My name is Jackie Ryan, and for the last 10 years I have been traveling the world with my husband, per the demands of the United States Marine Corps. I am a wife and mama of 5 beautiful little girls: Lorelai, Harper, Emerson, Oakley and Steelie. Prior to my first birth in 2016, I had no birth education knowledge. I took the lamaze class offered by the local naval hospital, but other than that all I knew was that at some point contractions would start, I would be 10cm and push a baby out. That was the extent of my birth classes, that and a few breathing techniques they taught. I loved the idea of a water birth, but when the local hospital told me that wasn't an option, I didnt really look much more into it. I figured I would just go with the flow when the time came. My husband was deployed when our first was born, so I found myself on the other side of the country giving birth for the first time, luckily both my mom and mother in law were able to be with me. I dont have any "regrets" with how my birth went. No trauma, just a lot of learning happened at that birth. I felt extremely pressured to "speed things along" and felt like no one trusted that my body would do what it was supposed to do. After she was born I learned that there was a lot of things I COULD have said No to. But I didn't realize I was "allowed" to. 

In 2017, 6 of my friends all gave birth. At the time I was photographing in Southern California and found myself falling in love with birth photography, as each of my friends asked me to be there for their big day. The first couple of births I attended, I still didnt know much. Only what I had experienced in my own birth. Because I knew them all personally, naturally I found myself cheering them on. By the end of the year I learned what a doula was and thought to myself "this is what I was made to do". 

The more training I took on, the more and more passionate I became about this work.