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My Plea:

To the person who knows me…

I am the person who you never want involved in your maternity care. I am the person no one ever wants to see in hospital.

When I receive a call, it’s when your heart is breaking. Breaking so badly it physically hurts. I know first-hand that panicked, suffocating feeling. That feeling where the world and everything you know seems to have shattered into a million and more pieces. That feeling, like an out-of-body experience. That feeling where you are watching your very worst nightmare play out, and you beg and pray to wake up from this hell, yet each time you wake you realise: This is your new reality.

Back in 2010, that was me. As my world and everything I knew crumbled and fell from beneath me, I was blessed with time. At that moment, it felt so very cruel that I had to continue, for nearly a week, with my son inside me without a heartbeat. But I was blessed. That ‘time’, in my broken state, gave me an irreplaceable chance to think of what memory-making I could do. And in those few short hours we would have together, I made a plan.

I researched photos, and whether it was even ‘normal’ to take them. Those photos I had of my baby boy became everything. The visual proof that my son did exist. The proof that, although this felt like the worst nightmare, it was really happening. Those photos were the only way I could show my beautiful boy off to his siblings, and the world.

In the months that followed, the grief was crippling. I discovered an entire community that I wasn’t even aware existed. The baby loss community held me up during the darkest of days.

I needed a way to give something back. I needed something I could do. I needed to find a place in this community; to enable my baby’s legacy, and that of others, to live on.

Tiny Souls Bereavement Photography was created to fill the huge gap in my life. Utilising my skills to help the bereaved; to try to bring a small piece of comfort when your world is broken and you can’t see any further.

Tiny Souls is available to every parent who is facing the death of a baby, from around 14 weeks of pregnancy to birth and beyond. The service is available 24 hours a day, every single day of the year. From families who know of their impending loss to those last-minute call-outs at 3am, it fully covers Mid-Essex. And if I can physically get to a family elsewhere, I will.

Knowing that this is often the one and only chance for families to record these moments, I will capture as much as possible. Documenting every tiny detail, both before and after dressing or swaddling. Documenting those moments of snuggling with blankets and teddies. Documenting the pure outpouring of love and grief combined, as parents hold their baby for the first and last time. Capturing the moment where you are so very proud of the little person you have created, where love is pouring out like no other feeling in the world. The moment where you hold this tiny person like you never want to let go.

Every family is presented with a beautiful, handcrafted, personalised box set. Inside is a selection of individually edited prints in both colour and black-and-white. Depending on the age of the baby and how long I am with you for, prints can range in quantity from 10 to 150+. Families receive all digital images as well as a handmade slide show with carefully selected music, or a song of the families’ choice. Every detail is put together with love and care.

In the time since I started Tiny Souls, I have served almost 300 families. Strangers become friends and, sometimes, friends become so much more. In March this year, my heart sank when I saw the name of a friend flash up as an incoming call. I knew what it meant before I’d even answered… “When my baby boy, Kolby, was breathing his last hours on this earth, Jo showed care, kindness and compassion. She gave up most of her day; she hugged me when I cried, and she cried with me. Most of all, through Tiny Souls, Jo has captured memories I will forever keep. She got every detail, and presented it to me in a beautiful keepsake box.”

I can honestly say I feel completely honoured to photograph every baby I meet. Each and every family who I encounter at their most devastating and vulnerable time will forever hold a special place in my heart. I will continue to give this gift to families thrown into the darkest of days. I will always talk about loss.

I will forever speak about my baby boy.

What Other’s Have Said

“There are no words to thank Jo for being there when my baby boy Kolby was breathing his last hours on this earth. She showed care kindness and compassion, she gave up most of her day , she hugged me when I cried, she cried with me. Most of all through tiny souls she has captured memories i will forever keep, she got every detail and presented it to me in a beautiful keepsake box. ”