FEATURED Guest Mama Blogger: Gender Disappointment After Miscarriage

Guest Blogger: Claire Wirth of Instagram: wirththewait

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS IN GUEST POST BY PAULINA SPLECHTA BIRTH PHOTOGRAPHER

(UNLESS SPECIFIED)

https://www.instagram.com/wirththewait/

Adventures of being a boy mom, IUI baby due February 2020

Gender disappointment.

RANT AHEAD.

Let’s discuss this, because it is something that has really bothered me lately.

With our first pregnancy, we waited until birth to see if we had a son or daughter!

It was the most fun surprise, but this time around I felt we had waited long enough to get to this point...

we didn’t want to wait.

When the cannons popped blue, the first question many people asked was,

“are you going to try for a girl?!”

In my head I thought, “are you f*cking kidding me right now?”

I responded a little softer with...

”I am going to cherish in THIS pregnancy and THIS baby, since we waited for him for so long.”

After the struggle we endured, I will never understand gender disappointment, I cringe before going to gender reveals where people are adamant they want a girl or boy, but I know I can’t project those feelings onto anyone.

Thanks for listening.

TLDR;

every baby is special...boy or girl!!! 💙💖

📷: @psplechta_birthphotography

You can follow Claire and her fertility journey here: Claire Wirth of Instagram: wirththewait

https://www.instagram.com/wirththewait/

FEATURED Guest Blogger: My baby will be safe when he is in my arms | Infertility

Guest Blogger: Claire Wirth of Instagram: wirththewait

ALL PHOTOGRAPHS IN GUEST POST BY PAULINA SPLECHTA BIRTH PHOTOGRAPHER

(UNLESS SPECIFIED)

https://www.instagram.com/wirththewait/

Adventures of being a boy mom, IUI baby due February 2020

Guest Blogger: Claire Wirth of Instagram: wirththewait

A little introduction, my name is Claire and I am a mama to my son Cain (2) and rainbow baby due in February 2020. Our first baby was an easy journey, from TTC, pregnancy, you name it. He was born at 37 weeks and we had a relatively easy labor & delivery.

Fast forward to starting to try for #2 in May 2018...month after month passed with no ➕test. I started wondering if there was an issue we were unaware of...finally on thanksgiving I got the best surprise, Pregnant! We were very happy, but something inside kept preventing me from getting overly excited.

We lost our baby around 8 weeks pregnant and we were devastated. It was the midst of the holidays and I had to paint a smile on my face while going through the most painful chapter of my life.

Months passed by, still not pregnant (again), and I finally made my appointment with the fertility clinic. We got all of the routine testing out of the way (no issues for myself or my husband - unexplainable infertility, beyond frustrating). 2 rounds of IUI, countless shots, and many ultrasounds later (thank you @bocafertility for making our dreams come true)- we are almost 24 weeks into pregnancy and expecting a baby boy in February 2020.

Infertility and loss can be a very lonely journey if you allow it to be - I have been very open about my ups and downs through it all with the hope it inspires even one person to heal and be open with their story. Never forgotten, always remembered. 📷: @psplechta_birthphotography

Intrauterine Insemination: IUI

IUI #2 (Intrauterine Insemination: IUI) The cycle that FINALLY worked. This is when @psplechta_birthphotography and I came together with the idea of a creating documentary - from start to finish...from conception to birth. I can’t wait to see this whole story come together.

For now - we soak in the joy at each appointment once everything is confirmed to still be OK, hearing our baby’s beautiful heart beat, and watching him move all around 🥰🌈

https://www.instagram.com/wirththewait/

It’s amazing how such a small container can bring back such a rush of memories. Filled with my gonal F and trigger shots, a part of me cannot let it go. It brought me my rainbow baby. How can you throw that away! Even at 23w6d pregnant, I still hold my breath before every appointment because I know deep down anything can go wrong at anytime!

My baby will be safe when he is in my arms.

Viability milestone

Today is a big day in our journey, today we reach 2️⃣4️⃣ weeks pregnant.

Viability milestone.

