Birth Photography
First off, let me say Happy 2019 everyone. I am so glad you found your way to my birth photography website; it is a pleasure to have you here. If you are pregnant and expecting to deliver in 2019, you are likely on your journey to put together your birth team, which hopefully includes a birth photographer.
There are so many great reasons to hire someone to document the birth of your baby. The first and best reason is that the day will go by so fast (even if you labor a long time!) and frankly you won’t be concentrating on trying to remember every little thing, your focus will be on you and your child. A birth photographer will be there to capture all those fleeting moments; ones you may not even realize happened. Birth photography gives you back a day you can relive as often as you would like, even when your sweet baby is going to college.
Birth photography can be healing too. Sometimes births can be traumatic. These births can come from the length of time one is labor, medical interventions, type of delivery or a plethora of other events. With birth photography, the mother can look back, when ready, to see what happened and can take comfort in the photography and all that day meant. It really can have a healing affect.
I don’t need to twist your arm about the value of birth photography. If you found your way here, you already see the value. This blog post is more about the top questions to ask your potential birth photographer.
My Top Questions to ask a Birth Photographer
- Will you be on call for me 24 hours a day around by due date? Babies come at every hour. More often than not, babies come knocking at 2am, so it is vital that you have a contract between you and your photographer and that she is available 34 hours a day.
- Are they a legal business? Do they have their business license, are they insured and do you have a contract? This will tell you if you are dealing with a true professional. If something happens and they miss the birth (due to their negligence) and you have no contract and they aren’t a legal business, chances of you recouping anything are slim.
- How many births have they shot? This one is a toughie for me, but it is a question to ask. Why it is tough is that someone with a couple births under their belt can be an outstanding artist and those who have done many can be terrible. It is something good to know, but doesn’t always reflect what they are capable of. It does; however, tell you their experience in a medical setting whether it is a hospital birth, home birth or birthing center birth.
- What will you photograph? Some families are okay with all of it and some are very private and want nothing to do with photographing from “the doctors point of view”. I am very client centered which means if you ask me to stay by your head the entire time, that’s what I will do. If you want everything photographed, that is what I will do within the medical professional’s rules. The actual birth is but a very small portion of your birth story.
I am sure you will have a ton more questions to ask your birth photographer, but these I feel, are the biggies. Remember you must feel comfortable with everyone on your birth team so ask as many questions as it takes. Are you ready to start a conversation? Contact me and lets do it!
