Dad Delivers His Own Baby at Boca Regional Hospital: A Birth Photographer’s Dream Moment You Won’t Believe!

The only thing better than working with a Birth Photography client here in South Florida, where I get to capture my client and her husband going through the process of labor, preparing to meet their newborn baby for the very first time and become parents to that little one is having the opportunity to work with that same family more than once!

Hands-down, one of my very favorite things about being a South Florida Birth Photographer besides capturing my client meeting her baby and completely falling in love with her little bundle of joy is when I get that text or phone call letting me know that my client is pregnant again and that she wants to hire me again!

Repeat Birth Photography client, is a client who wants Birth Photography and loved working with me for a previous birth and decide to hire me again the next time they are pregnant.

About a third of all of my Birth Photography clients here in Boca Raton are repeat clients who are hiring me for the second, third, and even forth time (I’ve had 6 families hire me for four births in the last ten years!)

What is super exciting and especially a treasure about working with my repeat Birth Photography clients is that we’ve gotten to know each other over the course of a previous pregnancy especially since a majority of my clients hire me for their baby’s birth when they are in their first trimester, so we have plenty of time during the second and third trimester to get to know each other, and often times a majority of my Birth Photography clients will also hire me to do their pregnancy announcement photo session and a maternity photoshoot.

If this baby that my Birth Photography client hired me for is not their very first baby and they are not first time parents, my clients will often hire me to come back to the hospital the day after they give birth while they’re in the postpartum unit of the hospital and capture their toddler or older children arriving to the hospital to meet the baby in what I call a Fresh 48 Photo Session.

Although, the majority of my Fresh 48 Photo Sessions here in Boca Raton have been with my couples who are having their very first baby, hiring me for a 48 photo session with just their husband and their newborn baby girl or baby boy in the postpartum wing of the hospital. I think this is so special because it’s an entirely different photography style from Birth, its the day after your birth, you’ve showered, gotten dressed, gotten out of bed, touched up hair and some light makeup, and now are able to entirely focus on your baby, and not the birthing process.

Each photo session type, whether Birth Photography or a Fresh 48 Photo Session, carry with it a uniqueness and beautiful story telling.

I especially love doing photo sessions at Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital in East Boca as well as West Boca Medical Center (The Birthcare Pavillion at West Boca Medical Center) because I’m so familiar with the natural lighting from the windows in these hospitals as well as what the postpartum rooms look like.

Many families in lieu of a Fresh 48 Photo Session in the hospital will do an on-call coming home photo session which can be done either impromptu, as the couple comes home from the hospital with their new baby for the first time and their older children or the grandparents are there waiting for their arrival home from the hospital so they can meet the baby for the first time.

I always try to include my Birth Photography client’s furbabies so whether they have a dog or a kitty at home, we make sure they get to meet the new baby too. I recommend for my Boca Raton Birth Photography clients to bring home a blanket from the hospital (with hubby or grandparents) the day before the baby is discharged from the hospital so that the dog or cat at home can get use to the baby’s new smell before the official arrival at home.

My On-Call Coming Home Photo Sessions are a relaxing session because while yes, it does happen as you arrive home from the hospital so you’re probably not feeling the same as when you schedule a Family Centered Newborn Photo Session in your home for once your baby is a couple of weeks old, and you’ve had a chance to heal a little bit from the labor and delivery as well as find a new routine with the new baby in your life.

But On-Call Coming Home Sessions can be really special to capture fleeting, very first reactions from older kids, especially.

What really always gets me in the heart is when grandparents are included either Fresh 48 Photo Session iin the hospital or the On-Call Coming Home Photo Sessions at home because there is nothing quite as remarkable as capturing the expressions on the faces of grandparents meeting the newborn baby for the first time.

The only other thing that top this is the reaction of parents meeting their baby for the very first time during the delivery that I love capturing here in Boca Raton with my Birth Photography services.

So with my Birth Photography clients in my Boca Raton Birth Photography Blog photos, I had the opportunity to get to know them during their very first pregnancy with their baby girl. We touched base frequently during her pregnancy while she was under the care of her Midwives, Tyler, Rachel, Adrienne and Laurie at Women’s Health Partners in Boca Raton, and I really enjoyed all of our prenatal check-ins during her entire first pregnancy. I treasured being able to also be present for her in a emotionally supportive way and I value whenever I have strong bond with my Birth Photography clients such as this when my client is absolutely open to receiving guidance or advice that has worked for previous clients or even for me in previous pregnancies. It is truly a treasure to be trusted in that way.

When I came into my Birth Photography clients birth at Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital for her second baby, a baby boy this time around, I had to right away take a picture of her husband‘s visitor sticker on his T-shirt because it literally had my birthday listed on it which was so special to me that my client was having her son on the day of my birthday!

