The Value Of Birth Photography

Often times when women/families see the price tag on birth photography they take a step (or 5) back. Either they are shocked at the price because they don’t realize how much time and effort and work it takes for a birth photographer to do their job, or they just don’t value it.

So I am going to break it down (a little) for you.

Everything that goes in to birth photography:

I am on call for 4 or more weeks. That means that I keep my phone on me 24/7 and the volume up all the way. I can’t afford to have my phone go off at all, so my phone bill CAN NOT be payed late. This also means that I have to be careful at where I go. I can’t go more than an hour away from where the mom will be delivering her baby or I could risk missing the birth. I can’t plan vacations for my family around this time and there are certain activities I have to give up, such as swimming or camping because I need to have my phone.

I can get called WHENEVER. Going back to the phone thing. I have to have my phone on me. There have been some nights that I get home from a long day and finally lay down to go to sleep and a mom calls to let me know she is in labor. Sometimes this means I can rest for an hour or two before actually going (which let’s be honest, there really is no resting when at any given moment you will have to jump out of bed ready to go) or sometimes it means I need to brush my teeth and hope I have a bra on before I run out the door because it’s about to go down. I also have to be tentative when planning parties or other events or when saying I can go to an event I have to add “as long as I’m not at a birth.”

There is no telling how long the birth will last. When I walk out the door and leave my daughter with my husband or the babysitter, they know not to even ask how long I will be because no one knows. Sometimes the labor is really quick and pushing takes forever. Or sometimes the labor is super slow and pushing is quick. Or sometimes it’s all slow. We never know! Sometimes my husband will text for an update after I’ve been gone for 10 hours and mom is at a 9, but she has been at an 9 for 4 hours so who knows when it will be. I have been to births where the labor/birth only lasts an hour, but I also stay for at least 2 hours after the birth, so I’m still gone for 4-6 hours. And I have also been to births that last 48 hours and I still stay after.

Babysitting is not cheap. And while we are on the topic of how long I am gone for, let’s talk about how much a babysitter costs for that long. If I am lucky, a family member or my husband will be available to watch out daughter while I attend a birth. A lot of the time though, I need a backup plan… an on-call babysitter. So not only do I need to pay her for watching my daughter when the time arises, I also have to pay her for being on-call with me because at any given moment I may have to call her to watch my baby.

The birth setting. There are a lot of things to consider about the settings of a birth. Is it in a tight space, crowded space, dark, bright…. I need to be ready for whatever is thrown at me. Sometimes I get pushed into a corner and I have to shoot from there. Sometimes moms want the room extremely dark with just a candle lit… I need to have equipment that can handle that low light situation. Sometimes the moment of birth is extremely quick and I have to be ready to capture it no matter what so you have those memories to look back on.

After the birth. And even after you have given birth and I have all these images to capture my job is not even close to being done. I have hundreds of images to go through and delete the bad, keep my favorite, and then after that, I have to hand edit each image before delivering them to make sure I am delivering the best work yet. The programs I use to edit with are not free and then sending the gallery to you is not free.

Taxes. I know… I hate taxes too. I have to pay them though… so there goes 35% of my profit.

Life. I have to sustain my family’s and my life somehow. After everything is said and done, I usually don’t even bring home half of what I charge for a birth. And because of the demands of being on call, I can’t overbook or else I risk missing one birth while attending another. This is my life. I wouldn’t change it for the world, but I want people to understand the demands that come with this. It’s not easy and it’s not a career you go into because of the money, it is something you go into for the passion. Because the moment someone gives birth deserves to be captured. A moment that emotional and that powerful… that beautiful, needs to be captured.