I can hardly believe it! If our baby boy was delivered anytime after today, he has a greater chance of survival, which makes me feel breathe a little more easy.

My first baby was born at 3️⃣7️⃣ weeks, so we wonder if this one will come early, on time, or late!

Hard to believe this IUI miracle growing in my belly has come so far!

📷: @psplechta_birthphotography

You can follow Claire and her fertility journey here: Claire Wirth of Instagram: wirththewait

https://www.instagram.com/wirththewait/

The Perfect Patient

“The perfect patient”

(My take as a birth worker on what I think people mean when they call expectant women the “perfect patient”)

A perfect patient is a casual, non-medical description given to a low-risk pregnant woman, who is in ideal health, who is estimated to have a relatively easy and quick delivery (could be either vaginal or c-section— just uneventful).

I was called this title once in my life, 8 years ago.

I was labeled the perfect patient.

I was a quick in-and-out in time for dinner with your family kind of OB patient.

If you have been following me for a while now, you can probably guess that I am unimpressed by care providers who excel and are given 5 star ratings in situations when they are working with the patients they consider their perfect patients.

When life is easy, everyone is happy.

If every single pregnant patient was easy, we could argue that more people would have babies because less people would be traumatized by birth and we more eager to get pregnant again, and we could argue that if every single pregnant patient was easy, the world would be a more peaceful, agreeable place.

But this is not the case.

A majority of the families I work with would not fall under the above description “the perfect patient”

Many of the families I work with hire me to use their pictures and videos to heal from the birth traumas of their past births. Those are my perfect people. Many of my families need me to be part of their birth team because they feel like they need to process their birth once their baby is born and they feel like they could not do that without a visual story and that’s why they need me. Those are my perfect people.

Many of the families I work with hire me to help them heal, or to celebrate their baby’s first breath, or to remember the extraordinary team they made together with their partner or their spouse bringing their baby earth side.

I don’t seek out “perfect people” with quick and easy deliveries to photograph beautiful deliveries in the shortest amount of time so I can earn money to put food on my table.

And while yes, I am a birth worker by career, so I do need to put food on my table and pay for preschool and a mortgage…. however,

My perfect people are those who hire me because they say that they need me.

My perfect people are not always easy and quick, but they do always need me.

And so when I attend births, I tend to pay more attention to the people on my client’s birth teams (their care provider, their birth teams) who continue to stay respectful, patient, and compassionate to my client when things are not easy.

After mothering two infants who both ended up in the emergency room sick and our pediatrician was their guardian angel who I feel to this day saved their lives, those experiences taught me to pay attention to those care providers in all aspects of life, particularly in birth, who become guardian angels to my clients when the situation becomes seemingly impossible or difficult.

Pictured above is a two time c-section mama birthing her third child through VBA2C (vaginal birth after two c-sections).
After two C-sections typically would call for a repeat third c-section.

Is not only possible but yes, also a safe method of delivery when families choose care providers who deliver VBAC and VBA2C patients frequently enough to ensure this method of delivery is safe.

I more often hear from women that they had no idea that having a baby vaginally after one or two c-sections was even a possibility, and a safe possibility, because no one mentioned “VBAC” to them.

And to me, this speaks volumes.

Certainly, I understand not every patient is a safe candidate for a TOLAC (trial of labor after a c-section/VBAC (vaginal birth after a c-section), and I understand that there are many people who are informed about TOLAC, VBAC and VBA2C and decide to schedule a repeat c-section, however, there are very high numbers of repeat c-section deliveries who were never given enough information to make an informed decision after their second or third birth. Many families are only given the news that their second or third baby will also be born by repeat c-section.

The Real Definition of The Perfect Patient

The Real Definition of The Perfect Patient

As birth workers

(as OBGYNS, midwives, LD nurses, doulas, birth photographers)

the perfect patient to us should be

the patient who walks into our space and says:

I need you

That is it.

We were called to serve in a humble role as birth workers, to help people not only to bring their baby into this world safely physically, but also safely emotionally and safely psychologically into this world. That is our responsibility.

