Today we’d like to introduce you to Paulina Splechta.
Hi Paulina, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
How I started and how I got to where I am today are two very interesting questions. I’ve been in love with documentary aspect of photography since I was a kid. I watched as my dad captured documentary photos through out my childhood of family gathering. The kind of captures when everyone is chatting and no one notices someone took a photo. That was absolutely how I fell in love with photography. So it’s no surprise that after becoming a mother 12 years ago, and being fascinated with my growing children, I wanted to capture them interacting with the world. Shortly after, I fell in love with being able to do this for other parents too. When I was invited by one of my maternity photo shoot clients to her birth space, that was the first moment I was able to truly capture documentary photography. The birth space requires its attendants to be unobtrusive, quiet, and respectful. Documentary photographers often need to illuminate those elements as well. It took me a decade of attending births, learning about the physiology of birth, getting to know and building trust within the birth community among hospitals, birth centers, midwives, doulas, obgyns, and their patients to get to where I am. I’ve been a photographer 17 years now but birth is all together different. There is nothing quite like marrying artistry through the lens with birth work. It takes time, an abundance of humility and patience, and a commitment to serve your community while making often difficult sacrifices in your personal life.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As I mentioned, there is nothing quite like being a photographer in the discipline of childbirth. It takes time to learn how to use your equipment in an unflattering environment with the worst of lighting conditions. A studio or even outdoor photography offers beautiful, flattering light, whereas birth spaces are often dark, small, with a mix of awful fluorescent lights, and more often than not, birth is unpredictable and chaotic, the more people part of a birth space, the more unpredictable and the more chaotic, over time, and messing up certain shots you had envisioned in your mind, you will gain an abundance of humility and patience, or you will burn out and leave the field of childbirth. Being a photographer in the birth space requires you to be more than a photographer, to survive, you need to love some element of childbirth, either the magnificence of life coming into the world, or working with midwives, obgyns, doulas, etc, or love supporting women who are birthing, you need to find what fuels your passion and thrive in it. In 10 years of being on-call as a birth photographer, I’ve seen a hundred photographers dabble in birth photography, some at 1 or 2 or even 5 births, others for a few years, and eventually realizing the sacrifice you must make it too much, and leave the field. I’ve seen committed women and birth workers burn out or suffer a trauma after a personal impact from childbirth and not be able to find the fuel and passion, or the support at home to be away from your littles and family while attending births. The call to commitment to serve your community is often huge. And making most often difficult sacrifices in your personal life, such as missing Christmas with your family, your 10th wedding anniversary, your child’s birthday, after a while it takes a toll and most photographers leave this field. To have stayed for 10 years the way I have, it’s because of a solid support system at home, beautiful warm connections with birth workers in the industry, and a truly passion for serving birthing women, whether I receive anything in return or not, I have it in my heart to continue to serve. But I fully understand and respect how most would not continue being on-call as a birth photographer in South Florida for 10 years. It is a lot, often too much, that is asked of you, with very little in return. There are months I book many clients, and months where there are none. The balance between on-call and inconsistency in pay can often be the main reason photographers cannot make this their life-long passion and commitment.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I specialize in a field of photography most people have never even imagined could exist as a photography discipline: childbirth. Many photographers these days have heard of it or even seen it, because about 10 years ago there was a huge global growth of birth photographers, so compared to 2014, birth photography in 2024 is much more widely known. And thanks to many photographers who dabbled for a few births or a few years of births, educating various birthing communities about the existence of birth photography has changed the climate of how birthing women plan for and anticipate birth in this modern age. Over the last 10 years I’ve had the honor of being invited to 200+ baby’s births! Many of those babies belonging to the same families. The key to my specialty always comes down to the same factors: I respect every client the same, I produce the same quality of birth photos for every client. And I make it my mission to ensure I capture every moment of my clients birth experiences in a beautiful and kind way.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
As a passionate birth worker in South Florida, my goal is to provide the most beautiful, breath taking images from a pivotal moment in parents lives. I aim to transform their birthing experience from merely a day in their lives to the moment they first met their little love, and their journey began through all the hard work, anticipation and love they put into bringing their babies earthside, whether they have a medical or surgical birth, birth in a hospital in Boca Raton or Ft. Lauderdale or are planning to greet their baby at their home birth, and even birth centers. I always provide my birth photography clients and supportive and empowering birth photography experience. I want to be a fly on the wall, and not impact their birth experience in anyway, holding space for them, respecting their birthing process. And at the same time I want to tell their story as being true to them. The ups, the downs, all the while, making sure I showcase their love, hope, joy, and courage.
I am here to guide my clients every step of the way, and keep close contact during their pregnancy. We touch base after every prenatal visit in the third trimester, and have a prenatal facetime call to talk about the importance of over communicating once they are in their safe dates (37 to 42 weeks) so I can use my years of knowledge of the physiological birth process to come to their labor/birth at the right time. But despite our close work together in those last weeks, a majority of my birth photography and birth videography clients reserve my services between 6 weeks gestation through an average 12 weeks/18 weeks of pregnancy. That is why I always emphasize its best to reach out as soon as you know you’re expecting! Occasionally, if all my on-call birth photography clients have delivered, I may be able to take on a last minute birth photography client who hadn’t booked anyone towards the end of their pregnancy. While this is definitely more risky, I’ve been able to do this for a few families over the years. But my recommendation to couples who know they want a photographer at their baby’s birth and delivery, is to reach out in your first trimester or the beginning of the second trimester and inquire into my birth photography services for your estimated due date and birth location!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.paulinasplechta.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/psplechta_birthphotography/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paulinasplechta
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulina-splechta-093983147/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PaulinaSplechta
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/paulina-splechta-photography-boca-raton-2
Image Credits
Paulina Splechta Photography, Boca Raton (Birth, Newborn, Maternity, Videography in South Florida)
