Each spring the International Association of Professional Birth Photographers (IAPBP) names its Image of the Year, picked from pictures its members took at real births during the previous calendar year. The 2018 awards, announced in April 2018, covered images made in 2017.
The overall winner was the Belgian photographer Marijke Thoen of Ghent, who also took the top prize the year before. Her 2018 image shows the same little girl who appeared in her earlier winning picture, now a toddler, meeting her newborn brother. Beyond the grand prize, judges chose the best picture in four categories (Labor, Delivery, Postpartum and Birth Details), handed out Honorable Mentions, and members voted for their own favourites.
Below you will find the awarded images with their titles and photographers. Each caption explains what the picture records and why it stood out. Some photos show labour and the moments right after delivery as they really happened, including a placenta and a baby born inside its amniotic sac. These are documentary images made with the families’ consent and shared by the photographers.
The grand prize: a sister meets her brother
“Stunning Siblings First Encounter”, First Place Winner. Photo: Marijke Thoen Birthphotography
Thoen took this picture at a hospital in Ostend on the Belgian coast. The toddler pressing close to the birth pool is Nelle, who was herself the newborn in Thoen’s winning water-birth photo the previous year; here, aged about two, she watches her brother Cisse arrive. The association described the back-to-back win as a piece of competition history. Thoen, who photographed her first birth in 2008, has told Belgian radio that she never stages anything and simply records what is there.
Best in category: labour, delivery, postpartum and details
“Nowhere and Everywhere”, Best in Category: Labor. Photo: Rebecca Coursey
Shot from above in low light, this picture catches a mother resting against her partner between contractions, eyes closed, completely turned inward. The title fits the strange mental state many people describe in active labour, when the room seems to fall away.
“En Caul Baby Birth”, Best in Category: Delivery. Photo: Daniela Justus
An en caul birth happens when a baby is born still inside the unbroken amniotic sac. It is uncommon, and most often seen in premature or caesarean deliveries. Through the clear membrane you can see the baby curled exactly as it lay in the womb, a view very few people ever get.
“Flesh of My Flesh”, Best in Category: Postpartum. Photo: Esther Edith
A mother looks down at her newborn lying skin to skin on her chest, the baby still flushed and damp. Early skin-to-skin contact helps keep newborns warm and is encouraged by many hospitals. The tight crop and warm light make the picture feel quiet and close.
“Birth of a Brother”, Best in Category: Birth Details. Photo: Daniela Justus
This one turns the camera around: a crowd of relatives, led by a delighted big brother, presses against a hospital nursery window to greet the new baby. It shows how a birth ripples out beyond the delivery room. Daniela Justus is the only photographer in the gallery with two category wins.
What members voted for
“Three Become Four”, Members Choice Winner. Photo: Esther Edith
IAPBP members chose this family scene as their favourite overall. A father kisses the head of his son while the boy leans into his mother, who holds the newborn and cries with relief. The title says it simply: a family of three has just become four.
“Take My Hand, Hold My Heart”, Members Choice Best in Category: Postpartum. Photo: Tamara Milldove
In black and white, a partner cradles the new mother’s face while she holds the baby against her chest. Milldove photographs births in New Zealand. Black and white is common in birth photography because it softens colour and puts the focus on touch and expression.
Honorable Mentions
“Birthing Waves”, Honorable Mention. Photo: Robin Baker
A pregnant silhouette seen through a rain-streaked window, with water running down the glass. It is the only image in the set where the person is barely visible, and it shows how much a photographer can say with shape and texture alone.
“Touch”, Honorable Mention. Photo: Krista Evans
Two pairs of hands rest on a labouring woman’s back as she leans forward. Counter-pressure on the lower back is a common comfort measure in labour, and the photo turns that simple act of support into the whole subject.
“Labor by Candlelight”, Honorable Mention. Photo: Ashley Marston
A small convex mirror reflects a mother in a birth pool and her partner, lit by candles. Using the reflection lets the photographer keep a respectful distance while still showing the whole room. Marston is known for home and water births.
“Nurse Linda”, Honorable Mention. Photo: Tammy Karin
A fast birth on the floor, with a nurse laughing in surprise as she helps catch the baby and the father kneels beside them. It is a reminder that births do not always follow the plan, and that medical staff are part of the story too.
“Fist Bump for Mom”, Honorable Mention. Photo: Neely Ker-Fox
Taken in an operating theatre during a caesarean, this frame shows the newborn lifted over the surgical drape so the parents can see the baby straight away. Clear drapes and early contact are part of what is sometimes called a gentle or family-centred caesarean.
“A Physiological Third Stage”, Honorable Mention. Photo: Paige Driscoll
The third stage of labour is the delivery of the placenta. “Physiological” means it was allowed to come naturally rather than with medication. Here the placenta sits in a bowl beside the newborn, still attached by the cord. Whether to manage this stage actively is a choice to talk through with a midwife or doctor.
“Love Complete”, Honorable Mention. Photo: Marjolein Loppies
In a birth pool, a father wraps his arms around the mother as she holds their baby, whose head still appears to be covered by the membranes. The photographer is based on the Caribbean island of Curaçao. The joy on both faces is what lifts this image.
“Admiration and Relief”, Honorable Mention. Photo: Kandyce Joeline
A father kisses the mother’s forehead while she looks down, exhausted and smiling, at the baby on her chest. The black-and-white treatment keeps attention on the expressions, which the title names exactly.
A newborn photographed under water at the moment of a water birth, fists up and mouth open. The award list published with the gallery gives no title or credit for this frame; the watermark reads “Caromama”. The upward angle and dark background make the newborn look almost weightless.
“How Big”, Honorable Mention. Photo: Megan Brock
The baby is a pink blur in the foreground while the mother stares in shock and family members film on their phones. The picture has a sense of humour: it captures the shared reaction to an unexpectedly large newborn rather than the baby itself.
How the competition works
The 2018 contest was open to IAPBP members only. Each could enter up to five images from births photographed in 2017, in any of the four categories, with a deadline of 13 March 2018. A panel of judges picked the winners; the overall winner received 500 US dollars and each category winner 100 dollars, while members also voted for their own Members’ Choice awards.
At the time, Belgian broadcaster VRT reported that the association had about 1,200 members in 51 countries. Its stated aim is to show birth as it really is, not as a staged studio scene.
Why birth photography matters to families
For many parents, labour passes in a blur. A photographer who records the room, the people and the first hour afterwards gives them a memory they could not have kept on their own. That is why the strongest images here are often not the dramatic moment of birth but the faces around it: siblings, partners, nurses and grandparents.
The pictures also show variety. There are hospital births and home births, water births and a caesarean, quick arrivals on the floor and long nights by candlelight. None of them is a guide to how a birth should go. Anyone planning a birth should talk to a doctor or midwife about what is safe for them.
Sources: VRT NWS, Ghent photographer wins international prize for best birth photo (17 April 2018); IAPBP, Announcement of the 2018 Image of the Year competition; International Association of Professional Birth Photographers.
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