A young child is carried on the back of an adult, secured with a plaid wrapper. The child faces outward toward the camera, expression serious and watchful, one hand raised near their chin. The adult is visible in profile on the right edge of the frame, looking away. A single light source illuminates the child’s face against deep shadow. Plain interior wall in the background.
Asma and her grandmother leaving the hospital after visiting her mother, Mwamini, who had just given birth by c-section to her younger sister.
This image is part of a series I have been building since 2018, documenting Black pregnant women and new parents I have met through my work as a birth worker in Ottawa. When this was made, Mwamini had been in hospital for two days. Asma had not seen her mother in that time. For most of the visit, we watched Asma climb up and down the bed, negotiating for space while Mwamini balanced breastfeeding a newborn and keeping her older daughter close. Leaving, her grandmother carries her out on her back, teary-eyed as she says goodbye to her mom.
Many of the families I support are navigating layered barriers, immigration status, income insecurity, mental health, isolation, racism, inside systems not designed to hold them.
The Wait sits with what sustains people: the grandmother who came, the neighbour who stayed, the friend who showed up without being asked, the informal, community-rooted care that appears despite systemic barriers.
Explore the other stories–Feza Lugoma is a Congo-born, Ottawa based birth worker and photojournalist. Her documentary practice weaves migration, maternal health, social justice, memory, and kinship into intimate narratives. Her passion for photography and documentation came from sitting with family photos and albums brought with the family to Canada, following their migration from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With a curiosity for humans, connections, and our journeys, Feza sees photography as “a ritual of remembrance and love…an invitation to write our stories and affirm that wherever we are, there we are.”