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Further Discussion into VBAC, TOLAC, VBA2C and sourced information below

“Why is someone risking her life and her baby’s life with a vaginal delivery” is a common question I would hear. Continue reading and you will be surprised to hear that the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology recommends a vaginal delivery after two c-sections as a safe option.

“ACOG recommends VBA2C (vaginal birth after two c-sections) as a safe option. Speaking of ACOG... Since 2010 , their stance on VBA2C is that it is “...reasonable to consider women with two previous low-transverse cesarean deliveries to be candidates for TOLAC (trial of labor after a c-section) and to counsel them based on the combination of other factors that affect their probability of achieving a successful VBAC.” (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov hyperlink source) More importantly to note is that there is no mention of a requirement to have had a prior vaginal delivery to be considered. If you are going for VBA2C, this bulletin is very important to have in your back pocket as you work with your provider to determine your care. ​​ (thevbaclink.com hyperlink source)

Please also reference this Frequently Asked Questions from ACOG on VBAC and TOLAC (click link)

Uterine Rupture and VBAC

Choosing a repeat cesarean does NOT eliminate your chance of rupture. We often only talk about uterine rupture during TOLAC (Trial of Labor After Cesarean, aka attempting VBAC), and by choosing elective repeat cesarean, you can eliminate any chance of uterine rupture. Although focus is usually on uterine rupture during labor, it is possible for uterine ruptures to occur before labor begins. These types of uterine rupture are usually more devastating, and can cause serious health complications or worse in mother and baby. It is NOT true that deciding against a VBAC means that you won't have any risk of uterine rupture. In fact, occasional studies have even found a higher rate of rupture in the elective repeat cesarean groups! So keep in mind that it is the PREVIOUS CESAREAN that puts you at risk for uterine rupture. (thevbaclink.com hyperlink source)

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Together We Eradicate Birth Trauma

Stories We Heard When We Were Pregnant

Think back to when you were pregnant, do you remember the amazing things people told you about how incredible birth is? Stories of what a transformational & empowering experience it is to give birth to your child? Or do you more so remember awful & scary stories people shared with you about their birth, or what happened to their sister's neighbor's cousin who had a terrible experience giving birth?

Our Generation Will End Birth Trauma

I belong to the generation of people who are determined to put a stop to birth trauma

Educating about Mental Health in Birth

To bring education to families who otherwise go into birth with little knowledge of the emotional / psychological impact birth has on us, the part of birth you cannot learn in a birth education class.

To change the future of birth for when our children decide to become parents - they don’t do so through fear like we did, but through confidence, choosing better teams than we did, who truly support them in the way they need, to eradicate birth trauma and the lie that birth is only one day that happens to you.

Birth Workers

While only a small % of people receive the call to be a birth worker as their career

it is only together that we empower each other to remember each of our voices matter.

None of us are a burden.

None of us are a loser.

We are wanted and we ALL matter If we want an empowered birth experience - we will get it!

EACH of us was born to be POWERFUL

EACH of us was born to EMPOWER

And in that....

EACH OF US HAS THE CALLING TO BE A BIRTH WORKER

by passing along stories of empowered women in birth

It is all of our mission as birth workers all across the world to share the stories of the WONDERFUL men and women who have been called to deliver babies, those who honor, those who support families through patience and care NOT ONLY medical expertise.

Our mental health in birth

is as powerful

and

as urgent

as our physical health

We come together as a people, we are all birth workers

and we all recognize that birth is not just one day of your life

how supported you are the day you give birth, no matter how you give birth, is the powerful foundation of your life as parents.

Let us pave a future for our children & their children, to not know what birth trauma is. #together

Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby - How about Mental Health?

How often do you as an OBGYN look over the blue drape in the operating room to make sure your patient is experiencing this birth without emotional trauma?

Trigger warning: This post includes a written recollection of my psychological experience in the operating room during my first birth.

We all know that Healthy mom, Healthy Baby takes the cake when we ask: what's the most important thing about birth?

