As an Alabama-based family and lifestyle photographer, Ashley Sargent is used to capturing heartwarming moments. But nothing quite prepared her for the emotions that would come when she brought together 40 mothers and their rainbow babies for one unforgettable photo shoot last month.
Sargent says the idea for the photo shoot actually came to her while she was photographing several newborn rainbow babies.
"We had wanted to show the beauty of a rainbow baby, so I arranged colorful flowers around the newborn babies in a variety of ways," she tells CafeMom. "As I posted the photos, several moms started commenting on it talking about their own rainbow babies and how the photos really touched them."
Incredibly, one mom even commented that she had never really liked the term "rainbow baby" before, but after seeing the sweet photos, she felt differently.
After so many moms commented over and over, Sargent says the vision for her next photo shoot began to take shape.
In her mind's eye, she saw all of the moms who commented on her Facebook post standing together. They were each wearing a different shade of the rainbow — and in their arms, they were holding their miracle child.
Soon after, she posted a model call within her own private Facebook group, which meant that most of the women she would photograph were women whose stories of loss she knew well.
Those women invited other friends, and before long they were signing up for colors to wear and choosing outfits in every shade of the rainbow.
In just four weeks, Sargent's rainbow "vision" had pulled itself together -- and the results were incredible.
Sargent says it was important to her to tell the stories of women of all ages, which is why the photo shoot became multigenerational, with grandmothers standing alongside their grown children and mothers holding babies in their arms, as well as the hands of their toddlers.
"You'll see a mom with her two rainbow babies and their two rainbow babies," she says, "and you'll see young moms who are still struggling to overcome."
This, in essence, is what she feels the project is all about: "We all struggle, we all have pain," Sargent says, "but it's what you do with your pain and how you overcome that makes a difference."
Sargent says that although she's never experienced a miscarriage herself, her journey to parenthood was also fraught with heartache.
"I can't fathom the pain that must feel like, but I understand the feeling of hopelessness and feeling so completely alone and ashamed of myself," she says. "We struggled with infertility for four years and it was completely heartbreaking."
What the photo shoot ultimately became was a project highlighting mothers who never lost hope and the children who gave their life meaning.
Such was the case in the story of Amanda Presson, who was pregnant with identical twins when she was told that she lost "Baby B" at 11 weeks.
"Baby A was still hanging in there," she shared in a Facebook photo album for the project. And it was at that point that she and her family started praying.
"We have never prayed so hard for anything," she said. "I remember pulling over in a church parking lot on my way home begging God to let him live. Isaac did fantastic and I am so grateful that God chose me to be his mother. My rainbow baby has taught me to look at things differently. In my faith and also being an autism mom. And I know we will meet Isaac’s brother one day."
Kristen Kemp Niblett also faced unexpected loss before becoming a mom for the first time.
Her first three pregnancies each began with a rush of excitement but ended in a devastating miscarriage. When she finally became pregnant with Audrey, now 5, she says it felt like an eternity until she was finally able to hold her very own baby in her arms.
"I remember sitting in her nursery and imagining what it would be like to rock her to sleep, to see her sleeping in her crib, and to kiss those sweet cheeks," she shared. "Now, my rainbow baby is 5 years old and will be starting Kindergarten soon!"
She's also the proud mom of three — with two other children, ages 4 and 2.
"Never give up hope," Niblett urges. "The journey may be long, but so worth it in the end."
Cheryl Hilley Oliver never thought she'd be part of this club either. In fact, the first time she got pregnant, everything about it was "easy."
But she was 18 at the time and in a different place in her life than when she tried again 10 years later, after a divorce and remarriage.
"It was very early on but we announced it anyway," she said of her next pregnancy, in early 2000. But in May, she began to see spotting, and she soon learned she'd lost the baby.
"I never thought it would happen to me," she said looking back, adding that she was "beyond devastated and heartbroken."
It would take exactly one more year before Oliver would see another positive pregnancy test. And luckily, this time it was for keeps.
"Noah John is my rainbow baby and he was the light out of a very sad and dark place," she shared. "We had to experience a devastating loss in order to see our rainbow. If you're struggling, there is hope. Hang in there."
In the end, that's what Sargent hopes the message of her photo shoot brings others: hope -- even when it feels like there is none.
"We want other women who are struggling to know that you are not alone," she tells CafeMom. "All the women in this photo have struggled in all kinds of ways, and they want to show you that you can overcome. This too shall pass."
Perhaps the greatest sign of this came when the photo shoot was over and the cameras had been put away. Only later did Sargent notice that a tiny, yet beautiful rainbow had appeared in the corner of one of the photos.
"That wasn't planned like that," she said, "but one of the moms commented, saying it felt like that was our God wink."
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