Moms and kids gather for colorful 'rainbow baby' photo shoot: 'You're not alone'
A group of women gathered in Alabama last month for a colorful photo shoot to celebrate their rainbow babies, while paying tribute to the pregnancies they had lost.
Ashley Sargent of Ashley Sargent Photography snapped the images and shared them on her Facebook page, where the post received comments by the thousands.
"We wanted to spread the message of hope and 'You're not alone,'" Sargent told "Good Morning America." "I never experienced a miscarriage myself, but I dealt with infertility. It's a very [lonely] feeling that you have."
Sargent photographed 40 moms and their kids on July 21. All of the children in the pictures are "rainbow babies," meaning they arrived after their parents went through a miscarriage.
Sargent said she came up with the idea to hold a shoot with moms of rainbow babies when a number of her clients were open about losing pregnancies.
Kelli Kidd, a mother of two, posed for the photos with her 4-year-old son Lawson. Kidd told "GMA" that she had experienced two miscarriages in 2012.
"It was just true devastation," Kidd said. "You go in and see on a screen that your baby is not moving, no heartbeat ... the silence. A lot of things go through your mind -- you think, 'Is something wrong with me?' You do go through some fear and uncertainty."
"I felt so alone," she added. "I really didn't have anyone to seek out help from. I felt like if I could be a part of [the photo shoot], it might help someone else."
Kidd and her husband Colby welcomed Lawson, their rainbow baby, in 2014.
"This shoot was important in spreading hope to other women who have experienced the loss of a baby, but it was also a celebration of [life]," Kidd explained. "Lawson is turning 5 and starting kindergarten. It causes me to think of the babies I lost, but to be especially grateful to be able to see Lawson grow up."
Sargent let the moms and kids pick which color of the rainbow they wanted to wear. Kidd and Lawson chose the color yellow.
At the end of the session the women took part in a balloon release, which represented the children they lost.
"I asked that they remember the feelings they had, and let go of the pain they had felt," Sargent said.