But does MENTAL HEALTH count as part of the Healthy mom part? Or is the mother's mental health irrelevant in the equation of birth? Are we only looking at the physical health of a mom as being a Healthy Mom, and whether or not she maintains a positive mental health is irrelevant?

How does the care provider that you choose to hire for your birth impact your Mental Health?

With my first birth, I had full faith in my hospital choice, in my nurse, in anesthesia, but I realized in the moment when I was in the operating room and my csection procedure had begun, I did not choose the right OBGYN for MYSELF. He was awesome for my friend during her birth but he was not the person I needed for mine. I did not trust him during pregnancy, I remember leaving prenatal visits feeling like he didn't answer my questions fully, and the lack of his support through my pregnancy is how my first birth ended up being traumatizing for ME.

7 years ago, I was fully awake when I entered the operating room. I was awake, cognizant that I was fully experiencing major abdominal surgery. For ME, this was a very personal experience and it scared me to my core. I found an old message I wrote after my daughter's birth recounting my memories: Circa 2012 "I remember how terrified of dying I was when I was told I needed a csection. I was so scared I was crying out of fear and telling Mike (my husband) I don't want to die and leave him a single dad. The nurse talked to me for a long time telling me I won't die, telling me what they will do, how it will feel. Her hugging me while the anesthesiologist inserted the spinal, me feeling terrified because I couldn't move my legs, then I felt them touching my stomach behind the blue screen and I cried and was hyperventilating the whole time. Mike held my hand and kept telling me I was doing great. After Kate was born, Mike went with her to the nursery I thought I'd never see him again and that I'd bleed out."

This is not every woman's experience, but it was mine, BECAUSE COME ON! IT IS MAJOR ABDOMINAL SURGERY THAT A WOMAN IS AWAKE FOR, what other major surgery are patients awake for?! It was not anyone's fault how scared I was. My nurse did her best and was thorough. Anesthesia held my hand, god bless him, I finally thanked him last year when I saw him again after years. I had full confidence in my hospital. But I had zero confidence in myself. I had zero confidence in my body. But I was doing this for the first time, and this was the only moment of my life that I would become a mother for the first time. The part that failed me was that my OBGYN who had done this a thousand times and should have known better how much this experience can stay with a woman for the rest of her life, how much this experience can impact a woman's mental health, yet he did not come to me, he did not to hug me, he did not talk to me or reassure me of what was happening or reassure me that everything is ok. My OBGYN walked into the OR and I heard him talking statistics from last night's game. For him this was an everyday occurrence but for me this was THE MOMENT. I was beginning my journey of being reborn from womanhood into mother, the only time for the first time in my life. It was a transformational experience and I transformed through fear of death and was left with trauma.

The OBGYN, CNM or LM YOU HIRE for YOUR BIRTH matters SO MUCH. I chose the best hospital, had a great LD nurse, an amazing anesthesiologist, but I didn't know that I chose the wrong OBGYN for myself.

So while your care provider may have amazing statistics and has delivered 1,000 babies, if your care provider is not compassionate to your mental health, and prepared to hold space for you knowing this is a rare occurrence for you, since you'll likely give birth only a few times in your life, then ask yourself if your care provider truly encompasses "Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby"?

And providers ask yourself, do you want your patients holding onto fear, trauma and disappointment through their lives or do you want them remembering these moments in the pictures of this blog post, moments where you expressed deep compassion for them?

Because as exciting as this moment is for all families, for many families this moment is also terrifying, and the only rock they can lean on for confidence and support is you. Until as a species we recognize that women in labor need way more compassion and emotional support than we have been giving out, until all our care providers truly become the embodiment of ‘birth workers’ we will continue seeing unnecessarily rates of birth trauma in women, post partum depression, PTSD, post natal anxiety.

Pictured within this article: Care providers at birth's I've attended who blew me away when I saw them caring about how mom is perceiving her birth experience.

