Birth Currents explores the power of birth and the capacity of the female body to carry, transform, and bring life into the world.
My understanding of birth was shaped from an early age by the home I grew up in. Raised by an obstetric nurse and a hospice worker, I was surrounded by conversations about beginnings and endings. Birth and death became familiar to me not as opposites, but as interconnected forces within the same cycle.
My mother often spoke passionately about the women she accompanied through childbirth. Through her stories, the birthing body became something I encountered long before I began photographing it; a body suspended between vulnerability and strength. Her fascination gradually became my own. Years later, this early imprint led me to follow women in the Netherlands through their experiences of childbirth, both at home and in the hospital.
Through photography and text, I approach these moments with a sense of wonder and closeness. What began as something I knew through my mother’s stories slowly became something I witnessed for myself. Birth Currents is ultimately a personal exploration of inheritance; the passing of a fascination with women, their bodies, and the mystery of birth from one generation to another.
Birth Currents - Hanna Burgers
