By BabyCenter US blogger Melissa Willets.
I’ll never forget seeing my newborn daughter for the first time. She was beautiful, yes. But she didn’t look anything like what I’d expected.
I mean, no one told me she would have a cone-shaped head from being squeezed through the birth canal. And why was she covered in waxy, white stuff?
And blood?! Dear Lord.
Her eyes were also swollen, almost to the point of being shut. And her little limbs were all scrunched up. Her skin had a golden pallor from jaundice, and was so dry from exposure to air, it started peeling .
US-based birth photographer Monet Moutrie has seen many newborn babies the very moment they are born and says, “Despite what we regularly see on Facebook posts and baby announcements, newborns don’t come out of the womb wrapped in tulle or with perfectly air-brushed skin.”
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She echoes my experience, telling BabyCenter US: “The transition from womb to world is beautiful and marked with vernix, blood, and wrinkles.”
Here are a sample of the stunning images Monet has captured, that show what newborns really look like:
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It’s so true. By the time we brought our daughter home from the hospital, she looked much more like the newborn baby I’d pictured in my head. Although she was still bright yellow, and had peeling skin. That went away soon enough. And I found myself actually missing those brand new baby qualities. Even her little cone head!
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Thank you to Monet Moutrie for sharing your raw and beautiful images with BabyCenter. Learn more about Monet’s birth photography on her website, and by visiting her Facebook page.