Midwife Tyler from Women’s Health Partners came in and she is always such a radiant presence that brings so much calm and joy and warmth into a birthplace.

I was really lucky that one of the labor and delivery nurses that was part of my Boca Raton Birth Photography client’s team is a good friend of mine, you can really feel that in the energy of the birthplace when the team has worked together so many times that everyone feels super comfortable around each other. It almost brings another layer of comfort to the birthing mom.

I love the expressions on my Birth Photography client’s husband’s face because he is so excited for his powerful wife and can really see that expressed in all of the photos.

What’s so cool is his active participation in delivering his own newborn baby boy.

This is one of the coolest experiences in the entire universe to see a dad not only meet his son for the first time during the delivery, but also, actually get to catch him himself.

While I always recommend your Certified Nurse Midwife (such as Tyler from Women’s Health Partners in this specific birth) or OB/GYN to assist in the delivery to make sure that if there are any complications or difficulties, your provider is right there with a seamless transition from womb to world, but it is the most exciting thing to witness a dad catching his own child.

And of course, all the Midwives At Women’s Health Partners are so supportive of parents who are wanting to bring their baby into the world in this way, which is so awesome to know that you got these phenomenal medical care providers in your corner during one of the most incredible experiences of your life!

I have had my Birth Photography clients over the last ten years delivered by all four of the Midwives At Women’s Health Partners, as well as all of the OB/GYNs that support the Midwifery team at Womens Health Partners and I really love working with such a diverse team because you’ve got the best of both worlds Obstetrician and Midwifery care depending on what the patient expectation and needs are.

I really love my Birth Photography client’s emotional reactions in all of these photos.

It really goes to show that even when it’s not your very first baby, you have a powerful reaction to each new baby that you meet because the love is unprecedented regardless of which baby it is!

Of course my Birth Photography’s client husband cut the cord just as he did with his first baby girl and then they finally got to take a good look of baby boys face who was so super cute and so much hair!

I wonder if the old wives tail about heartburn is true for every single person whose baby has a lot of hair at birth! Was it true?

I wouldn’t be able to say because I had heartburn, but my two babies did not have any hair.

I really appreciate when you’re working with Midwifery care that they take the time to show you your placenta, while some people might think that it’s icky, what’s really amazing is that this powerful organ that you’ve never had in your body is grown only exclusively for your babies birth!

And I appreciate when the midwives take the time to show their patient and their patient’s husband, the placenta and what it looks like and where it was attached and which side the baby was against during the entire pregnancy because it really shows how passionate they are during pregnancy which I think is so incredibly important that people who are going into the birthplace go into it with as much information and education as possible so that they can make truly informed decisions and not just not their head yes or no without knowing what they are agreeing to. I really love that.

My client and her husband hired me for both of their births which they had at Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital and it is always really cool to compare the experiences from one birth to the next, especially when they occur in the same facility and I will say that it was wonderful seeing them have a super supported experience with both of their babies, despite their birth teams being a little bit different each time because they are very first baby was delivered by their Midwife Adrienne second baby was delivered by Midwife Tyler from the same practice.

Even when my clients choose to work with an OB/GYN for their birth, their birth story can be super beautiful and even when my clients choose to Schedule an induction or a C-section or whether those are not scheduled and they happen unexpectedly birth experience can still be incredibly fulfilling and beautiful to see you later in the birth photos although I do want to say that it was really cool that my clients husband wanted to put on gloves and inspect his babies placenta himself that was definitely a first that I have ever seen at any Birth whether in the hospital or at home here in Boca Raton South Florida!

At the end of every Birth, if everyone is willing and available, I always try to take a group birth photo of my client and her baby with her birth team.

I think this is so important to commemorate the amazing people who dedicated themselves to my client and her baby throughout the entire labor and delivery process as well as the care of the baby and postpartum!

I always try to make sure as well that I photograph as much of the newborn exam as I can because the goal is to keep the baby away from the mom for too long to skin and the baby’s heart rate and the newborn temperature as well as the mom’s milk to come in are all very sensitive things during the newborn phase at birth, so the newborn exam always goes by very quickly and so I have to be on my toes and capture it as quickly as possible.

I try to get a picture of the baby as well both pounds and grams because some families especially from outside of the United States understand babies birthweights better than in pounds

I always try to get a picture of the baby and it’s really cool when the nurses use an ink pad so that I can photograph the ink on the bottom of the babies feet but lately the nurses at Baptist Health Boca Raton Regional Hospital and East Boca have been using this type of invisible Inc. that doesn’t leave any staining on the feed which I to this day.

I’m still trying to figure out how it exactly works.

In this case, the nurse kindly not only did the black ink which made for cute birth photos also agreed to put the baby’s in feet on the dad’s arm

The dad was super excited about and ran to Mom to show her