I am Paulina Splechta and I have attended 130 births in south Florida. I have been a professional birth photographer part of the International Association of Professional Birth Photographers for over 5 years. I understand the Birth Process and Birth Space with knowledge about the stages of labor and how they can sometimes look different for different people, how an unmedicated birth differs from an epidural birth, knowledge of the vocabulary of birth and I recognize how my presence as a photographer might inhibit or interfere with the birth process and how my job is to recognize and adapt to what each birthing person needs.

The Emotional Release & Healing That is Tomorrow

I am calling attention to the mental health aspect of birth photography for women

I am calling attention to what having phototherapy from birth does for the post partum woman

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DISCLAIMER: YES, WHILE THERE ARE DOZENS ON IMAGES ON MY WEBSITE, MY BLOG, MY SOCIAL MEDIA PAGES, THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ME, AND 100% TO DO WITH THE MOTHER, THE POST PARTUM WOMAN, THE FAMILY. APPROXIMATELY 70% OF THE BIRTHS I PERSONALLY AM HIRED TO DOCUMENT NEVER MAKE IT TO THE INTERNET DUE TO CLIENT PRIVACY. THIS IS ABOUT THEM, IT IS NOT ABOUT US. DON’T MAKE THIS ABOUT US AND THE INTERNET.

“[Birth Photography] is an emotional release

Because we try to recount the series of events

And sometimes we can’t always put the pieces together ”

— Claire, Boca Raton

You register at your local hospital for your upcoming birth.

The thought is that you chose this hospital because you trust them as a facility (or in some cases you chose this hospital because your insurance is only accepted there). With your registration comes an assumption, you chose this hospital, therefore you should trust them to call all the shots, they are professionals, well rated — but it’s not that simple.

The world constantly attempts to simplify birth into one statement:

“Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby”

with the implication that Health is purely Physical.

THE MAJOR FLAW WITH THIS….

The major flaw is that is no one ever thought to address what effect birth has on a woman’s mental health.

…Is mental health not EQUALLY considered Health?…

Is mental health not urgent?

Do we not have mental health licensed counselors, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists in America?

Of course we do.

Yet as a nation, as a species, we completely discredit the urgency and gravity of mental health.

We discriminate against mental health, we side line it, we put it on the back burner because if you do not have physical health, what does mental health matter?

But doesn’t it work the other way around too?

If we do not have our mental health, how can we maintain our physical health?

As an entire species, we have been conditioned into pretending that our safety and our health is 100% physical.

For decades, the way we do birth as a species has been affecting women’s mental health but we are all in denial that our actions and words as birth workers have any lasting impact on a woman’s mental health.

As I sit here writing this blog, I receive a text from a friend:

I’ve been so emotional. Maybe it’s because [name]’s birthday is coming up.

And reading her text, it brings up a memory in me, I think on how every year, leading up to August 25th, the birth of my second child four years ago, brings with it subconscious anxiety that builds and builds until I cry, every single year. I don’t even think about it and suddenly become aware of why am I feeling so anxious? Every year.

This is only two women, but this is your friend, your mother, your neighbor, your coworker, holding onto trauma and most of our species experiencing triggers from this trauma, or unexplained anxiety, carrying it around, have no awareness where it is coming from.

Yet as a species we avoid talking about or putting any gravity whatsoever on the profound effect that THE WAY WE BIRTH has on a woman’s mental health.

We are ignoring what message it is sending to our partners, spouses, families and our world’s women, when the outcome of our birth experience is trauma, (not only physical trauma, but also emotional trauma) and we seem to sweep it under the rug and call it all part of the birth process.

When our trauma is produced as a result of the LD nurse who tells a woman in labor not to push just yet because the doctor’s not here yet, or when our birth trauma is caused by the fact that no one in the delivery room is strong enough emotionally to not be triggered by the intensity of the mother’s labor to stop reacting to her emotionally and help her focus on breathing, to give her the emotional support she so desperately needs in this critical moment, or when our birth trauma is due to the OBGYN who lacks compassion because this is an “everyday occurrence” that needs to be handled with detailed precision by a medical person, or when our birth trauma is caused by a birth support team that is so excited to be witnessing birth and to be there, they forget to hold space for the mother who’s on a subconscious transformative journey through the unseen universe.

