39 Photos Of Pets Supporting Their Humans Through Childbirth

For over four years, the Birth Photography Facebook group has been producing slideshows of gorgeous labor, delivery and postpartum images and sharing them on its public page. After compiling photos featuring midwives, doulas, dads and siblings, the group decided to focus its latest project on another special subset of birth team members: pets!

“Dogs and other pets seem to instinctively know that something is up during a pregnancy,” the Birth Photography group’s founder Laura Eckert told The Huffington Post. “They can become more protective of the mother-to-be, as though they sense that something is about to happen.”

Eckert shared photos from “Loyal Birth Companions: Pets at Births” with HuffPost. “As these images show, pets are often very curious and maybe even concerned about what is going on during a home birth, and they often offer a sense of calm for the laboring mother,” she said. “To some moms it’s like having an extra support person right there beside them throughout their labor.”