Trans dad Yuval Topper-Erez recently shared his birth experience on Facebook, including intense photos of the birth process.
While birth photography isn't unusual, it's not as common for us to see a father giving birth. Which is exactly why he chose to share these photos with the public.
In an open and honest Facebook post he writes "It was my fourth pregnancy, and I was awaiting my third child."
"It was a tough pregnancy, physically and emotionally. I’ve always loved birth photography, and about half way through I decided to treat myself to a birth photographer."
He explains that at that point he thought it would just be a lovely memoir for himself and perhaps his child, but when he saw the photos he "suddenly got the sense that they need to be out there".
Yuval writes that the photos represent two causes very close to his heart: normalisation of home birth and normalisation of trans and non binary people giving birth.
"It has taken me just over a year to feel ready to share these with the world," he admits, "and now I'm posting the album publicly. I hope, among other things, that this album will inspire birth workers and future seahorse dads (AKA gestational fathers)."
The birth took place in England on 8 May 2019, at 5:55 in the morning, after a very rapid and intense labor, and Yuval says he birthed with the help of two amazing independent midwifes.
He describes the experience as a "really beautiful birth".
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