The human species is so focused on the vagina, (or in the operating room, on the incision), that everyone completely forgets, that in this moment in time, in this moment of intensity, as a life emerges, to look up and be humbled by her face and view the goddess who is being reborn in this exact moment as a mother.

DURING BIRTH:

• The mother is not under general anesthesia (usually not)

• The mother is not completely knocked out

• The mother is completely conscious and aware which we often forget especially during c-sections and stop talking her through her nervousness, through the surgery

• During birth, the mother is completely present

• She is FEELING THE INTENSITY of her body transforming

• She is connecting her body & mind

• She is experiencing this moment AT THE SAME TIME HER BABY EXPERIENCES IT FROM WITHIN HER

• The mother and her baby travel together through separate but uniform journeys and they meet in the human world

Yet we all focus on the vagina, as if her consciousness is not with us.

Who is speaking to her in this moment?

Who is reassuring her to breathe, who is holding HER hand, who is carrying for her emotions?

I think perhaps since I experienced two traumatizing births myself with both of my children, (each traumatic for two totally different reasons), that when I attend births, in this moment as the newborn life emerges, while I capture this newborn life entering our world, I am also so deeply focused on the newborn mother that emerges, entering our world. Every single birth I have pictures of the mother’s face in this birthing journey, not just the baby.

Birth is not purely physical, it is not just the vagina.

Birth is not one day of our lives

Birth is not a routine occurrence

Birth is a transformative event, allowing us to find connection between our mind and body (source: sararosser.com)  

Once A Year Family Sessions

Once per year I try to reconnect with the families I have worked with over the last 12 years, including my birthing families from the last 5 years! And I love to host family sessions in the forest. While I work on-call the entire year and cannot do many of these sessions, I try to connect with at least 3 or 4 of my families every year in the fall.

ONCE A YEAR FAMILY SESSIONS

• This year I will be meeting with my families all on separate days so that every family can have their choice of a full family session in 2019 during the best lighting south Florida has to offer at Golden Hour. As of this week golden hour begins at 5:30pm, but will change with the time change.

• Every session will last 1 hour and includes 30 digital images in high resolution, hand-edited by me and ready for holiday cards if you are planning to order them there are amazing sales going on with Shutterfly and Tiny Prints right now!

• Investment is based on location, and each Family has the choice of location, Coral Springs forest is $550 and Delray Beach nature walk is $650

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CORAL SPRINGS

DELRAY BEACH

Meeting Baby Brother - Coral Springs, FL Home Birth

This is the whole point of why we want a birth story captured by someone who is committed to that 3am phone call you’re in labor... or that 18 hour labor that draws out.
Cause when these kiddos meet, they’re not really meeting are they? They’re being reunited... they’ve always known each other for a million years among the stars... and here they both are finally earthside saying “good to see you again baby brother”

Is Birth Photography a Luxury Service?

Is Birth Photography a Luxury Service?

I can see how birth photography could be confused for luxury services, such as glamour newborn photography in a high end studio.

In this week’s post, we will break it down and find out if birthing photography is a luxurious service, or the most important investment of your life as you transform into a parent

Why is the investment so large?

• When you hire a birthing photographer to be on-call for your pregnancy leading up to your birth, a very significant portion of the investment you are making goes towards having that professional personally on-call just for one mother.

• You are unable to give your photographer any certainty at all of when you will give birth, it could be at 40 weeks, but it could very well be at 36 weeks or even 41.5 weeks and this changes from baby to baby, (yes all three pregnancies can be completely different even with the same mother!) So while most birth workers are available on-call from 37 weeks, because my sister in law give birth at 36 weeks instead of 37, and also one of my home birth clients who was expecting her second baby gave birth at 34 weeks instead of 37-41, and had to transfer to the hospital, and lastly, because one of my first time mom client’s water ruptured at 33 weeks and had to have her baby a few days later, I choose to be on-call for each of my clients for the last 3 months of their pregnancy, (and another 2 weeks if they’re still pregnant until 42 weeks) in the event of an unexpected medical emergency that changes their due date by a couple of weeks or a couple of months.

