I remember what I said to Jessica during our prenatal phone call, and I think the reason I said it this way was because her husband was on the Facetime call with us, and with him, Jessica and I all being business people running our own businesses here in South Florida, I knew this perspective would resonate with them deeply. I said “think of it this way, if you are going to make an investment in your team, make sure you are investing in the team that is going to give you the greatest chances at having a safe and successful vaginal birth after your two c-sections, because there are many birth teams out there that are great for other women and other families, but keeping in mind what your priorities are for this birth, you need to choose a birth team only you both will trust and only you two will feel can help you achieve this VBAC after two c-sections (VBA2C) if it is possible. Which birth team is going to give you the greatest return on your investment? That is who you need to hire”

I am so proud of Jessica deciding to work with the midwives at Boca Midwifery and hire her birth doula, Samara from The Orchid Nest. Following your intuition and making an educated, informed decision about your birth team is step one of having a positive prenatal, birthing and post partum experience. This step is essential.

I met Jessica through our mutual friend Claire, who if you follow me, had a whirlwind of a birth story herself with her son Carter in January of 2020 (I cannot believe he is turning 6 this year!) She had gone through a journey of IUI fertility with Boca Fertility, and I remember it as if it was yesterday, I was with Claire prepping to capture her older child coming to the hospital to meet his baby brother and during this time, her friend Jessica stopped by to see Claire in her post partum hospital room at Baptist Boca Regional. I would have never guessed this mama was going to end up working with me for her empowering VBA2C almost 6 years from that point, but here we are, the universe works in mysterious ways and if you keep yourself open, you will start to see the magic in how all of our lives overlap one way or another.

Over the years I got to know Jessica through instagram and through our friend Claire, celebrating Claire’s birthday together, attending photo sessions at Jessica’s photography studio in Delray Beach (she captured my girls last year with Santa and for that I will be forever grateful! I have the cutest pajama shots of the girls enjoying milk and cookies with Santa at her gorgeous Christmas photoshoots).

But that is just who I am. I genuinely care about people. I want to know who they are, what they love about their lives, and what their heart really is calling to in the motherhood journey, so I can see how I can be there to support them. I really truly enjoy getting to know my birth photography clients.

Jessica’s first child was born via c-section with her OBGYN Dr. David Lubetkin, and Jessica had her son quite close in timeframe to her daughter, so she had a scheduled c-section with him with Dr. Lubetkin’s team again during covid hospital restrictions, a time where some families felt relieved the hospital strict policies did the talking for them and they did not have to explain to their parents, siblings, friends or in-laws why they didn’t want them there during their baby’s delivery. But other families, like Jessica’s, despaired over not being able to have their family there. As a Birth Photographer and birth worker, I’ve recognized that absolutely every single family is inherently unique, and there really isn’t a ‘right way’ to plan for your baby’s birth nor a ‘wrong way’. It’s just the uniqueness of what is best suited for your needs and expectations. I held onto that for a while, after reading Jessica’s instagram stories about how devastating it was for her to not have their families be able to meet the baby and support them in-hospital, and to not have a siblings meeting be possible in-hospital. It really struck a cord with me. I had two really complicated experiences with both of my births (which just so happened to mirror Jessica’s births in that I also had two c-sections with my two children like she did). So hearing that a mom experienced a loss or a heart break of the experience she hoped to have does sit seriously with me.

Of course a healthy mom and baby is key in every delivery.

But mental health matters too.

And I do not take mental health in childbirth lightly. I pay very close attention to it. It is important to me that my client’s heart and emotions are as importantly seen as everything else.

I think perhaps as I got to know Jessica, and what it was like for her to go through two cesareans with her first two babies births at the Boca Regional hospital, and missing out on that family experience in post partum, it really created the shape and mold of how her birth story through photos would unravel.

As you scroll through Jessica’s photos, I feel like Jessica’s birth photo gallery will show how much I wanted to capture her family being part of her experience meeting her third child, a little baby girl they named Francesca!

I am so grateful to Jessica for trusting me to be the guardian of her birth story. She could have chosen anyone to be there for her in this moment and the fact that she felt the greatest trust and confidence in me being her birth photographer means so much to me. It is a true honor to have witnessed her strength, resilience, wisdom in decision making, and what an incredible woman, wife, daughter, sister and mother she is. I thank God for allowing our paths to cross as I have been inspired and empowered by her in my own life.

Thank you to Jessica’s doula Samara and her midwives at Boca Midwifery for never giving up on her, for working so hard side by side with her, for believing her and for helping instill such a powerful belief in herself that she absolutely could do this. VBA2C can absolutely be a reality and it can be a safe and controlled and empowering experience, but the hard work must be done ahead of time in order to achieve it and by following her intuition and researching who the right team would be to support her expectations would be, Jessica was able to achieve a birth many women hope for, a birth many women will hopefully have access to with the more empowering stories like this one that are shared with our south Florida community.

To view another full birth story or inquire about your own estimated due date for a maternity or newborn photo session or for birth photography or birth video here in Palm Beach County, contact me below through the blue button or here: www.paulinasplechta.com/contact

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