Volunteering in the baby loss space for Heartfelt with Emma

Heartfelt is a volunteer organisation of professional photographers dedicated to giving the gift of photographic memories to families who have experienced stillbirth or have children with serious or life threatening illness. Heartfelt is dedicated to providing this gift in a caring and compassionate manner, with all services free of charge.Emma has many roles within Heartfelt.  First and foremost she is a photographer for them and has helped around 450 families in her seven years so far.  She also holds the roles of vice-president,  NZ representative and NZ co-ordinator.There are over 320 photographers who volunteer across Australia and New Zealand and to date they have provided services to over 9000 families.Emma’s interest in this area began when she read the blog of a mum whose baby had lived for 19 minutes and every minute had been captured in photographs which was very powerful. Later she found and joined Heartfelt and now it is a huge part of her life.It is the families which drives Emma to volunteer in this way.  Being able to give beautiful memories of their fleeting moments with their child.Emma talks us through what a Heartfelt phtography session looks like – what she aims to do and how she interacts with the family and how every session is different.  It's a unique and privileged position to give the families NON medical time with their baby.Emma shares with us a session where she photographed a full term baby who was having his life support turned off and how the space was so filled with love and care and peace. She also shares of a family who she has worked with twice as they have lost two babies, and the invitation to be one of the 10 people allowed at the funeral so that she could take photos for the family members who couldn’t be there, because of COVID-19 restrictions. We talk about how she is emotionally at or after a session,  and how she looks after herself.  For Emma, it is an honour and privilege to be invited into these spaces and she loves to be able to be there for families in their grief,  but also to celebrate and honour this little baby or child.Connect with HeartfeltWebsite - https://heartfelt.org.au/0800 number -  NZ    0800 583 768AUS 1800 583 768 Connect with JanineInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/janinefoxphotography/ Website - https://www.janinefoxphotography.co.nz/Podcast submissions - https://www.janinefoxphotography.co.nz/podcast