• There is no way to predict how long you'd need your photographer for, as every labor is different. And while five years of live action childbirth education and experience has helped me to understand when active labor truly begins and how to arrive at births when women are closer to 7 centimeters dilated so that I am only present for the last few hours of labor prior to baby being born, active labor can sometimes be tricky to truly diagnose, and looks different for every single woman and YES, different from pregnancy to pregnancy. One woman’s active labor may mean I am with her for 6 hours before baby is born while for another woman, things may be looking like active labor and then 18 hours and 8 cups of coffee later, their baby is born.

• Don’t forget the most important part of your financial investment, besides a professional, well experienced in the physiological aspect of birth and capturing birth during any lighting or environmental circumstances being personally on-call just for one mother, having that experienced and educated professional with you at your birth, unknowledgeable of how long, don’t forget to include your investment of the actual photography into the overall financial investment.
  
  
  
  

  Individual, Mother-to-Photographer Experience

  
  On-call personalized birth photography on such an individual mother-to-photographer experience is very new to the world, and there are barely any reliable birth workers in South Florida for me to be able to expand my practice and share on-call time with the way midwives and OBGYNS alternate the days they are on-call, (so when you go into labor, you get the provider on call that day).

  As oppose to this rotation model, I am on-call practically 365 days in the year, in 2018 I was off-call and able to turn off my phone for exactly 4 days.

  Being on-call is not inexpensive

As an example of how being on-call for each of my clients impacts the financial investment you make, I was not able to take a vacation with my family for the first 5 years of being a birth photographer, because that would mean I would have to turn down birth clients for a four to eight to twelve week periods of time (with me being on-call for clients for 3 months of their pregnancy), and being the person who supports my family financially by 90% we would not make it possible.

Birth photography is deeply therapeutic visual healing, especially for women who are extra emotional or sensitive (like me), for women who unexpectedly experience post partum depression, for women who experience traumatic birth (either physically traumatic or emotionally) and either during the birth I photograph or in a previous delivery, and are hoping to find emotional healing with the next baby’s birth.

100% Personalized ONLY to You

100% personalized because your baby is only your baby

100% personalized because you only meet your baby once in your lifetime

Birth photography is 100% personalized, personalized attention from your photographer to you, during the last three full months of your pregnancy and any amount of hours during labor, whether 6 or 18, as well as high resolution decade-of-education in-office photo digital editing post birth (that often takes as long as the actual birth).

Myth: Only Wealthy Families Can Afford It

I think that in five years and over 100 families I have only had one person who is a millionaire as a client, the rest of my families have had to budget out for me over every week of their pregnancy and often had to wait until their next pregnancy to work with me.

The value of a deeply personalized service that is unique to a baby who will only be born and met by his parents once in a lifetime is determined by every individual family.

Don't Apologize for being "too" sensitive

BURDEN

I use to be convinced that me being oversensitive, overemotional was a burden on others.

But being a hypersensitive person has become my greatest asset in life.
Part of my realization of this was listening to @wondherful Heather Funk Palacios (founder of “WondHerful,” a mission dedicated to mental health and suicide extinction through blog posts) speak last week about how what we think makes us a burden on others isn’t true. Everyone has what they think makes them a “burden” but if we find our community among the crowd, we don’t have to apologize for being who we are.

I think that becoming a mother makes it even easier to find ALL your shortcomings laid out in front of you, and think you’re not good enough.

None of this is true.

I could still think that being an overly emotional human makes me a burden.

But I know that being hypersensitive is the gift that produces this depth of emotional artwork from my birth stories.

It’s what draws expecting families to need me at their side when they meet their babies.

Without being a hypersensitive person, I couldn’t achieve this with my work.

I notice this level of emotion in others and to me it’s always in the front seat at a birth story.

The “first” moment matters so much.

You can’t lose these moments.

There is only a split second to capture this reaction and then it’s gone forever.