NINA {Los Angeles Birth Photography}

September 09, 2014 in Los Angeles Birth Phot..., Los Angeles Newborn Ph..., Los Angeles Pregnancy ...

Baby Nina was born in the water at Del Mar Birth Center in Pasadena. Here is the story of her entry into this world from her momma...

So it all began to unfold in the late morning of June 23rd, 2014. Suddenly, my body was taken over by an incredible force that caused me to have to stand still, focus, and breathe. I mean, they try and explain to you in your birth classes the feeling that you should get when a contraction comes on but of course, words cannot truly describe the sensation. In a desperate plea to help ease the ever growing pain of each contraction, I decided to turn on some good ole' reggae music sung by none other than Mr. Bobby Marley. It was the perfect remedy. As each contraction came and went I would dance and sway to the rhythmic sounds. But unfortunately, this lovely melodic experience was only short lived, as the contractions continued to grow closer together and become what I thought was unbearably strong. Now the time was about 1:30pm in the afternoon, and I with what I was feeling, I was certain that I was close to meeting our little bundle of joy. So, I frantically picked up the phone and called my husband who was at work and told him that it was GO time and that he needed to get home as soon as possible. And within about 30 minutes of my call he was home. The "early" stages of labor continued to progress throughout the afternoon and by night fall I had begun the second leg of this incredible journey. At around 11pm, as I lay in bed, tossing and turning and trying to ride out each contraction, my water broke. Immediately, my husband called our midwife Margo Kennedy and let her know what had happened. I was pleading from the bed to go to the birth center, as I was beginning to feel the urge to push. With that, Margo gave us the green light and so at about 11:30pm we were on our way to Del Mar Birth Center. Once we got there they promptly checked my cervix to see how dilated I was and to our surprise, I was only 4cm. Talk about a buzz kill!! I was sure that I was far more dilated than that. Margo told us we could stay at the birth center, though it was still very early, or return home and continue laboring for a few more hours before returning. We decided to head back home. As we got back into the car, all I could think of is when this all would come to an end. I felt as though my body could no longer take the pain and started to second guess myself. Was I sure I could do this, an all natural water birth? Should I go to the hospital? Once we arrived home, I continued laboring, moving to and from the bath tub to the bed in hopes of finding a sense of calm within my body. But unfortunately, it became unbearable and by 4am we were en route,for the second time, to the birth center. Once we arrived, I immediately jumped into the gorgeous, larger than life spa tub. That's the only place I wanted to be......immersed in water.

For me, water has always been something that has brought me a sense of peace. And for that reason, I chose to birth in water. I wanted our daughter to come into this world surrounded by the calmness and tranquility of this beautiful element. As I sat in the water, I closed my eyes and focused on breathing slowly and deeply. My husband, the nurses, midwives, and doula all watched me as I fell into what almost seemed like a hypnotic trance. As the contractions came, one after the other, I began to vocalize the energy with powerful moans. I could feel her descending into place, ready to enter the world. Her head began to crown and with all my force and all my might, I began to push harder than ever. She's coming, she's coming!, I screamed. And in one final push she was out. In what seemed like a surreal dream, I pulled her tender body up from beneath the water and onto my chest. As our eyes met for the first time, my entire world suddenly had meaning and purpose. My husband grasped me tightly from behind and we began to shed tears of joy as we sat staring in awe of the little life that rested upon my chest.

Nina Ynez Zapata was welcomed into the world on June 24th, 2014 at 7:32am. She weighed, a healthy, 7 pounds 3 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. We are beyond in love with her.

I am forever grateful for the amazing team at Del Mar Birth Center who gave me the strength, courage, and love to trust in my instincts to birth naturally. It was beyond an incredible experience and I look forward to bringing our next child into the world the same way.

Also, thank you to the ever talented Brianna, of Shoots and Giggles, for capturing such moving images of the entire birth. We now have precious memories to keep forever.

Welcoming Lincoln {Los Angeles Birth Photographer}

May 21, 2014 in Los Angeles Birth Phot...

I'm so fortunate this lovely client allowed me to share a few images of the birth of her first son Lincoln! He was born last month at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. Momma was a true champion, delivering him naturally with the help of her hubby and very supportive nurses and midwives.

Featured in the New York Times! {Los Angeles Birth Photographer}

January 18, 2013 in Los Angeles Birth Phot...

We were SO excited last year when we were featured on the FRONT PAGE of the New York Times... so excited we forgot to post about it. Better late than never... enjoy!

Photographer Stephanie Diani followed me to a birth and a few photos of hers appeared in the paper

Shoots & Giggles Birth Photographers Los Angeles

Here is the text version:

Honey, the Baby Is Coming; Quick, Call the Photographer

By ELISSA GOOTMAN

Lynsey Stone does not set foot in the shower without placing her cellphone on a nearby ledge, lest she miss an urgent text from a woman in labor. She schedules vacations 10 months in advance to ensure they do not conflict with due dates, and on family outings she and her husband leave their Granbury, Tex., home in separate cars, in case she needs to race to the hospital.

Ms. Stone, 33, is not a doctor, nurse, doula or midwife: she is a birth photographer, part of a small but growing profession devoted to chronicling a rite of passage that is no less significant than a wedding — though a bit trickier to capture on film.

