In February, our community lost a bright light, a beautiful soul, when Kristen Pearson passed away after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer.

Her husband, Talima Pearson, lost his beloved partner, and her three teenage children lost their amazing mom.

Myself and many others lost our sweet and cherished friend.

I’d made portraits with her from pregnancy, up until just a few months before her passing.

As her illness progressed, she made an intentional decision to make the most of every moment. She continued to inspire us all, even as the disease created pain, challenges, and disruptions to daily life.

One of Kristen’s posts in the weeks before her passing:

Relaxed and peaceful

winding journey

Open and ready

Small moments

Beauty everywhere

What follows is a profile I wrote when I asked her to participate in my personal portrait project: The Helpers. In it, I invite people who are doing good in our community to come to the studio to be photographed and interviewed. 


I asked Kristen to participate because of her positive presence in our community. She helped women have babies in a safe, supported way, and then made it possible for many more doulas and expectant couples to continue benefiting from her mission.

I loved that she spread that positive goal in ripples emanating outward from herself. Her work is a legacy that will continue to live on.

Kristen Pearson – Supporting Women Through Birth

She was just three years old, playing with dolls and looking up to her mom, when they received devastating news of Kristen’s pediatric cancer diagnosis. Kristen was told that she would likely never be able to have her own children.

Reliving this moment can still bring fresh tears.

As a defense against this private, internal grief, her brain protected her by convincing her that pregnancy was somehow distasteful, something that made her nauseous to think about. She believed she was glad she couldn’t conceive.

Until she did.

Just after she and her husband finalized adoption of two beautiful toddlers, they discovered that the birth control they were using had failed and they were themselves, pregnant. She would need to shift her mindset – and quickly.

By the time I’d met her for pregnancy portraits, she’d come to love the growing baby boy inside her, cherishing the experience of pregnancy and birth.

She remembers thinking that the experience made her “feel so cool.” She felt proud that her body could do this. But she wasn’t seeing everyone around her have the same empowering experience.

She now describes feeling lucky to have become a parent in both of these extraordinary ways. The gift of perspective. However, finding herself home with 3 kids under 3, the thought of returning to her job as an NAU Biology professor was underwhelming.

Charting a New Path

As she contemplated her next move, she bumped into a friend at the grocery store who was loving her new role as a childbirth educator. Kristen knew she had discovered a new calling.

She initially got certified as a childbirth educator and soon saw that she wanted to do more. Working with interesting people, she found herself wanting to hear their stories, to keep the connection with them, to help them realize the experience of birth that they’d hoped to have. She wanted to empower birthing parents to have more of a voice.

The first birth she attended was with a family who had initially envisioned a home birth but instead needed an induction at the hospital. It was a long, difficult birth which ended with a Christmas morning baby.

Returning home to celebrate Christmas with her own family, she cemented her dedication to her new career path. Missing some of the holiday was worth it, knowing the contribution she was making.

She says “Birth work is a very giving kind of job, You give 200% of yourself.” She says that doulas provide a safe and judgement free space for birthing mothers, and want to help as many people as they can.

But sometimes, the people who need doula support the most are the very people who don’t have access to it. Cost is a barrier since insurance doesn’t yet cover it. A pregnant woman may have no partner or family that is able to help them through the process of birth and that crucial postpartum chapter.

For a while, Kristen’s doula practice responded to requests for trade or reduced cost, but she saw a greater need. So, years ago, she and another doula, Betsy Decker, co-founded The Flagstaff Birth Support Fund.

This non-profit not only provides low or no cost doula support and postpartum care for those in need, it also trains and supports new doulas, thereby widening the availability of certified doula support.

A win-win for our community.

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Flagstaff Family Portrait Photography • Flagstaff Maternity Pregnancy Photographer • Flagstaff Newborn Photographer • Flagstaff Child Photographer • Flagstaff Senior Portrait Photographer • Flagstaff Couples Photography

Kristen Dacey Iwai of KDI Photography is a full-time professional portrait photographer based in Flagstaff, Arizona with decades of experience. Making portraits of families, pregnancy, newborns, babies, children, and high school seniors in her downtown studio and on location, she serves clients from Flagstaff, Sedona, Tuba City, Winslow, Payson, Page, Williams, Prescott, Mesa, Scottsdale, Phoenix, Arizona

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