Nurse performs her own baby’s checkup immediately after giving birth

One mama jumped right into work mode immediately after giving birth—but for the best reason. As a labor and delivery nurse, she wanted to do her newborn baby’s neonatal assessment herself.

Typically performed within the first hour after birth on the infant while the birthing parent recovers, a labor and delivery nurse (or a neonatal transition nurse in some hospitals) will give the baby a full physical: listening to the newborn infant’s heart, measuring their head circumference and length, taking their weight and capturing their first footprints, in addition to other tasks. These assessments are usually performed within the labor and delivery suite—but not typically on the hospital bed.

But according to the new mama’s birth photographer, that was the plan all along.

“When we were chatting prior to baby day, she told me she wanted to do her babe’s newborn exam herself,” says photographer Alexandria Mooney in an Instagram post. “I was like ‘OMG THIS IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING – also you’re gonna be okay with standing at the baby warmer like an hour after giving birth?!’ Clearly she had thought this out more than my knee-jerk assumption that she’d just pop up at the warmer as if she was at work because there was no warmer needed for her little guy’s exam…it was all brought to her!”

And the photos are just gorgeous—perfectly capturing the intimacy of a moment that can sometimes be a little clinical.

Here’s what Mooney shared:

“I’m going to brag on this mama for a sec…because in over 100 birth stories captured, I have never ever gotten to document something like this! ✨

This is what this mama does every single day at her job. She is one of the most incredible nurses I have ever met, and her job (which I’m sure she would argue is the best job ever ) is to get to take care of brand new, squishy little babies shortly after they’ve made their earth side debut. She listens to their heart, measures their head circumference, gets their weight, puts their Hugs tag on, takes their little footprints…and so much more!

When we were chatting prior to baby day, she told me she wanted to do her babe’s newborn exam herself. I was like ‘OMG THIS IS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING – also you’re gonna be okay with standing at the baby warmer like an hour after giving birth?!’ Clearly she had thought this out more than my knee-jerk assumption that she’d just pop up at the warmer as if she was at work because there was no warmer needed for her little guy’s exam…it was all brought to her! She did say while measuring his length, ‘This all feels so weird to do without gloves on!!’

It was truly a privilege to be invited into this birth space and get the honor of documenting mama checking out her brand new little boy ❤️

Birth is so incredible and so amazingly empowering ✨”