This maternity photo shoot stars an extra-special guest.
This maternity photo shoot may look like many others but these photos come with a rather lovely twist. This mum starred in the shoot alongside her husband and her egg donor.
In a feature for Glamour, Dr Shannon Clark, the founder a website for older mums trying to conceive, shared her challenging journey to becoming a mum over the age of 40. Dr Clark, who also works as a maternal-foetal medicine specialist, wrote movingly about her miscarriage and multiple failed IVF cycles.
Shannon and her husband, René, ultimately decided to try to conceive using a donor egg. Happily, the couple’s second embryo transfer resulted in a twin pregnancy and Shannon gave birth to twins Remy Vaughn and Sydney Renee last year.
Shannon says that she felt strongly about meeting the egg donor in question, a woman named Tara, and including her in the couple’s maternity photo shoot,
“I had a strong desire to acknowledge the woman who made my pregnancy possible. I wanted to show how grateful we were to Tara for her selfless act and the beauty of what we had all created together. I reached out to her about doing photos with me, and she agreed.”
The beautiful images of Shannon (who was 20 weeks pregnant at the time) were captured by Cheryl Whitney-Huebner of Image Studios Group. The emotional shoot was also René’s first time to meeting donor Tara.
The mum-of-two explained her decision to share the heartwarming images with the world,
“I may not have been able to experience all of the typical things that a pregnant woman experiences, but what I do have are beautiful photos of my barely-there belly bump with my husband and the woman who made my dream of becoming a mother a reality. I also have two beautiful babies who make every tear I ever cried worth it. For that, I will forever be thankful.”
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