“In the beginning, I almost thought that people were joking with me, like, ‘Really? You want me to come to your birth?’ ” said Ms. Stone, whose business took off after a pregnant acquaintance, impressed by pictures Ms. Stone had taken of her own family, asked if she would photograph her delivery.

Birth was once considered a behind-closed-doors affair — a messy, painful and fearsome event where neither mothers nor babies looked their best. Then, expectant fathers entered the picture, snapping photos or taking videos with shaky hands. Now, there is both a surge of interest in the experience of childbirth — not just as a means to a baby but also as a moment to be relished in its own right — and a greater desire to capture all of life’s moments (and often share them on Facebook).

Birth photographers have set up shop in recent years across the country, from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City to Cincinnati. The International Association of Professional Birth Photographers — a group started by a Texas photographer who was bombarded with inquires from women in other states seeking a birth photographer near them — now has roughly 400 members.

The photographers and their clients have grown accustomed to puzzled looks and probing questions (Pictures of what, exactly?). But their rationale is simple: If you are going to document a child’s every bite of mushed banana as if it were a historical event, does it not make sense that his or her entrance into the world be photographed by a professional?

“I want to see that moment when I’m in labor,” said Rhisie Hentges of Long Beach, Calif., who paid $1,895 to have Briana Kalajian, a co-owner of Shoots and Giggles Photography, document the birth of her first child. “That moment when both my husband and I look to see what the sex is? That’s something that I want to see happen.” (As it happened, she had a Caesarean section last week, and the photographer was not allowed in the operating room, although she got many artful shots of the before and after.)

Some photographers offer birth packages among a panoply of options, including pregnancy and family photography; others, like Ms. Stone, focus on births. She got started six years ago after she photographed her first birth and the mother shared the photos with friends in a local mothers’ group.

Ms. Stone now averages five births a month, charging first-time clients $700. She tries to arrive when a woman is six centimeters dilated, to capture the later stages of labor. This has resulted in numerous speeding tickets.

Other hazards of the job: women who are crestfallen when their births do not go according to plan and C-sections are ordered — not the image they wanted to capture. The “divas,” as one birth photographer put it, who request that their faces be depicted from certain flattering angles. Babies that arrive too quickly.

“One was born in the parking lot,” lamented Keren Fenton, a birth photographer in Orting, Wash., near Seattle and Tacoma.

In Cincinnati, one woman called Melanie Pace and Kelly Smith of Beautiful Beginnings Birth Photography the day she got her pregnancy test results, Ms. Pace recalled. Several have called when they are five or six weeks pregnant.

“I’m like, ‘Seriously?’ ” Ms. Pace said. “Can you go to the doctor first and confirm this pregnancy?”

Still, some hospitals ban photography while women are giving birth. In many, the doctors and nurses on duty unofficially set their own rules, with some even allowing birth photographers to be present during C-sections. Videotaping tends to set off more alarms than still photography, one reason most professionals stick to still pictures. In home births, photographers say, the mother calls the shots.

“The hospital rules are pretty straightforward — there’s no video and camera photography up close and personal in either an operating room or a delivery room,” said Dr. Jacques Moritz, director of gynecology at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan. “Official policy and what’s enforced are two different things.”

Dr. Moritz said that if someone trumpets the arrival of her professional birth photographer, “it’s going to be, ‘Really? Get out of here.’ ” He said he had seen more women come in “with their quote-unquote friend that happens to have two Nikons with high-quality lenses on them.”

Dr. Randi Hutter Epstein, the author of “Get Me Out: A History of Childbirth from the Garden of Eden to the Sperm Bank,” said many cultural cues could make some women feel the need to make their births “photo-shoot-able.”

“There is a lot of pressure to not just cherish the birth experience but to promote it as this beautiful thing,” she said. “Then you’re going to get into your skinny jeans the next day and have a beautiful photograph of you looking absolutely beautiful and well rested with your perfect-looking baby, like all the celebrities.”

Still, Dr. Epstein said, “Now that I have an 18-year-old, it would be wonderful to look at these beautiful photos of him being born.”

Her son, she added, would probably disagree. “He doesn’t even want his picture taken now,” she said. “He’s not going to want one on the way out of my vagina.”

There is one question the photographers are asked most often: Um, precisely where do you stand when the baby comes out? The answer: Generally near the mother’s head, unless she requests a crowning shot.

“People will ask if I’m going to take the National Geographic birth photo,” Ms. Kalajian, of Shoots and Giggles Photography, said, referring to the most graphic of childbirth shots. “They ask it in 10 different ways.”

Another frequently asked question: Why can’t the father, or partner, simply take the pictures?

One potential answer lies in a picture that Ms. Fenton, the photographer in Orting, Wash., took last year of a father whose baby was born by C-section. He did not react so well. But because Ms. Fenton was on the scene, that moment, too, will be remembered.

“He passed out on the floor,” she said. “I have him in a chair, holding a juice cup and looking really sweaty.”

A version of this article appeared in print on June 17, 2012, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Honey, the Baby Is Coming; Quick, Call the Photographer.