BOCA RATON BIRTH PHOTOGRAPHER
“I am planning on going into labor on my own…
So how do we schedule / get you to the hospital so you don’t miss it?””
The # 1 Most Asked Question for Every Birth Photographer:
How will you do my Birth Photo Session if I don’t know when my baby will be born?
What is On-Call and How does it work?
YOUR BIRTH TEAM
+ LABOR AND DELIVERY NURSE
+ MIDWIFE / CERTIFIED NURSE MIDWIFE
+ OBGYN / DOCTOR
+ ANESTHESIOLOGIST
YOUR BIRTH PHOTOGRAPHER IS A MEMBER OF YOUR BIRTH TEAM
When it comes to taking photos of the moment you first meet your newborn baby with Birth Photography, it is vital that you know that your Birth Photographer is as much a part of your Birth Team as your Labor and Delivery Nurses, your Certified Nurse Midwife, your OB/GYN Doctor and even your Anesthesiologist.
While most members of your birth team are scheduled to work their shift at the hospital the day you give birth, you won’t always know who your Labor & Delivery Nurse will be (though you can put in a request if they are available) and sometimes you won’t know who your Anesthesiologist will be until week of or month of. Certified Nurse Midwives and OBGYNs who work as part of a larger team at their practice may rotate On-Call time with their partners, which means Mondays it will be one Midwife who is expected to deliver every patient who gives birth that day, Tuesdays its a different Midwife who delivers all the patients that day, and so on. So even if your Midwife is someone specific who you had the most prenatal visits with, you may still get delivered by someone else in the practice who you may or may not have met during third trimester prenatal visits. Smaller Midwifery / OBGYN practices where there are 1 or 2 providers may be on-call year round for all their birthing patients.
HOW IS ON-CALL FOR MIDWIVES/OBGYNS DIFFERENT FOR BIRTH PHOTOGRAPHERS?
While I work and collaborate with backup Birth Photographers in the event of a medical emergency where I am unable to attend your birth (please note in 9 years I have not had a single emergency (knock on wood) where I have needed to have a backup Birth Photographer replace me for one of my own Birth Photography clients births), I actually am a One-Woman-Small-Business.
I work on my own, and take a maximum of two to three Birth Photography clients in each month.
A majority of the year, my monthly maximum is limited to two Birth Photography clients.
Working with only two Birth Photography clients each month ensures that even if both of my Birth Photography clients who are due in, lets say, March, have their babies in February, the most births I would do in one month would be four. The likelihood of four moms giving birth every month is very low, when you look at my track record of only working with two clients each month. While the most births I could physically attend completley on my own without any backup in each month are six, I like to keep everything very limited as I still have younger children of my own who aren’t in high school or college yet, and I’d like to spend as much time with them when I am not at births as I can, until they are older and busier with their own lives.
HOW CAN YOU TAKE 2 BIRTH PHOTOGRAPHY CLIENTS EACH MONTH IF BABIES AREN’T BORN ON THEIR DUE DATES?
Every Birth Photography Client has an Estimated Due Date. Say that Due Date is March 22nd (40 weeks and 0 days), stastically and medically speaking, most women give birth between 37 weeks of their pregnancy to 42 weeks. That means, my Birth Photography client who is due on March 22nd may give birth as early as March 1st and as late is April 5th, and any time in between. So when I decide to take that March 22nd mother as a Birth Photography client, I am prepared to attend her birth any time between March 1st and April 5th.
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHEN TO SHOW UP AT THE HOSPITAL WHEN A CLIENT IS HAVING HER BABY IF YOU CAN’T SCHEDULE A BIRTH PHOTO SESSION?
Picture a Hospital’s Emergency Room that has 2 Doctors scheduled to be on staff every day. Sometimes, when there is a heavy load of incoming patients, that hospital may need extra help, and they will reach out to their “On-Call” doctors who they will either call or page. (Do people still use pagers/beepers?)
These “On-Call” Doctors can get paged into the Emergency Room at any time of the day or night. They may get paged in the middle of their dinner, while they are grocery shopping at Publix, or even in the middle of the night. As soon as these On-Call Doctors are paged, they have to drop everything and be at the Hospital at a moments notice.
The moment I accept a new Birth Photography client (such as the one mentioned above due March 22nd) I automatically know that starting 37 weeks on March 1st, my cell phone volume must be on 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. That’s because every Birth Photography client of mine gets full access to me 24 hours per day, 7 days a week and can call my private cell phone at any time of the day and even in the middle of the night when everyone is asleep if they think they might be in labor.
**Whether 3AM or 3PM, whether 37 weeks or past your due date, there is no guarantee what day you could go into labor.
During my On-Call time, I am absolutely 100% working.
Many people may think, what’s the big deal, if you’re not actually physically at a birth - you are not technically working.
But yes I absolutely am working when I am on-call, even if I physically am not at a birth.
When I am On-Call for a Birth Photography client, I do not rest and I do not get a break until the client gives birth.
No glasses of wine for me during the up to 5 week window of On-Call time (37 weeks to 42 weeks) until my client gives birth.
No traveling out of the county, so if my client goes into labor and it is intense, and she is already close to delivery, I can arrive at the hospital within an hour of getting that notification.
Being On-Call for my client also means my client comes first. That means my family comes second. That means, just like in 2023 when my Birth Photography client went into labor on my daughter’s birthday, I was unable to be there at my daughter’s birthday because I was with my client.
I often will take Birth Photography clients anywhere from 10 to 12 months per year, and that often looks like zero breaks in On-Call time over the course of the entire year. When you add that up, that means 0 glasses of wine per year, 0 trips with my family per year, and 0 commitments made to assuring family I will ‘definitely’ be there.
While the reality is, I usually aim to take at least one month off per year and dedicate myself completely to my family during that time, there have definitely been years where I only get 5 days of being ‘off-call’ only once all my clients have delivered for the year.
And When I do take time off, I must take 1 full month off, which means forfeiting finances for an entire month, because my On-Call time for each Birth Photography ranges from 37 to up to 42 weeks, which means it wouldn’t cut it if I only took 1 week off from work.
SCHEDULED INDUCTIONS/SCHEDULED C-SECTIONS
I will often get asked by a prospective Birth Photography client if they can get a discount on the On-Call time fees since they are planning to have a scheduled C-Section or have a scheduled date of being induced.
Even my Birth Photography clients who have a scheduled c-section or schedule induction date have a small chance of going into labor before their scheduled induction or schedule c-section.
I have had enough clients over the years experiencing early labor signs (or an unexpected medical issue in the last weeks of pregnancy such as suddenly having elevated blood pressure unexpectedly at 37 weeks or low amniotic fluid levels) — they go to their 37 week prenatal visit and next thing they know they are driving straight to the hospital while their spouse is packing a quick bag because they definitely didn’t expect to have a baby so early.
Even scheduled c-section and induction Birth Photography clients often need to deliver sooner than their originally scheduled date.
And for the Birth Photography clients who have actually made it to their scheduled induction / c-section date, I've absolutely seen the scenario where the mom goes into the hospital on her scheduled date and suddenly is told by the hospital that she is being rescheduled for another day due to unexpected emergencies with other patients.
These scenarios have occurred enough times over the years that On-Call is absolutely included for absolutely all of my Birth Photography client including all of my scheduled inductions and even my scheduled c-section Birth Photography clients.
By including On-Call time for all of my clients, I am able to guarantee that the moment you meet your baby is captured for you.
I am personally and exclusively On-Call for you and your partner/spouse for 24 hours per day.
