that received these very odd looking creatures. Our midwife explained to us that this is what newborns actually look like. The class then gave a collective, slightly horrified, shudder. We had all obviously been sucked-in by the six-month-old-baby-posing-as-newborn from TV. Although, I think we all were convinced that our babies would not look quite this *awful*.

After giving birth to our first child, we met the most-beautiful creature we had ever laid eyes on - and so not like those other ugly newborns. Obviously our photos lie - as the baby in the photos does not look quite as beautiful as we seem to remember him being. That is the thing about newborns... they are so incredibly special (once you have laid eyes on your own)... and look this way so fleetingly, changing so rapidly once in the outside world.

I was impressed by a series of photographs I had seen eariler this year. French photographer Thierry Bouët took a series of photos of newborns, within their first hour of life. Now I don't look at such photos with horror - but appreciation, joy, happiness... and with teary eyes. See the slideshow and audio commentary here.

Of course, I had to revisit our own little beauties...

Top photograph by Thierry Bouët bottom photographs by Anne